The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-07

a bewildering example, while the teach
ers were but sorry echoes Of their plen-
teous inspiration. And the head of ali
the readers was Mrs. Bicks.
1t was over Mrs. Bicks that Tom Big
Glow stumbled against his first failure.
- had succeeded in college He had
silecoede for two years selling pens
and blotters for Il. Niles, Books ana
Stationery. in Oakville Center For the
eight months that brought him up to
the present ne had succeeded as text
book agent. He was employed by the
Universal Publishing association, famll-
iarly known as the u p. a The L.
p. A. wanted Mrs. Bicks endorsement
for its Supplementary Specials This
series of reading books was exactly suit
ed, the general agent said, for the con-
sumption of Johnsburg. They contained
more masterpieces" by which school
man means fragments of 1.-THE Vicar of
Wakefield" and THE Rape of the
Lock-" than had ever before been united
within the ehaste confines of 1-cent
cover
When Bigelow got the telegram he
was up state" persuading the School
Committee of Davis Corners that they
wanted the Ridgely arithmetics In the
district schools. The telegram said:
BE at office 10 tomorrow, Thursday"
and was signed L. L" was levin,
the general agent at Lake City. By
waiting for the midnight train Bigelow
could first dispose of Davis Corners and
still be in time for the appointment.
When he left the L. p. A. office the
next day he was full of a large and
cheerful confidence. A youthful igno-
rance of the devious methods of the
Il 49, hi
motion TO the honest merits of his up
country iabors. On the train he wrote
a letter and addressed it to Mrs. Thorn
as BigeloW, Oakville Center.
Dear Tony" he began, I'VE got
DagEett's territory. Isn't that gay, and
won't we have melons for breakfast,
He's been transferred. Also. I'm on my
way to Johnsburg to charm and cap
ture d beauteous widow, foxy politician
lady, which her name is Bicks. She
seems to be the whole thing in Johns
burg. Great friend of the Board and
head of the reading department in the
public schools. Ha, Twill be a IA
nous victory
Now, Wise One-and here's the point
don't YOU think YOU ought to visit
your cousin Grace? Her flat isn't a
mile from my hOtel-tO-be. and I shan't
have to spend every minute with the
important Bicks- I wish, Mrs Bigelow
that we met oftener. How does it
strike you? I'm going to put a money
order in this TO cover the fare. 4"
Wire me at the Continental. Do come
Tony. You know this is my first good
sized city assignment. Your always
tO-be-revered HUSBAND"
Tom mailed his letter in JohnsbuTg
ate his luncheon unobseTvant Of its in
gradients. and still arranging his order
of attack. sought Mrs. Bicks in her Of
flee on the second floor of the Lea ave
ID - school. Mrs. Bicks was not with
iH>and while he waited he could hear
issuing from open doors the murmuT
and movements of the hived classes.
Now and then a child passing i'm the
corridor turned interested eyes upon the
visitor.
Bigelow sat aiertly possessing his soul
and studied the sdoFnings of the place.
Upon the desk. a twelve by fourteen
photograph stood eonspicuously dis
played, as if inviting inquiry. II was
the picture OF a former trapeze artist
now metamOrph0sed into. the star of
- vaudeville hour. A spreading sig
ifs4ture with fat tail curled exuberant-
y beneath dedicated this art gem from
Montaubyn st. Clair TO my friend Mrs.
Bicks."
The owner of the photograph delayed
her coming. Bigelow evoked an image
OF her from information garnered at
the hotel She was a daughter of Siias
Borcher OF Lake City, "Poie-cat Bor-
cher" his enemies had called her papa.
If there was anything in heredity. poll
ties would be both work and pastime
to Mrs Bicks A big woman. Tom
guessed her to be, with a magnificent
height and a fine hauteur. the sort of
be wholly unaware Of a waiting agent
until such time as she felt him shriv-
eled TO appropriate humility. She would
come I'm fine raiment, rustling like a
straw fight on windy day, and watt
a perfume that as he crudely put it,
would make his stomach turn over.
But Mrs. Bioss entered with a very
pretty little flutter and opened big eyes
upon the young man. who rose at the
apparition. His image had been wrong
in every particular excepting the waited
perfume. and that he did not notice. be-
ing more bent on pleasing than on being
pleased.
"Oh, you've been waiting, I'm so
Sorry apologized Mrs. Bicks. I'm
afraid I got to talking. You see we're
all so interested in our contest!' She
dimpled as she spoke and sank with
soft breathlessness into her chair toss
ing a wonderful length of suede glove
upon the desk The flatteTy of Bige-
lows intent gaze vas specious. For
an instant his mind was full of the
brutal fact that he couldn't afford to
have his wife with him at the hotel;
success with Mrs. Bicks meant better
times 90 come
IT was the district attorney, leader Of
the political new thought in Johns
burg, who had imported Mrs. Bicks
from Lake City. That, too, Bigelow
had learned. There was nothing in
rinsicaIly new about the politics of
the district attorney. They had been
ol0 when Boss Tweed had given an ex-
p&ition OF their value. But they were
new TO Johnsburg; there was, still pow
erfuI a conservative element opposed
to the interference of the new faction
with the schools. "old fogies" who were
rot wholly Won over by Mrs. Bicks'
manners. who had found even in her
first public recita1-in costume-an &C.
casion for CarpinE. =
Tom Bigelow did not sit like Mrs.
farley figure while these things filed
through the background of his mind.
He devoted himself to Mrs. Bicks. He
hung enchanted, yet not too enchant-
ed for verisimilitude, over the blue
prints she was showing him.
aren't they sweet?" she asked.
Were getting up a contest to be held
Ikthe opera house just to encourage the
<Etns This is the sroup of the Seven