The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-12-25

Of Rome. They were sim Eambofing
over the OLD town, while Earlville had
built It's Hotel Metropole with English
steeplechase scenessar0und the dining
room wainscot Rome had had Miss
Amelia Parsons. of the Parsons house.
q her / O'clock Sunday dinner, with
chicken, since 1856. Earlville had its
] club done with a brownstone
front. Rome had Its Shakespeare club
which met Thursdays at the ladies'
homes. Earlville had It's syndicate tho
alter ! n cream brick: Rome had its
opera house sheathed In tin imitation
OF sandstone-and peeling off. Earl
y1lle-but why rehearse? There is the
Sarnegie library, the Young Mems
christian association. h federal build
Ing. the paid fire department. the in
t~erurban, h nome 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, went up the valley, to serenade
other communities and parade in silk
mats and white flannel trousers. Rome
usually entertaining district dele
gates to the Baptist Young Peoples
association; and when a 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 c-aautauqua quartet.
MI. Curran accented 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
tho fSr a.. Tl--2a
sons house. insisted on his sleeping
with brown papers under his ears, lest
the pillows become soiled too soon at
ter the Saturday change.
or course he lost advertising. But
Mr.. Curran had an unhappy mania for
printing things that lost advertising,
Even now Miss Vance. looking with
skinned, %resolute. serious. his large
boned frame carrying. at 81, a mans
dignity; her brother Arne. soil burned,
Indian checked. ervous. 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
afr-felt MI. Curran's perennial failure,
AT Ii. when h taught her first
school. she supposed that Wiley would
ask her to marry him, but he had gone
Off on footless wanderings. Twelve
years later he cane back. a trifle stout
er. a bit sad, still mischievous. the
many sided friend. but not the lover.
She had gone on to a successful and
widening career; she had developed b
personality, made a place; but Wiley
well. Wiley had become "Curran of the
News" Even now Harlan Van Hart.
many a the younger, was fitting
himself for his fathers honored foot
steps; Arne was enthusiastically put
ting in htS srraot ochnr,oe P0r s1{I rr .
ening. ~lecturing to farmers Institutes.
and dabbiing in county politics; but
Wiley had marked time.
She was too ane too finely schooled
to linger over sentimental regrets be-
cause Of Wiley or herself. Only, as a
wife. and a wife of a man of affairs.
she saw one pat to the larger life she
longed for. She had the instructive po-
1itical predictions OF her family; the
mai she should marry must bulk up
with the county men at least. Arne,
back from his eager drinking of eco
nomic revolt at the most radical coll
lege in the west, was already listened
to, but Wiley's paper-well, it was only
the News barking away as it had done
since abolition days! The county was
used to that.
Yet Janet had a peculiar sense of his
closeness to all that prosy life of the
countryside. Never a losing grievance
Va ~ q lilCio " WIllCI Tic ISGWS u1G
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 runlor. Curran had in
herited all this. and curiously, with all
his d~ilettante indrawing and worldly
sophistication. had delighted In it. In
her drlvings 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. rum
ming his blued fingers ruefully through
his hair, when she asked Of his plans
for the abortive Inland Empire. Miss
Vance. in the case Of Mr.. Curran, usu-
ually concluded by going on and disre-
garding him.
y suppose" he put in now, on Arne's
never ending satire Of county affairs,
I'll have TO shag along with the old
town alone. You boys off to college,
and Janet visiting the district schools.
Christmas-whoIl be home Christ
mas?" He appealed to Harlan ingenu-
ously.
June for me. TIL run down to Wash
ington for Christmas at the SENATOR'S"
Wiley slowly considered. Senator
Fairchild. cousin Of Mrs. Van Hart, one
time cabinet officer. intimate of the
president, most powerful figure from
the west at Washington. Surely, for
a country judges son. the mere relat-
ing of dinner at Fairchild's bespoke a
flattering future. Harlan was. indeed.
the son Of fortune.