Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-17
The Daily Story
THE BEAUTIFUL-BY ARTHUR TOWNSEND
Copyrighted 1913. by Associated Literary Rureau

parson and his daughter came among
US. and now. instead of his maxim US
better, he'd made us worse. Every one
of us was ready to put lead into every
other one.
AT last 1 told Lillian I couldn't
stand the racket any longer and she
must do one of. three things-she must
part with me forever. or she must mar
~ me in spite of her father, or she
must run away with me.
This broke her all up. she said
she couldn't part with me nohow, she
dare not defy her father, and the only
thing she would think of DOM was
to run away and be married som'rs
else. She asked me how we was goin'
to git on for livin'. / told her not
to worry about that; I'd been washin'
for gold all summer and hadn't any
way to spend money in such a place,
so l had saved nearly all of 1t. l had
enough gold to make up $1,000 or ST..
200. This seemed to make her feel
easier, and by good deal O. coaxtn
/ at last got her promise to elope.
81 proposed to light out when 1t was
dark, walk down the road and take
the stage for Denver when it came
along. She didn't seem to like this
plan very much; she said she'd sound
ed her father about her marryin' me
and since then he'd been mighty sus-
picious of her. Shed told him that
some shoppin', and the old man had
consented to have her so. could fol-
low her there in few days.
81 agreed to this plan, but there was
q hitch. She said she couldn't be mar
ried without a trussoo. If she waited
for me to come and buy it for her IL
would be too.late, for as soon as left
the creek her father would suspect
somepin and we'd have to light out of
Denver on my arrival there. I asked
her why she couldn't buy the trussoo
before came, and she said she hadn't
any money and her father would give
her only enough to buy few things.
He was dead against the sinfulness of
vain decoration OF the body. I fixed
it all right by tellin' her that I would
give her the money for the trusSoo
and asked her how much 1t would cost
She said she didn't know; the best
way would be for her to carry the dust
with her, spend what was necessary
and we'd have the rest when / got
there in cash ready to pay our ex-
penses to the east. She said she must
be economical, for we'd need all we
had to begin life together after we was
married.
when the day came around for Lii
lian's departure on her supposed shop
pin trip she was nightly broken up.
She said wasn't to see her Off, but
go right on with my daily work And
so l did. 1t seemed to me that every
man besides myself had somepin on
his mind that day. l reckoned some
of ,em would be waitin for the stage
to say goodby to her. But every man
went on washin' gold. If any one said
anything about Lillian's trip to Den
yer nobody seemed to notice 1t, or IL
they did they'd say, oh, she'll be back
for the old mans Sunday exercises
or somepin like that.
Lillian and / had agreed that she
was to have three days to buy the
trussoo, and / was to go down on the
third day after she left us. The first
mOrnin' after she'd gone l heard some
one say: 4 wonder what's become O.
the parson? His cabins deserted
pricked up my ears at this. If he had
suspected the real object of his daugh-
ter's goin' to Denver and had gone
after her the game was up. And IL
the game was up where was the dust
I had given her? / tell you l felt on
easy.
Before noon heard one of the men
say to another: She socked the whole
six, all except me. l backed out at
the last minute This was too much,
and asked what he was talkin' about.
He told ME that the gal had taken the
money of five different men to buy a
trussoo with. Her father had likely
| Joined her, and together they had left
for parts unknown"
The speaker turned from his story to
his pan, which he rocked in a melan-
choly fashion, but presently concluded:
| at all came from SEEM gal alone
by herself without any other woman
around. l drifted east after that
where I saw lots of women together
and there was hardly one of 'em that
looked especially purity. One day
went into a restaurant, and who d.
you suppose one of the hash singers
was: She was Lillian.
Il pulled my hat down over my eyes
so she couldn't see my face, and wher
paid my check, pointin' to the hast
singer, asked the proprietor somepil
about her. He said her name wal
Mag Doolan. He'd never heard Of he
havin' a father, but knew little abou
her, since she'd come in and asked 70
job off the street when he was shor
of help.
stranger. you'd ought to seen tina
gal with the eyes l did. Her aubur
hair was a fiery red; her olive com
plexion was freckle tan: her eye
was kind of green. She was th
| worst IoolI;n' thing Won ever sawo