The Washington times., 1919-03-29
CHAPTER v.
EN MnRhinn.


Ex Maehina.
After she had become accustomed
to the smell of rancid oil and dye
stuffs and the interminable racket
or machinery she did not find her
work at the knitting mill disagree
able. 1t was like any work, she
imagined, an Unjnteresting task
which had to be done. s
The majority Of the. girls and
young men Of the village worked
there in various capacities: wages
were fair, salaries better, union
regulations prevailed. There was
nothing to complain of.
And nothing to expect except
possible increase in wages, holi-
days, and a disquieting chance OF
getting caught in the machinery,
which familiarity soon discounted
AS for the social status OF the
mill workers, the mill was Cay
field; and Gayfeld was q village
where the simpler traditions Of the
republic still survived; where
there existed no invidious dis
tinction in vocation; a typical old
time community harboring the re-
mains OF a Grand Army Post and
too many churches OF too many de-
nominations; where the chance Z.
metropolitan stranger was syste-
matically done; where distrust of
an cities and desire to live in them
was eQualed only by a passion for
moving pictures and automobiles:
where the school trustees used
double negatives and traced their
ancestry to Colonial considerables
who, however. had signed their
names in lower case" or with a
Maltese cross-the world in min
iature, with it's due proportion OF
petty graft, petty soUabbles. envy,
kindness, jealousy, generosity,
laZiness, ambition, stupidity. intel
ligence, honesty, hypocrisy. hatred,
affection, badness and goodness. as
standardized by the code establish
ed according to folk-ways on earth
in brief, a perfectly human com
munity composed Of the usual in
gradients. worthy and unworthy
that was Gayfleld, Mohawk County,
New York.
Before spring came-before the
first robin appeared. and while icy
roads still lay icy under sunlit
pools OF snow-water-a whole win
ter indoors, and a sedentary one,
had changed the smoothly tanned
and slightly freckled cheeks Of
Rue CareW to a thinner and paler
oval Under her transparent skin
a tea-rose pink came and went; un-
der her gray eyes lay blush
shadows. Also. floating particles
Of dust, fleecy and microscopic
notes of cotton and wool filling the
air in the room where Ruhaunah
worked, had begun to irritate her
A-AHzk,s,V
girl developed an intermittent
cough.
Goes to Box Factory.
When the first bluebird arrived
in Gayfeld the cough was no longer
intermittent; and her mother sent
her to the village doctor. So Rue
Carew was transferred to the box
factory adjoining. in which the
mill made its own paper boxes.
where young women sat all day
at intelligent machines and fed
them with squares of pasteboArd
and strips Of gilt paper; and the in
telIigent and grateful machines re-
sponded by turning out hundreds
and hundreds Of complete boxes, all
neatly gilded. pasted. and labeled.
And after a little while Ruhannah
was able to nourish one of these
obliginE and responsive machines.
And by July her cough had left her.
and two delicate freckles adorned
the bridge Of her nose.
The half-mile walk from and TO
Brookhollow twice a day was keep
ing her from rapid physical de-
generation. Yet, like all Northern
American summers. the weather be-
came fearfully hot in July and
August, and the half-miIe even in
early morning and at in the even
ing left her listless, nerVously
dresding the great concrete-Iined
room, the reek Of glue and oil, the
sweaty propinquity Of her neigh
boFs, and the monotonoUs appetite
OF the sprawling machine which she
fed all day long with pasteboard
squares.
She went TO her work in early
morning, bareheaded, in a limp pink
dress very much open at the throat,
which happened to be the mercifuI
mode Of the moment slender.
sweet-lIpped thing. beginning to
move with grace now-and her
chestnut hair burned gold-paIe by
the sun.
There came that movable holiday
in August, when the annual shut
down for repairs closed the mill and
box factory during forty-eight
hours-a matter OF prescribing oil
and new bearings for the overfed