Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1915-09-29
wkward with bis spoon. and dropped

mat - QCltS4uul news ne re-
turned with frank enthusiasm which
was depressing to his mother.
Mrs. Boyd had nothing more to say.
She watched her son Tod start vigor-
ously at his grapefruit. with a vi
vaeity which seemed to indicate that
he migk. finish with the rind. He
drew ~ eggs energeticaly toward
him, buttered slice of toast, and fin
ished his breakfast Suddenly he
looked at his watch
q have an extremely busy day be-
fore me. he told her briskly. and feel
ing TO see If be had supplied himself
with handkerchiefs. he kissed his
mother. and was gone without another
word about CALI She could have
shaken him IN her disappointment.
What was the matter with Tod?
Rev. Smith Boyd sang as he went
out of the door, not a tune OF any set
musical form. but a mere unconscious
testing of his voice. II was quite I'M
usual for him to sing on the way to
| Vedder court. for he devoted his time
TO this portion of his duties because
he was a Christian. He had sympa-
| thy. more than enough, and he both
understood and pltied the people of
Vedder court, but, in spite of all his
intense interest in the deplorable con-
dition of humanity's weak and help
less. he was compelled to confess to
himself that he ioathpd dir
Vedder court was particularly per-
feet in its speciality this morning. The
oily black sediment on its pavements
was streaked with iridescence, and
! CRIME seemed to be shedding from ev-
cry point of the drunken old buildings.
They even seemed to leer down at
Rev. Smith Boyd, as IL bis being the
only clean thing in the street were an
impertinence. which they would soon
rectify.
A half intoxicated woman, her front
teeth missing ard her colorless hair
struggling, and her cheekbones CLEAN
ing with the high red OF debauehery.
leered up at him as he pacsed. A curly
headed youngster, who would have
been angelically beautiful II he had
been washed and his native blood
pumped from him. threw mud at Rev.
Smith Boyd, out Of a mere artistic de-
sire to reduce him to harmony with
his surroundings. A mounting old
woman, with hands clawed like a par
rot's, begged him for aims, and he was
ashamed of himself that he gave il
TO her with such shrinking. Tho Mas
ter could not have been like tnis. A
burly ''paEhandler" stopped him with
an artificial whine. A cripple, display
ing his ugly deformity for tie benefit
and example Of the unborn. took from
him dole and a vince Of repulsion.
The poor ye have always with yet"
For ages that had been the excuse
for such offenses as Vedder court.
They were here, they must be cared
for within their means, and no amount
of pauperizing charity could remove
them from the scheme of things. In
so far, Market Square church felt jus
titled in its landlordship, that it
somehow, the rector of that solidly
respectable institution was not quite
satisfied, and he had added new ex-
pense TO the profit and loss account
in the ledger OF this particular house
of God. He had hired a crew of forty
muscular men, with horses and carts,
and had caused them to be deputized
as sanitary police, and had given them
| authority to enter and clean; which
may have accounted for the especially
germ-laden feel of the atmosphere this
morning. Down in the next block,
where the squad was systematically at
work, there were the sounds of count
less individual battles, and loud
mouthings of the fundamental prin-
ciples Of anarchy. A government which
would force soap and deodorizers and
germicides on presumably free and in
dependent citizens, was a government
of tyranny; and it had been a particu-
lar wisdom, on the part Of the rough
hewn faced man who had hired this
crew, to select none but accomplished
brick dodgers. In the ten carts which
lined the curb on both sides there
were piled such a conglomerate mass
of nondescript fragments of everything
undesirable that the rector felt a trace
better, as If he had erased QUO mark
at least of the long black score against
himself Somehow, recently. he had
acquired an urgent impulse to clean
Vedder COURT
He turned in at one Of the largest
and most uninviting of the rickety
stairways. He skipped, with a prac-
ticed tread, the broken third step. and
made a mental note to once more take
UP, with the property committee, the
battle of minor repairs. He stopped
at the third landing and knocked at a
dark door, whereupon petulant voice
told him to come in. The petulant
voice came from a woman who sat in
a broken rockered chair, with one leg
held stifly in front of her. She was
heavy with the fat which rolls and
bulges, and an empty beer pail. on
which the froth had dried, sat by her
side. On the rickety bed lay a man
propped on one elbow. who had been
unshaven for days, so that his sandy
beard made a sort of layer on his
square face. The man sat up at once.