The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-01-08

of your pretty cheek"
And then she cried as Aurelie cried;
n crept to the old whisky pedler.
and all the afternoon they huddied to-
gether to keep warm. while Mrs. Lind
strom's silly chatter to the neighbor
women Eel on, and the boys sat apart
In awe as IL some tragedy had fallen
on them. The gossip Of the town went
on. The next day young Butts of the
Mercury-Journal drove from Earlville
reverisfl-eyed man who ordered him
away. his shotgun lying handily acros
the rail fence The correspondent saw
two ragged. tow-headed children and q
lean-hipped COW or two beyond the
forlorn shanty and that was all. Be-
other implanted cottages Of the auar-
rymen. and then the gray bluff with its
never-ceasing roar n dust cloud from
Thad Tanners quarry.
Some curious town people tried to
call. Lindstrom gave them the same
grim welcome. And all the week ths
town seethed with curiosity. Prim
siduously than ever before: and the
Chronicle felicitated itself and spread"
with more details Of Aurelie's Iife-in-
cldentaly setting loose a horde of
canvassers all over the state to work
up subscriptions. giving away q half
NhS - with SAS2ks
What does it mean?" Illuminated the
Chronicle. "for this little country girl
to be announced as the most beautiful
woman in the country? In the first
place it means admiration. love. That
Is first In every woman's heart Of
hearts. Hundreds of thousands of men
nave gazed on her picture and felt
their hearts moved. Thousands have
written declaring they adored her. Sin
cere honest men. some Of them labor
ers, some m~illionatres. have offered
their hands to the modest young
beauty. They send references Of their
social and financial standing. church
and lodge connections and prospects.
offer her positions as ste
~nographer; 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 the secret of her beauty;
mothers warn her against the seduc-
lions 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 call up
with gifts. honors, invitations, emolu-
ments-so great a thing is it to be de-
clared by the Chronicle to be the most
beautiful woman in the land"
AS Vawter, the artist, the pimply-
faced youth who tool that luckless
picture in his shabby studio up above
the Hub Clothing store. remarked to
Mr. Curran: 'oh. Gawd."
Vawter was peevish because none
mentioned that he took the photograph.
Here's o n me, Wiley, stirred up
all this bunk-and just think of EN-
sayln, 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 papersl
Why don't you roast emf"
Wiley Curran smiled distantly.
'Bunk shifted Vawter, the artist.
and went away. II don't believe any
I,ooo miliionaires 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 it 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
OF n beauty winner, he
growled: Bunk! Don't ask met"
Mowry. the undertaken, who always
came into the News office to peddle
gossip and read the proofs of county
board meetings to see IL 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'
to stop them She-cawgo papers. VIM
mems club says it's demoraIizin' 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.
/ guess he's sore because his girl didn't
git no prize and everybody is nollerin':
and here I amt buried anybody for
two months!" He looked across at the
Widow Steger's hollyhock walk: "Hey
how's the w~idder?,
Il understand that Dickinson is go
Ing to send her to Burlington for
treatment" answered Wiley.
Just so. And she'll die in a hospital!
And | e a-buyin' my groceries at
Dickinson's for seven years-ever since
this is a sorehead town."
Old Mowry vent out to denounce the
grocer and the county board to every
farmer along the hitching rails. He
had been county coroner until the story
got out that once he f1shed a Niger
and buried him, n put In his claim
for fees. -Four days after he discovered
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. and some one started an
investigation. The niger and the cor
oner.s political career spoiled stimuli
t~aneously that week Old Mowry had
been shuffling around tho court house
trying to collect his fees from every
the ghost OF that colo-ed 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 the only time he
would c0nfrihllth n rant yn = yUhon hn