The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-12-25

OF Rome. They were still g~arnbciing
yer the old town. while Earlyille had
built Its Hotel Metropole with English
steeplechase cenes around b dining
o0m wainscot. Rome had had Miss
Amelia Parsons. OF the Parsons house,
and her I o'clock Sunday dinner. with
Elk's club done with a brownstone
front. Rome had its Shakespeare club
which met Thursdays at the ladies'
homes. Earlville had Its syndicate the
alter in cream brick; Rome had Its
opera house sheathed in tin imitation
of sandstone-and peeling off. Earl
ville-but why rehearse2 There is the
Carnegie library, the Young Mems
Christian association, the federal build,
Ing. the paid fire department. the in
t~erurban, the home of Congressman
Hall, which. like all the homes OF great
men In the west. was spiked with the
militant decoration Of a German cake
the east addition. and the factory dis
trict.
Rome had none of these. In lieu OF
town plats 1t had an imperial isola-
ton. When the Earlville boosters, In
train, vent up the valley, to serenade
other communities and parade in silk
hats and white flannel trousers, Rome
was usually entertaining district dele
eoNNfN 70 ~ NAAV DdBNloL" OAA a SSEAS -
association; and when q girl show"
struck Earlville. direct from 200 nights
in Chicago. Rome's tin opera house was
invariably given over to Flint the hyp-
notist, the Swiss Bell Ringers. or
the chautauqua quartet. D..
Mr.. Curran accepted tickets to These
on advertising and sat gloomily all
through. After ALL Mr.. Curran was a
loyal citizen. Even though he did print
the story of the drummer who related
that Miss Amelia Parsons. of the Par
sons house. insisted on his sleeping
with brown papers under his ears. lest
the pillows become soiled too soon af-
ter the Saturday change.
OF course he lost advertising. But
Mr.. Curran had an unhappy mania for
printing things that lost advertising.
Even now Miss Vance, looking with
patient eyes at the three-Harlan, fair
skinned, resolute, serious. his large
boned frame carrying. at 21, a mans
dignity; her brother Arne. soil burned.
Indian checked. nervon lean. a Lin
colnian awkwardness about his clothes;
and then Wiley with his ~young-old
eyes, the close brown beard, lending
him, in Rome, an unacceptable foreign
air--felt Mr. Curran's perennial failure,
At Is, when she taught her first
school, she supposed that Wiley would
ask her to marry him, but he had gone
49, L va SAASN AAAE0SH
years later he came back, a trifle stout
er, a bit sad. still mischievous. the
many sided friend. but not the lover.
She a gone on to a successful and
widening career; she had developed d
personality. made a place; but Wiley
well, Wiley had become "Curran of the.
News" Even nov Harlan Van Hart,
many years the younger, was fitting
himself for his fathers honored foot
steps; r. was enthusiastically put
ting In his great schemes for soil sweet
ening. lecturing to farmers Institutes.
and dabbling In county politics; but
Wiley had marked time.
She was too sane. too finely schooled
to linger owe sentimental regrets be-
cause of Wiley or herself. Only, as a
wife. and a wife Of a man of affairs,
h saw one pat to the larger life she
longed for. She had the instructive po-
litical predictions of her family; the
man she should marry must bulk up
with the county men at least. Arne,
back from his eager drinking Of eco
non1ic revolt at the most radical col
lege In the west. was already listened
to, btN Wiley's paper-Well, 1t was only
the News barking away az 1t had done
since abolition days! The county was
used to that. 4
Yet Janet had a peculiar sense OF his
closenesS to all a pr osy life of the
countryside. e Never a losing grievance
Of the farmers for which the News did
not contend; never a day but what. in
and out OF the shabby old shop, some
shy countryman did not stray to relate
the district news. to. ask a favor or
confirm some rum6r, Curran had in
herited all this, and c%uriously. with all
his dilettante indrawing and worldly.
sophistication. had delighted in it. In
her drivings to lonely districts on
school visits the lady superintendent
found this inSistent interest: THE
News editor" what was he doing or
saying?
When she related this, Curran had
laughed carelessly; just as he laughed
when Janet urged him to run for con-
gress: just as he had laughed, run
ming his blued fingers ruefully through
his hair, when she asked of his plans
for he abortive Inland Empire. Miss
Vance. in the case of Mr.. Curran. usu-
ually concluded by going Of and disre-
garding him. "
IT suppose" he put in now. on Arne's
never ending satire of county AFFAIRS.
TIL have to shag along with the old
town alone. You boys off to college,
and Janet visiting the district schools.
Christmas-whom be home Christ
mas?" He appealed to Harlan Ingenu-
ously. -.
June for me. I'll run down to Wash
ington for Christmas at the senator's"
Wiley slowly considered. Senator
FaiEchild. cousin Of Mrs. Van Hart, one
time cabinet officer. intimate of the
president, most powerful figure from
a country judges son. the mere relat-
ing Of dinner at Fairchild's bespoke a
flattering future. Harlan was. indeed.
the son Of fortune.