The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1915-06-26

and the cadenced clatter Of a pair of
trotting horses, and Penrod, looking
up, beheld the passing of a fat &C.
quaintance, torpid amid the conserva-
tive splendors Of rather old fashion.
ed victoria. This was Roderick Mays.
worth Bits, Jr., fellow sufferer
at the Friday afternoon dancing class
but otherwise not often a companion;
a home sheltered lad, tutored private
~ and preserved against the coarsen-
Ing influences Of rude comradeship and
miscellaneous information. Heavily
overgrown In all physical dimensions,
virtuous and placid, this clustered NUT.
ton was wholly uninteresting to Pen
rod Schoield. Nevertheless, Roderick
Magsworth Bits, Jr., was per-
sonage on account of the Importance
Of the Magsworth Bits family, and it
was Penrod's destiny to increase Rod
erick's celebrity far. far beyond its
present aristocratic limitations:
The Maesworth Bittses were impor
tant because they were impressive.
There was no other reason. And they
!: were ElnpressiVe because heyssbelieved
themselves important The adults of
the family were impregnably formal.
They dressed with reticent elegance
and wore the same nose and the same
expression-an expression which 1nd}
Gated that they knew something ex-
quisite and sacred which other people
could never know. Other people in
their presence were apt to feel mystic
riously ignoble and to become secretly
uneasy about ancestors, gloves and
pronunciation. The Magsworth Bitts
manner was Withholding and reserved,
though sometimes gracious, granting
small smiles as great favors and CIV
ing off a chilling kind Of preciousness.
Naturally when any citizen Of the COM
mun1ty did anything unconventional or
improper or made a mistake or had
relative who went wrong that citizens
first and worst fear was that the Mays
worth Bittses would hear Of it. In
fact, this painful family had for years
terrorized the community, though the
community had never realized that it
was terrorized and invariably spoke Of
the family as the most charming cir,
Gle in town. By common consent
Mrs. Roderick Magsworth Bits oflci-
ated as the supreme model as well as
critic in chief Of morals and deport-
ment for all the unlucky people pros
porous enough to be elevated to her
acquaintance. @5.E|-,..s-e
Magsworth was the important part
of the name. Mrs. Roderick Mags-
worth Bits was Magsworth born
herself, and the Magsworth crest deco
rated not only Mrs. Magsworth Bits
note paper, but was on the china, on
the table linen, on the chimney pieces,
on the Opaque glass Of the front door,
on the victoria and on the harness,
though omitted from the, garden hose
and the lawn mower. ~ ~. -.
Naturally no sensible person dream
ed Of connecting that illustrious, crest
with the. unfortunate and notorious
Rena Magsworth, whose name had
grown week by week into larger and
larger type upon the front pages Of,
newspapers owing to the gradually in
creasing public and official belief that
she. had poisoned a family Of eight
However, the statement that no sensi-
bic. person could have connected the
4 Magsworth Bits family with the ar:
gsenica1 Rerfa takes no account Of Pen
rod Scho1efd &c. ~. 49, 80 g.
20 : s. 2Er4ar