Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-12-31
BODY Of MS WIFI

His body was hideously MANNED and
broken: one leg hung limp from the
hip: his hands were cruelty twisted
and crushed. A shock of matted white
hair pulled down owe a scared and
deeply SCARED forehead, half con-
cealed a red n empty eye-socket.
Behind him, on a ragged piece Of car
pet that rose and fell with the wind
that blew up through the cracks Of the
floor, Squatted the withered hulk of
a woman, her skull bald with age, her
sightleSs eyes staring into space.
! Clasped to her sunken breast she held
a creature of her own sex-a woman
pallid. haggard and pitifully emaciated,
evidently in the last stages of some de-
vouring disease. Clinging to the mans
legs stood a small boy of s, his tiny
hand already callous with labor, his
thin face pinched from scant food and
long weary hours of work, while two
little girls, dirty and half naked,
crouched, whimpering piteously, On the
wet floor in a corner.
In horror, Bullion turned from the
window. He had always made it q
point to avoid the sight OF suffering.
"Who are these miserable creatures? '
he asked Of his guide, who stood silent
ly at his elbow.
"A miner and his family employed
in a free country and by Christian
men,"
'Impossible!" exclaimed Bullion.
Such a state of things could not ex-
list. 1t is evidently a picture coniured
up by the fevered brain of some de-
mented demogague 1t can't actually
be true"
ITO these helpless victims Of it." re-
Piled his guide, cit is, alas, too true"
Impelled by a mixture Of pity and
morbid curiosity, Bullion once more
n 49, -
He now for the first time noticed the
presence of another person in the room
"a heavy browed man holding in his
hand a paper marked with a red seal.
The old miner faced him, standing be-
! tween MIN anu the frightened women
and children in an attitude expressive
of impotent defiance and sullen fear.
The look of apathy on the wan face Of
the sick woman, q look stamped there
by slow years of accomplishing drudg-
cry, was more fearful in its pathos
than the most violent demonstration of
grief.
The miner moistened his cracked lips.
Gimme q chance" he said in a quav-
ering voice; holding out his manned
hands In an awkward gesture of ap-
peal. I've worked for the
these 16 years the best l know how,
and | sent the boy to the breakers as
oon as his little fingers was strong
enough to pick the coal from the slate.
instead OF putting him to school. II
amt my fault IL / still owe 'em for rent
and food, We had 10 live.
The sheriff shook his head impatient
ly wit hthe air Of a nan anxious to get
through with an abhorent task.
That's none OF my business he said.
My orders was TO give o six days
notice and then put you out, and out
you 60"
For a moment the old miner was ST.
lent: he seemed TO be struggling to
overcome the paralyzing sense of inn
potence and despair that numbed him.
body and soul
Gimme a day he begged. brokenly;
Just a day. Ny wife Is sick. 1t would
kill her to go out in a night like this.
You can't have the heart to put her and
the old woman out to die In he rain
and sleet."
For answer the sheriff kicked open
the rickety door. "Git!" he said.
angrily. The ruined and broken old
man cast q look at the pathetic group
behind him and brushed a tear from his
SCARED cheek with the back OF a shak-
ing hand.
II guess we'll have TO get out he
said. simply. The sick woman raised
kerself with difficulty on her red ell
bows and finally struggled to her feet,