The Kenna record. (Kenna, Roosevelt County, N.M.) 190?-1924, 1921-04-08


terson Bling. Bling was a cold-blooded
fish. Bing was scrimper and a
grinder. If the truth were known
about Bing he wouldn't be holding his
head so high. Judas Iscariot and J.
Patterson Bing were Off the same
bush. These were some Of the things
that Blenkinsop scattered abroad and
they were, to say the least Of them,
extremely unjust. Mr.. Bing's inno-
cent remark touching Mr.. Blenkin-
sop's misfortune In not being a hired
girl, arose naturally out Of social con-
dltlons in the village.
Furthermore, 1t is quite likely that
every one in Bingville, including those
impersonal creatures known as Law
and Order, would have been much
happier IL some magician could have
turned Mr.. Blenkinsop into a hired
girl and have made him a life men,
Der Of "the Dish Water Aristocracy,"
as Judge Croker was wont to call Il.
The community Of Bingvllle was
noted for its simplicity and good
sense. Servants were unknown in this
village Of three thousand people. It
had lawyers and doctors and profess
ors and merchants-some of whom
were deservedly well known-and ].
Patterson Bling, the owner of the pulp
mill, celebrated for his riches; but
one could almost say that its most
sought for and popular folk were its
hired girls. They were few and sniffy.
They exercised care and discretion In
the choice Of their employers. They
regulated the diet of the said employ
ers and the frequency and quality of
their entertainments. IF 1t could be
said that there was an aristocracy in
the place they were it. First, among
the Who's Who in Bingville, were the
Gilligan sisters who worked in the big
brick house Of Judge Croker; another
was Mrs. Pat Collins, seventy-two.
years Of age, who presided in the kit
chen Of the Reverend Otis Singleton;
the two others were Susan CrOwder,
woman of sixty, and a red-headed
girl with one eye, of the name of
Featherstraw, both Of whom served
the Opulent Bings. Some Of these
hired girls ate with the family-save
on special occasions when city folk
were present Mrs. Collins and the
Gilligans seemed to enjoy this prlvi-
lege, but Susan Crowder, having had
an ancestor who had fought in the
Revolutionary war, couldn't stand 1t,
and Martha Featherstraw preferred to
eat In the kitchen. Indeed there was
some warrant for this remarkable sit
uatiOn. The Gllligan sisters had a
brother who was a magistrate In a
large city and Mrs. Collins had a son
who was a successful and popular
butcher In the growing city Of Hazel
mead.
That part Of the village known as
IrishtOwn and a settlement Of Poles
and Italians furnished the man help in
the mill, and its sons were also seen
more or less in the fields and gardens.
Ambition and education had been
working In the minds Of the young In
and about Blngville for two genera
lions. The sons and daughters Of
farmers and dltch-dlggers had read
Virgil and Horace and plodded into the
mysteries Of higher mathematics. The
best of them had gone into learned
professions; others had enlisted in the
business Of great cities; still others
had gone in for teaching or stenog-
raphy.
Their success had wrought a curl
GUS devastation in the village and
countryside. The young moved out
heading for the paths of glory. Many
sturdy, stupid person who might
have made an excellent plumber, or
carpenter, or farmer, or cooR, armed
with university degree and a sense
of superiority, had gone forth in quest
Of fame and fortune prepared for
nothing in particular and achieving
firm possession of It. Somehow the
elective system had enabled them ito
get by" in a state of mind that re-
sembled the MOjave desert. If they
did not care for Latin or mathematics
they could take a course in HierOlogy
or in The Tanning Of the Wild Chick
adee or In some such easy skating.
Bingville was like many places. The
young had fed from the irksome tasks
which had rOughened the hands and
bent the backs Of their parents. That,
briefly. accounts for the fewness and
the snihiness above referred to.
Early in 1917, the village was
shaken by alarming and astonishing
news. True, the sinking of the LusI-
tanla and our own enlistment In the
World war and the German successes