The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-01-08

L I0AAA q VI IO0I lAGdAa - NAA0 RAAAAA
Of our pretty cheeki"
And then she cried as Aurelie cried;
and crept to the old whisky pedler.
and all the afternoon they huddled to-
gether to keep warm. while Mrs. Lind
strom's silly chatter to the neighbor
women went on. and the boys sat apart
In w as If some tragedy had fallen
IN them. The gossip OF the town went
on. The next day young Butts OF the
Mercury-Journal drove from Earlville
to Interview her and met a gaunt.
fevertsh eyed man who ordered him
away. his shotgun lying handily across
n rail fence. The correspondent saw
two ragged. tow-headed children and a
an-hipped cow or two beyond the
forlorn shanty and that was all. Be-
yond was the corn patch. and the
other implanted cottages of the a
rymen. n then the gray blum with its
never-ceasing roar and dust cloud from
Thad Tanners quarry. aa
Some curious town people tried to
call Lindstrom ave them the same
grim welcome. And all the week the
town seethed with curiosity. Prim
misses read the newspapers more as
s~tduously than aver before: and the
Chronicle felicitated itself and spread"
with more details of Aurelie's life-in-
~cidentaly setting loose q horde Of
~canvassers all over the state to work
up subscriptions. giving away a half
tone OF the beauty winner with each.
What does 1t mean 2" Illuminated the
Chronicle. Tor this little country girl
to be announced as h most beautiful
woman In the country? In the first
place 1t means admiration. love. That
Is hrst in every woman's heart OF
hearts. Hundreds of thousands OF men
have gazed on her picture and felt
their hearts moved. Thousands have
written declaring they adored her. Sin
cere honest men. ON Of them labor
ers. some millionaires. have offered
their hands to the modest young
beauty. They send references OF their
social and financial standing. church
and lodge connections and prospects.
Lawyers offer her positions as ste
n~ographer; manufacturers seek to have
her demonstrate their goods; she Is
asked to sing. to lecture, to go on the
stage, Ministers write her advise;
actresses ask he secret OF her beauty;
mothers warn her against the seduc-
tons. OF her fame. Strangers come to
the little Iowa farm to gaze on the
abode of beauty; the telephone bell is
constantly ringing as people a. up
TO congratulate her. She Is showered
with gifts. honors, invitations. emolu-
clared by the Chronicle to be the most
beautiful woman in the land"
AS Vawter, the artist, the pimply-
raced youth who tool that luckless
picture In his shabby studio up above
me Hub Clothing store, remarked to
Mr.. Curran: "Oh, Gawdl",
Vawter was peevish because none
mentioned that he took the photograph.
"HeTe,s you n me, Wiley, stirred up
all this punk-and just 1hink of 'em
sayin' there's a telephone down in, Old
Mich's shack in the bottoms-and we
amt gettin' a cussed thing out OF it!
We amt even gotta line in the papers!
Why don't you roast emp |
Wiley Curran smiled distantIy.
Bunk" shifted Vawter, the artist, |
and went away. II don't believe any |
1000 millionaires want to marry Aurelie |
Lindstrom. Shucks, they's heaps of
girls right in high school prettier'n she
is. It's my picture that done II and
what do | git? Fitchered, by swanny!'
And when the artist came on store
clerks and travelling men discussing her
about the square, and the strangers
asked Of the beauty winner, he |
growled: "Bunkl Don't ask met.
Mowry. h undertaken, who always !
came into the News office to peddle
gossip and read the proofs Of county
board meetings to see II there was not
some INDECENT dead he could bury, was
rasping his shiny serged legs before |
Mr.. Curran's stove and summing up |
the towns comment.
"~Everybody's sore. Folks air goin'
~ oNOR AASaA SAAOrSu 6Oa pdDcES. wv ltAlS l
mems club rays it's demoralizin' and
the teachers say 1t busts up school
work. Cal Rice, over to the bank, he |
says Of all the ~disgustin' things is for
the Chronicle to git roped In by a
French girl this way. And Dickinson, |
1 guess he's sore because his girl didn't |
git no prize and everybody is hollerin';
and here i Amt buried anybody for
two monthsI" He looked across at the
Widow Steger's hollyhock walk; Hey,
the wtdder?" ..&..
II understand that Dickinson is 60
ing to end her to Burlington for
treatment answered Wiley.
Just so. And she'll die In hospital!
And / been a-buyin' my groceries at \
Dickinson's for seven years--ever since
the wilder was took! Dog-gone, Wiley
this is a sorehead town."
Old MONTY went out to denounce the
grocer and the county board to every
farmer along the httching rails. He
had been county coroner until the story |
got out that once he fished a Niger
out Of Broad slough, held an inquest
and buried him, and put in his claim
another niger under the ice, held an
inquest and buried him-with fees.
Three days after. another mysterious |
Niger was found and buried-with !
fees. Then the weather unfortunately |
grew warm, n some one started an
ANC1hA6dIVhs 4hSt hA6EOIA anu luS GOE- 4
oner's political career spoiled stimuli
taneously that week. Old Mowry had
been shutting aroun the court house
trying to collect his fee from every
succeeding county board, but always
the ghost Of that colored citizen haunt
ed him. And every monthly board
meeting Father Doyle drove over from
Earlyville to see II Mowry's claim had
been allowed. Mowry was the sole
Catholic In Rome, but h only time he
would contribute a cent was when he
had buried a Protestant In good stand
ing. And one OF the undertaker's
grievances, always aired In the News
office, was that county dead should not
figure In the good priests caIGuiS cions-
he couldn't collect his fees, anyhtyw,
out Of this gol-durned pcard Mr.. Cur
a listened patiently. The priest RAJ
his good friend. So was Mowry. Sc
seemed all the lame ducks OF the COM
munity-and no n else, He wondered
now. in his new found ambitions, why
all the representative men seemed
afraid OF him; and why all h monde
scrip humanity OF the town attached
ffaalf m him M0uyru vgaa fhA ffrat IN