The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1920-07-16
MAY TRIES
BEING A HICK
By WILL I. AMEs

Among the girls Of Manhattan island
there Is a tradition, immutable as the
laws of the Modes and the Pe-slans.
that lever yet save through lie opera,
ton OF extreme violence asM utterly
against her own will did one of the sis
terhood leave the city and go TO the
country to live. Wherefore, when May
Dart, expert board operator In the Bry.
ant exchange, informed her friends.
Gladys Stein and Ethel Manning. thai
she was quitting the job that night and
going to Stonyport, away OF in the
wilds Of Connecticut, to live. they 81,
multaneously gaped at her Incredu.
lously. and with one voice cried
"Going to the %countreel To stay
Gonna live with the squirrels and he q
hickl For gawdsake. May, hawdja ger
that way?r
Jaw. ! just thought I'd like to do
something different" replied May. non.
chalantly. Which was not the whole
truth.
Doctor MacKintry, who had prac-
tieed in the Ninth ward more years
than May was old, aud who had known
her parents-eased their successive
tuberculous departures out OF the
world IN fact-had cajoled, command
ed, bullied and finally thoroughly
frightened May into getting away from
New York before, as he phrased IT,,
New York got her.
And so II came to pass that May
having been given q highly compliment
tarJ recommendation by her chief. az
ter a conference with that kindly ofi
cial, had api led for a place In the
Stonyport telephone central and had.
been enthusiastically accepted. You're
going in time" said MacKintry. "If
you come back I'm less than a yea I'll
throw you off the dock"
S%tonyport duttered between the con.
dltion Of a big village and the status Of
a small city. II called Itself the lat.
ter, and its most sophisticated society
women smoked cigarettes sometimes IN
the grills Of the big Massapeag hotel
But It's people still term the railroad
station the depot" and tradition and
politics between them had so far sue,
ceeded IN preserving the bucolie insti-
tuition OF a volunteer fire department.
May, as an hereditary cockney. ex
perienced a sense of obligation to look
upon Stonyport with amused tolerance:
an attitude In which she persisted.
though she soon perceived that a tele
phone station was a telephone station.
whether In New York or New England.
and that the limousines on State street
looked about as costly as the ones on
Forty-second.
The Stonyport air, however. was
fresher and cleaner than the carbon
lied mixture that serves New York,
and the big. airy thr~ee-windowed room
overlooking a vista Of gardens. Of
which May was the exclusive mistress.
furnished a staggering contrast TO the
tiny cell, smelling of gas, from which
she had looked out on the dreary rear
walls Of Bank street.
Also, because there was no Gladys
and no Ethel and no Bryant Exchange
Dancing club, and no long list OF the
aters and no Coney-no anything. II
seemed, May got more sleep. and
sounder, than she had ever known In
her twenty-fOur years. SO she knew
Doctor MacKintry for the wise old owl
that he was-but she wasn't having a
good time and again she voted Stony |
port a jay town.
II was inevitable. OF course. that the
coming Of Fred Faxon into the life of
the girl at this lonely stage of II
should be epochal. Logical enough in
any event, inevitable when he was big
and go~odlooking and had been through
the thick OF the hell In France and hadl
come back TO laugh over II and tell
funny stories about II by the hour.
He was the nephew Of Mays fine
old landlady-that's how their ac-
q%ualntance cant abOut-and he was
just starting In business. a shining
model dellcatessen shop. He had had
to start on n shoestrlng he conhded
TO May, and his "wOpp landlord would
only give him a misery two ear
lease, "But a fellow learned 10 take
chances over there. n he didn't learn
anything else" Perhaps It was be
cause the chances Of success we're nor
less hazardous-his prospects IN life
beter-that May caught Faxon look
ing at her so wlstfully every now and
then.
The Stonyport post Of The American
Legion was giving a ball for the n
hancement Of Its building funds big
affair In the armOry. May. Respondent
In the selfsame blac., md gold party
gown that had almost male enemies OF
Gladys and Ethel at the Bryant clubs
reception six weeks before, regally de
scended the stairs to find Faxon. In his
service uniform waiting IN gaspIng ad.
mlratiOn in the hall.
"You look wonderful" he exclaimed.
Are you all readyl We're not going
to be a minute too early"
"As soon as ! put on my wrap" MAY
had scarcely uttered the words when
Beng K-r-r-r Bang Krr.r-Bang !
.1le great hell IN the tower OF the en-.
glnh house three doors away wal fairly
.allllnn lhn