The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-08-08
By
CHAPTER III.
JASONvILLE, IND.

The Harrtngtons The Uillage ndgndte
A uou,,q hoodl,im - On the road TO
scho0L-The first aromdn-Dtsgrdcc and
q qtrps artll-An unfortunate cotnct-
dence-In trouble ogdtn-lny loses
faith - The end Of Jasonrttte - Dts
charged - loan Chdrtty-1he posi-
tire young lady hopes l shall start
right - The lake front once more -
preach myself q good sermon.
@1HE Harringtons were pretty
well known in Greene county.
Ind. Father moved to Jason
Vile just after the war. when
the place was not much more than a
crossroads with a prospect of a rail-
road some time. Ours was the FIRST
brick house. built after the kind he
and mother used to know back in York
state. And he set up the largest gen
eral store in that district and made
money. Then he lost most Of it when
the oil boom first came.
Mother and he Sc. great store by ed
ucation-if father hadn't gone to the
war he wouldn't have been keeping q
country store-and they helped start
the first township high school in our
part OF the state. And he sent VIII,
my older brother. and me to the Meth
sdist school at Eureka. which was the
hest he could do for US. There wasn't
much learning to be had in Eureka
"college." however. The two or three
old preachers and women who com
posed the faculty were too busy trying
to keep the boys from playing cards
and smoking or chewing to teach us
much.
Perhaps l was a bit of hoodlum az
q boy anyway. The trouble started
with the judge-Judge Sorrell. He was
a local light, who held a mortgage oD
most everything in town. including
our store after father went into oil
We boys had always heard at home
how hard and mean the judge was
and dishonest. too, for in some of the
oil deals he had tricked folks out OF
their property. 1t wasn't 50 strange
then. that we youngsters took liberties
with the judges belongings that the
older folks did not dare to. The judgei
fine stock used to come in from the
field done up. raced to death. and thu
orchard by the creek just out Of town,
which had belonged to us once. rarely
brought a good crop to maturity. We
made ourselves believe that the judge
didn't really own it and treated him as
q trespasser. So one night when the
judge made a hasty visit to our house
after one of the raids" my father
found me in bed with a wet suit OF
clothes on. which l had been forced to
sacrifice in the creek. The end of that
lark was that father had to pay a good
sum for my private Interpretation OF
the laws Of ,property. and l spent the
rest Of the summer on q farm doing 8
mans work.
Perhaps If it hadn't been for tina,
ducking in the river and what follow
ed might have come out just plair
thief. While I was sweating on thai
farm l saw the folly Of running against
common notions about property.
came to the conclusion that If l wanted
what my neighbor considered to be his
must get the law to do the business
for me. For the first time it dawne6
on me how wonderful is that system
which shuts up one man in jail fol
taking a few dollars worth of truck
that doesn't belong to him and honor!
the man who steals his millions-if h,
robs in the legal way! Yes. the ole
judge knocked some good world,
sense into me.
(Nevertheless old Sorrell needn'
have bounded me after l came back t.
Jasonville and carried his malice t.
the point oeakeeeing me from getting .
Job when l was hoping to make ,
fair start 50 that l could ask Ma!
Ridge to marry me- But all that wa
some time later.)
May was one Of that handful o
young women who in those days stoot
being sneered at Tor wanting to g
to college with their brothers. W.
were in the same classes at Eurek.
two years before I noticed her much