Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-05-19
How th3 Town of
Ladybird Was
D~epOpulated
An Episode of May Day
By F. A.


tN W thA'
day. One place will have been settled
by refined people, and their descend
ants are refined; another will have
been settled by a rough class, and its
population will be rough today.
When II of these spots was In en-.
bryo-we will call 1t Eaglebird-its In
habftants were not naturally rough.
but they were all men, and men with
out women will in time degenerate into
wild beasts. No would go to
E~aglebird because there were no wo.
men there. One or two of the men
went east at different times to marry a
sweetheart, but came back alone. When
the girls learned that Eaglebird was
exclusively a man town they invaria-
bly, declined to exchange refined sur
roundings for a den.
There was Il town not far distant
from Eaglebird that we will call Lady.
bird. When the former was settled the
latter had been a town for two dec
AIDES. True, the Ladybirdians had run
out the Indians, but they had all come
to the region, men and women togeth.
er, from Connecticut, where there was
a college, and there was not a poorly
educated person among them. But
Ladybird had not been fayorably 10
Gated for trade, and its young men
when grown sought buster fields of la.
Dor, while their sisters remained where
they were. Instead of manufactures.
there were libraries, and the old folks
and the girls were very intellectual.
Eaglebird had been settled for a land
speculation. Ten men with money had
purchased a tract for a song and Sc
cured others to join them In settling 1t
by offering a share in the property. In
this way some forty men, mostly young
and all unmarried, were secured as
emigrants for the enterprise. They
built a town, but no more men came.
and owing to the absence of women
there were no children.
OBrien, who was the originator of
the scheme, one day called a meeting
in the town hall, a building II by Is,
used principally for poker parties. and
thus addressed the gathering:
Gentlemen, If we can't get some wo
men for wives Wen have to give VI
this scheme and go somewhere else
I've a proposition to make. There are
more than fifty single women in Lady
bird. Efforts have been made to in
duce some of them to marry our fel
lows, but they have turned up theil
noses at us. What do you say to
swooping down on EN- and carrying
'em off,"
The idea took like wildfre. Natu
rally, the youngest men were the most
enthusiastic. Thirty men agreed to join
the abductors, and no one of them was
over thirty years old, while the great
majority were not twenty-five. This
looked well for the scheme, for the
girls they were to run off had nearly
all been born since the settlement OF
Ladybird and were therefore young.
The very next day after the proposai
of the abduction scheme a lady and her
husband who were driving through the
country with a view to establishing an
emigration scheme stopped at Eagle
bird and asked for entertainment fol-
the night. They were accommodated.
and so long had it been since the men
had seen a woman that they treated
the lady as though she were q queen
Every man in the town offered to serve
her. In the evening they asked if she
would not talk to them. 1t didn't mat
ter what she said; they only wished to
listen to the sweet, soft voice of a
woman. She consented, and all ad
journed to the town hall, where the
ladyswas given n seat on a platform at
ore end of the room. This is what she
said to them:
Gentlemen, | don't wonder you wish
to listen to a woman's voice. You are
all refined men. roughened by living
without woman's quoting influence
What you need is wives
There was Il howl of response to this
that broke in upon the address. One
man whose voice drowned the Others
gave away the scheme to abduct the
young Ladybirds. He was howled
down for doing so. since it was to be
expected that he had rendered it abor
tive. When some sort of order was re
stored the lady spoke again;
~ am not sure but what your plan
may be advisable
This drew forth a burst of applause
Perhaps many of YOU" the lady
continued, who are educated men
may call to mind how those men who
settled Rome as you have settled
Eaglebird invited their neighbors, the
Sabines, to Il feast and carried off
their daughters. The women became
attached to their husbands, and when
their fathers and brothers attacked the
Romans the women interposed and
stopped the fight"
After another howl of approval the
lacy went n
81 wouldn't advise so t%reacherous a
method as inviting the Ladybirders tc
q feast. 1t is not necessary. Rather
wait for some celebration during which