Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1911-06-30
PROLOGUE
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY BE-
FORE.
The storm Within.


tains and swept across the plains.
The wind came In wild bursts Of tre-
mendous speed. Even in the lulls.
which were only comparatively such,
1t blew perhaps 20 miles an hour. The
fierce blasts were laden with fne
snow-frozen spindrift from a white
ocean of cold! Needles of ice sharp
er than their prototypes OF steel cut
the bare flesh of those whom evil for
tune kept abroad on such q night,
bringing the blood to the freezing
skin. The onslaught of the scream.
ing tempest drove the hapless cattle
mad with pain and terror The thick
snow compelled them to huddie to-
gether at last, and ghelterless to suf-
fer. freeze, and die in the pitiless hura
Ticane
Just where the foothills lose them
selves In the prairie lay huddled lit
tie town or camp. Every door and win
dow was shut and barrfcaded against
the searching storm
In one Of the poorest and most mis-
cradle shanties on the outskirts of the
town a woman waited alone. A com
mon kerosene lamp stood on q table
before the window. set there as II in
signal
The house, mere shack which
shook and quivered under the tre-
mendous assaults of the storm, and
might have been blown down IL 1t had
not been buttressed and protected by
heaps Of snow yet threatening to over
wheim it, contained but one room. In
the corner farthest from the door
stood q tumbled. frowzy bed. A rick
ETY. chest of drawers, kitchen table, a
rusty cook stove, a few uncertain
chairs of the pIainest and cheapest
quality, were all the rest or the fur
niture. A few clothes hung from pegs
driven in the boarded wall. Al saddle
in one corner, pickax and shovel, a
heavy quirt. and rife hanging from
pegs beneath shelf sufficiently
pointed out the avocations Of the
owner
Yet she was woman who, what
ever her outward circumstances,
showed no poverty of spirit. she
ragged up and down the room as a
prisoned tiger PAGES the narrow con-
lines of his cage. Sometimes she
paused and stopped by the window. to
rest her head beneath her hand on
the sash and peer eagerly, passion
ately, out into the falling snow. she
could see nothing, and after having
stared with increased disappointment
and further mutterings OF angry
words, she would resume her rest
less backward and forward march.
Had there bean any spectator when
she assumed that picturesque position
at the window. where the light, how
ever 1t failed to illuminate the snow,
threw her own face and person In high
relief, the observer would have been
surprised at the coarse and yet not
unattractive beauty of her face and
figure. She was full Tipped and deep
bosomed, tall. 1.-THE, strong Her
cheeks were full of color. her hair
black and coarsely crisp and 9urly.
Her hands. which she clasped and un-
ciasped nervously. were large and
Redeemed by toll, but they were shape
ly nevertheless. But there was Meth
er refinement nor goodness In her
face, There were great possibilities
OF evil which experience could have
detected. Hers had been a hard life
and 1t had made her hard woman.
She was perhaps twenty-five years
old, but looked older
For hours the woman had waited In
that hut alone. It had been storming
badly when she began her vigil and
the violence OF the tempest had In
creased until she feared that no hui
man soul could brave 1t. That she
very much wanted some one to at
tempt it. that she very keenly, ardent
ly, longed for that, was quite evident.
Great is the power OF love. Even
its counterfeit-that which passes for
1t IN the eyes OF the ignorant and in
experienced-may stir men ard wom-
sn to mighty deeds This woman
waited the arrival OF one who fancied
himself modern Perseus about to re-
lease another bound and helpless An
dromeda from a devouring monster.
Whether the man who fatuously
flled that role-or the boy. rather, for
he had not reached mans years or
estate-would arrive before her hus-
band. was the problem that filed the
woman's mind. In view Of the bliz-
sard raging. she might have wondered
whether. in case either Of them
sought the house they could find Il or
reach it alive. II she had stopped TO
consider hat phase Of the possibiIi-
ties, she would have been profoundly
glad had both ventured and had both
wandered on In the night until beaten
down and mastered by the spirit Of
the storm. SO that the searchers, after
Its violence had abated, might find
them frozen to death as many another
poor fellow was found frozen there.
after For while the woman loathed
and hated her drunken brute OF g hus
hand vet she had M FfaOtior fo~ the