Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-01-08

teFneSS n exile. n give MIN nate
stead Of love. But my girl he can't
change a hair of your head. or the pink
OF your pretty cheek!"
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 nefghbor
women went on. and the boys sat apart
In awe as II some tragedy had fallen
or them. The gossip OF the tswn went
IN. Tbs next day young Butts Of The
Mercury-Jeurnal drove from Earlville
to interview her and mot q gaunt,
f~everish-eyed man who ordered him
away. his shotgun lying handily across
the rail- fence. The correspondent saw
two ragged. tow-headed children n a
lean-hipped cow or two beyond the
forlorn shanty and that was all. Be-
You'd was the corn patch. and the
other unpainted cottages Of the quar-
rymen. n then the gray bluff with its
neyer-ceasinE roar and dust cloud from
Thad Tanners quarry.
Some curious town people tried to
call. Lindstrom Eave them the same
grim welcome. And all the week the
town seethed with curiosity. Prim
misses read he newspapers more as
siduously than ever before; and the
Chronicle felicitated itself and spread"
with more details Of Aurelie's lfe-in-
AOOS0 u llOIu6 u
canvassers all over the state to work
up subscriptions. giving away a half
tone OF the beauty winner with each.
What does it mean?" Illuminated the
Chronicle. for his little csuntry girl
to be announced as the most beautiful
woman In the country? In the first
place II means admiration. love. That
IS f1rst IN every woman's heart of
hearts. Hundreds OF thousands of men
have gazed on her picture and felt
their hsarts moved. Thousands have
writer declaring they adored her. Sim
cere hnnest men. some Of them labor
ers, some milionaires. have offered
their hands to the modest young
beauty. They send references Of their
social and financial standing. church
n odge connections and prospects,.
Lawyers 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
to congratulate her. She is showered
with gifts. honors. invitations, emolu-
ments-so great a thing is it t. be de-
clared by the Chronicle to be the most
beautiful woman In the land"
As Vawter, the artist. the pimply-
faced youth who took that luckless
picture IN his shabby studio up above
Mr.. Curran: 'tOh. Gawd!'
Fawter was peevish because none
mentioned that he took the photograph.
Here's you and me, Wiley, stirred up
all this bunk-and Just think OF 'em
sayin' there's a telephone down In Old
HMirh,a Eha1kZ I'm th0t hO<%D~o. --I -..-
amt gettln' a cussed thing out Of it!
We amt even gotta line in the papers!
Why don't you roast emp"
Wiley Curran smiled distantly,
bunk! shifted Vawter, the artist,
and Went away. II don't believe any
1000 millionaire want to marry Aurelie
Lindstrom. Shucks, they's ieaps Of
girls right in high school prettier'n she
Is. It's my picture that done it and
what do / git? Fitchered, by swannyl"
And when the artist came on store
clerks and travelling men discussing her
about the square, n he strangers
K OF n beauty winner. he
Mowry. the 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. wac
rasping his shiny serged legs before
y . N0AA al q 3dlON6 EAuO RuulInlnR ND
the towns comment.
"~Everybody's sore Folks air goin'
to stop them ~She-cawgo papers. Win
mems club Gays it's demoralizin' and
the teachers say it busts up school
work. Cal Rice, over to the bank, he
says Of all h disgustin' things is for
the Chronicle to git roped In by a
French girl this way. And Dickinson,
I guess he's sore because his girl didn't
git no prize and everybody Is hollerin':
and here ! amt buried anybody for
two months!"" He looked across at the
Widow Steger's hollyhock walk; Hey.
how's the widder?"
81 understand that Dickinson is 90
fng to send her to Burlington for
treatment" answered Wiley,
Just so. And she'll die in a hospital!
And I been a-buyin' my groceries at
Dickinson's for seven years-ever since
the wilder was took! Dog-gcne. Wiley
this is q s0rehead town."
Old MOwry went 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 nshed niger
out Of Broad slough, held an inquest
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-withl
fees. Then h weather unfortunately
grew warm. and some one started an
Investigation. The niger Ind the cor
oner's political career spoiled stimuli
|taneously. that week. Old Mowry had
been shuffltn4 around the court house
trying TO csllsct his fees from every
succeeding county board, but always
the ghost Of that celored citizen haunt
rnaotfnr ma Ahar nnx,fo Arn,,. 80. 49,.