Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1921-05-06
SYNOPSIS.

willie thirteen year-old Robert Emmett Mo-
ran, crippled son of a poor widow, is
known as the Shepherd of the Birds. His
world is his mother and friends, his
little room, the flower garden of Judge
Croker. and every flying thing he sees
from his window. The painting of pic
lures is his enjoyment, and little Pauline
Baker, small daughter of a neighbor, the
object of his boyish affection. To him,
j. Patterson Bing, the first citizen of
Bingyille, is the ideal of a really great
man
That part Of the village known as
NishtOWn and a settlement of Poles
and italians furnished the man help in
the mill, and its sons were also seen
more or loss in the fields and gardens.
Ambition and education had been
working in the minds of the young in
and about Bingville for two genera
tons The sons and daughters of
farmers and ditch-diggerS 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 sten0g-
raphy.
Their success had wrought Curl
Gus devastation in the village and
countryside. The young moved out
heading for the paths of glory. Many
a sturdy. stupid person who might
have made an excellent plumber, or
carpenter, or farmer, or cook. armed
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 Moiave desert. If they
did not care for Latin or mathematics
they could take 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 fled from the irksOme tasks
which had rOughened the hands and
bent the backs of their parents. That,
briefly, accounts for the fewness and
the stiffness above referred to.
Early in 1917, the village was
shaken by alarming and astonishing
news. True, the sinking of the LuSi
tania and our own enlistment in the
World war and the German successes
ON the Russian frontier had, in a way,
prepared the heart and intellect of
Bingvile for shocking events. Still,
these disasters had been remote. The
fact that the GiIligan sisters had left
the CrOOlerS and accepted an offer of
one hundred and fifty dollars month
from the wealthy Nixons of Hazel
mead was an event close to the foot
lights so to speak. 1t caused the news
of battles to take its rightful place in
the distant background. Men talked
Of this event in stores and on the
street corners; it was the subject of
conversation in sewing circles and the
PhilOmathian Literary club. That
day, the BngS whispered about it at
the dinner table between courses until
Susan CrOWder sent in a summons by
Martha FeatherStraw with the apple
pie. She would be glad to see Mrs. j.
Patterson Bing in the kitchen imme-
diately after dinner There was a mo-
nent of silence in the midst of which
Mr. Bing wnked knowingly at his
wife, who turned pale as she put down
her pie fork with look of determine
ton and rose and went into the kitch
en-. Mrs. Crowder regretted that she
and Martha would have to look for
another family unless their wages
were raised from one hundred TO one
hundred and fifty dollars a month.
But, Susan. we all made an agree
ment for year" said Mrs. Bing.
Mrs Crowder was sorry, but she
and Martha could not make ont on the
wages they were getting-everything
cost so much. If Mary Gilligan. who
couldn't cook was worth a hundred
dollars a month Mrs. Crowder consid
cred herself cheap at twice that figure
Mrs. Bing. in her anger, was in
clined to revolt. but Mr.. Bing settled
the matter by submitting to the tyr
amy of Susan. With Phyllis and
three of her young friends coming
from school and a party in prospect,
there was nothing else to do.
Maggie Collins, who was too old
and too firmly rooted in the village to
leave it. was satisfied with Il raise
of ten dollars a month. Even then she
received Il third of the minister's sal
airy. ellis wife being a swell Teddy
who had no time for wurruk, sure the
boy was no sooner married than he
yelled for help" as Maggie was wont
TO say.
All this had decided effect on the
economic life of the village. Indeed,
Hiram Blenkinsop, the village drunk
ard. who attended to the lawns and
gardens for number of people. de-
manded an increase of a dollar day
in his wages on account of the high
cost of living although one would say
that its effect upon him could not have
been serious For years the historic
figure Of Blenkinsop had been the des-
tination and repository of the CASTOR