The daily Alaskan., 1913-06-13
A Village Enigma
 By M QUAD Copyright 1918. by Associated Lit-
 urHry Press.

uray Press.
 1t was three years after Mrs, An-
 drew Wakefield became a widow that
 things began to happen to disturb tho
 peace of mind Of the town of Hooper vile. Mr. Wakefield had been man
 without ambition or energy and addict ! ed to lutoylc0nts, and the main sup ! port of che couple had been the earn. lnrs of the wife with her needle.
 Mir. Wakefield sometimes complained l because be was not met on even terms ! by the the Nest citizens, but the wife never complained of her lot lf she expected a mcrchaugs wife to associ- late with her dressmaEcr on terms Of
 equality she never gave utterauce to ] thut fact And never, that any one
 could recall. did she ask to be consider ! cI martyr or find fault with her husband. When other wives told her
 what they would do in such case ! she sometimes smiled but never con. p.amed After trying for years to
 make her out people decided thut she was am enigma
 And what u Che name of cats is ! thutg asked good old Deacon Peters
 Of hIs wife when she applied Che term
 "Why Moses don't you know what on puIgmu isg
 They've invented TO many alarmed
 thugs Iu Che last few years that I'm
 all mixed opp.
 "Au enigma Is a thing you don't un dcrtaud"
 "Wual. ls Mrs Wakefield an enigmaT Folks say s0,"
 "Mcbbe she Is She strikes mo as a
 woman who is waiting for something
 to happen"
 Something finally happened Itwasn' anything of great lmp3rtaucc-just the ! death 0f Mr. Wakefield Later Che Widow Wakefield was left ! a great sum of money by English rclD lives. It was 0ll In che papers, and Der lawyer confirmed It She became Che richest woman In the state almost lu a day. And or course the query with everybody was: What win she do with ltJ' ! There were events i'm the history of the widow That UoopcrviIlo had not . taken coguiauce Of. She came from an aristoCradc family At eighteen she had fallen In love and clopcd with and wed a young man who made a worthless husband Her father had least her on. and sho had been living hundreds of miles from him She had ! fclt Che bitterness 0f thc s.igbts put upon her. but had realized that tho sIt ual0u could not be changed for Che ! better by open resentment She hadn't lived her real lIfe. but a false one, and ! had thus cone Co be an enigma to such as were Interested enough to discuss ! her.
 ! When Che money came Che widow set about getting even with u0operyille There wus no malice ln it but just a sense Of satisfaction A bridge over ! tho river had loug been unsafe. but Che ! taxpayers had hung or about repairing ! lt, trusting that the Lord would diver, an Che accidents to other bridges
 The widow hired a lawyer to take . Che matter up. and the bridge was C0n- demued and replaced by a S5,00O struc- ture. The taxpayers how'cd She hired a surveyor to go over the ! lines Of Che streets and it was discov cred that aIl One store fronts cncroach ed and that hardly a fence occupied its ! legal position An eucr0achmeuts were ordered removed
 The spirc Of the Methodist church edIGcc had a decided leaning toward sunrise. The widow set the law at work. and it cost the congregation S5O0
 to brace up its spirc There was an old ordinance against ! hItchlng horses to shade trees. That was also suddenly enforced and $50 iu fines collected the first day There was another about chimncys l being cleaned every year. Nearly 100 house owners were brought to court and fined So on their admissions that their chImneys bad not been cleaned for ten years
 There was a dead ordinance about the use of proranc language in public The Widow Wakefield revived It and had sixty men fined the first day Among them were the mayor, an Che aldermen and the judge who Inflicted
 the fines.
 "NI0scs, what on earth is Che woman at?" the good wife of Deacon Peters
 would ask after each new move,
 "She's paying us back, guess"
 "But It don't seem as 1T she could do much more"
 "You wait and sec. What was 1t you called herT
 "An enigma"
 "so twas W0al, youW learn that they've got claws. Sbe1I wind up here with a grand whoop" When the day 6naIIy came chat the lawyer could suggest nothing more to upset things be was instructed to rent Che gr,smUl. the sawmll, the tavern and two stores and Eve dwellings for year. The tanner and the cooper
 wanted to be counted in, and they
 were accommodated. The rent was paid in advance, and the buildings