The Washington herald., 1911-08-09

which had half in Jest been named as
the storm center OF the day-the State OF
Missouri. anomalous. inchoate. discord-
ant. half North, half South, itself the
birth of compromise and sired by polit-
ical jealousy; whittier. against her will.
voyaged a woman, herself an engine OF
turbulence, doubt. and strife. and in
company now OF a savage captor who
contemplated nothing. but establishing
her for his own use in his own home.
Tallwoods, the home plantation Of the
Dunwody family in the West, now the
personal property Of the surviving son,
State Senator WarvilIe Dunwody, of Mis-
souri,. presented one OF the contrasts
which now and again might have been
seen in our early Western civilization
1t lay somewhat remote from the near
est city of consequence. in a region where
the wide acres of the owner blended,
unused and uncultivated. with those
still more wild. as yet unclaimed un-
der any private title Yet: in
pretentiousness, indeed in assured
ness, 1t might have rivaled many OF the
old estates of Kentucky. the Carolinas
or Virginia; so much did the customs and
ambitions of these older States follow
their better-bred sons out into the newer
regions.
than competency at their disposal, not
infrequently had few neighbors other
than the ,humbel but independent from
tiersman, who left for new fields when a
dog barked within fifty miles of his cab
In. There were neighbors within half
that distance to Tallwoods, settlers nes-
tied here or there in these enfolding hills
and forests; but neighbors in Importance
equal to that of the owner of Tallwoods
there In hat
of the State. The time was almost
feudal. but wilder and richer than any
feudal day. in that fef tribute was un-
known. The original landlord of these
acres had availed himself of the easy
laws and easy ways Of the time and place,
and taken over to himself from the
loose public domain a small realm all his
own. Here. almost in seclusion. certain
ly in privacy, a generation had been
spent in a life as baronial as any ever
known in old Virginia In earlier days
A days ride to courthouse, two days
to a steamer, five hours to get letter
to or from the occasional post-these
things seem slight in lifelong accus-
tomedness: and here few had closer
touch than this with civilization.
The plantation itself was little king
dom. and largely supplied its own wants.
Mills, looms. shops-all these were part
of the careless system, easy and opuIent,
which found support and gained arro-
gance from a rich and generous environ
ment. The old house itself. II II might be
called old. built as It had been scarce
thirty years before. lay in the center of
a singular valley at the edge OF the
Ozark Hills. The lands were not 50 rich
as the wide acres thirty miles or more
below. where on the fat bottom soil,
black and deep. the negroes raised In
a bundance the wealth making crop Of the
country. On the contrary. this. although
II was the capital OF the vast Dunwody
holdings thereabout. Was chosen not for
It's agricultural richness so much as for
Its healthfulness and natural beauty.
In regard to these matters. the site
could not better have been selected. The
valley. some three OF four miles across.
lay like a deep saucer pressed down into'l
the crest OF the last rise Of the oxarks.
The sides of the depression were as rse.
uiar a. though created by the hands sof