The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-11-13
The DEYW SOULS. M BROTHER.

lAy III NIO CQMlLlI u tAtQ AAb1 AHAh0s shOA
was q place for d man stout or heart
and willing. too old to work ut his
trade, but too young to lose hope. He
would save himself from the Stag heap
OF the cities, whore In the blatant re-
ligion OF success. he who fails ID either
vicious or lazy. So he came t0stho rtv-
or bottoms where his wife had heard
and truck raising for a livelihood.
There. crowding into Uncle Michigan,s
house boat. which had grCwn through
the q by the addition Of several
crazy lean-tOs until II was % q ram
ling cottage. the, LindstrOme were one
Of the few ycry poor families OF the
rich county. They were big with the
They aid not know that. nrst Of all.
the farmer In q capitalist, and the city
man turned adrtft there. penntleEs and
with mouths to feed, 10 helpless. John
became D day worker In Tanners quar-
i! ries; his wife. a Tennessee woman.
long expatriated from her hills. within
ms to be zone forever OF Chicagos we
Dor and child bearing. There Lind
strorn fought his inevitable losing fght;
but with old Michigan's truck raising.
which cloaked his whisky peddling.
and Johns wages they all got on until
Tanners quarry machine crushed the
chief bread winners hand.
So Il was damn the lawi When one
is old. ~bewildered. helpless before all
these smooth phrases and presidents,
all this fine talk OF sleek men to the
jury, and one hears the Judge direct
the verdict against one. does "A Snince
words7 Why, then. did the lawyers
say one had q right II the judge knew
so glIbly dIfferent7 A good workman,
too. on IL rock pile: quiet. steady.
matching his strength against the
young those terrible. merciless
young men. who fling the discard aside.
take his job and go whigtling down
the road. pipe inTmouth, when the day
is doneI And now. broken, crushed,
bewtldered with the smooth talk OF the
lawyers. and knowing one has lost
does q man take II calmly when the
Judge sentences him and his children
to beggaryf No. he raises his fist
and damn the lawl
Lindstrom came back the quarry
table from his two freckled sons and
the old, one-iegged soldier whisky
smuggler. smoking his pipe by the
wood box. They feared to question
the returned aailbird; when his wife
whined some complaint, as she held the
baby to her fiat breast, stirring her
pots over h stove. he growled rough
tenderness. .. .
"There woman. The jail-you can
smell 1t on me. but no matter. And
the work--we can do q bit yet with
the garden. It's here wen stay. for I'll
not lift my face in town again. They
heaped the filth OF the law on me, and
my children's name. Well have no
more OF their town and schools and all.
II I'm no tit man for 'em, my lads are
not-weW take nc more Of their time
and money" ST.. -"
She looked up In her slattern fright.
He ruled them with his heavy
Puritan's righteousness. Even Au-
relic, Michigan's gypsy limb OF
a girl, under Johns foster
parenthood these five years since the
Lindstroms came, had to be still be-
fore him.
"Ah. joint" the mother cried. Take
the children out OF school? Knute
ready for his seventh grade. and Aur-
ellie In high school. And like to grad
uate Is we car get the dress and ALI"
She rubbed her bony hand across her
chin to a the sting Of tn burning
pork Tat and muttered. My mans
crazyI" ~
Damn, their schools" he Erowied,
"and courts. God will hold us safe,
not man with his fine talk Of justice.
I'll have no more OF It."
Old ahichigan took out his pipe to
murmur, "John, man~-don't take it so
bitter. There's enough know you're
an. honest a A day in tail-who'n
think worse OF ye for that?"
The quarryman Topped his big frame
over Q chair at the table. Year by
year he had come to extend his au-
thority oyer Michigan's sorry house
and patch OF land snatched from the
willow slough of the everchanginR
willow bed. The old confederate had
taken himself to the woods when the
Lindstroms oyerran him too much;
Aurelie had been the bond that held
him to his niece's family--it made
something Of q home for her, mean as
1t might be, -
They were well through the meal
when the woman's brother. Albert,
came In. He sidled to the tin basin
by the window. took of his ~celfuloid
cuffs and began to wash his thin red
wrists, like q man who would rather
not be squarely seen; he snuffed the
cold water into his struggling beard
as IL 1t put sting into his rabbits
heart, He combed his hair and pulled
on his cuffs and sat down with a fatu-
gus smile. A man of towns, he had
followed the family from Chicago be-
cause he was too weak to stand alone,
always the under dog, finding odd jobs
about the country; q canvasser and
agent rev q recipient or cata-
logues and contracts from mail order
houses and manufacturers and medi-
cal fakirs. forever talking up his nos
trums and gim-cracks. peddling about
the farms and villages; a ringer Of
doorbells, q beseecher Of women, q
pleader to. buy, shutiing In and out OF
gates with his pitiful cards and dodg-
ers-one OF those men who sit to be
preached to and stand In line to be
counted, with his weak chin and fiar-
ing ears and vapid eyes bulging-ons
Of those men In short, whom the un-
dertakers r forever burytng.
John, the burly religious fanatic,
with his defeated bull strength, hated
him-at hest he gave the t~olerating
contempt OF the man OF overalls for
the shabby collar -and-cuff p~retense of
the p~eudler-collar always soiied, cufHs
always frayed Lindstrom glowered
at him q moment and went on eating.
"Ah, the good coupl" said the ped
dler, warming his hands over it's
steam-'it puts heart In q man. Mich
igan, you can dig your potatoes on
this-and Knute. tin get your lessons,
eh% He smiled vaguely at the boys
he really felt like somebody tonight,
for he had earned two dollars and ne
was planning how he could present It
to them all, raling owe his sordid
store of Chear and AyansiOna hafora