Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-11-25

baugh, but'I saw that 1 was as pro-
| vincial and behind the-times as JUL
Jus. (Worse! julius plows through
the Literary Digest and the Out ook
faithfully, while I'm turning yer
pages of a book by Charles Flanjrau
that l already knew p heart.1
found that the Village Virus had me-,
absolute, i didn't want to face new
streets and younger n1en-real COM
petition. 1t was too easy to go on
making out c~onveyances and arguing
ditching cases. .tSo- That's all of
the biography of a living dead man,
except the diverting last chapter, the
of strength and legal wisdom which
some day n preacher will spin over.
my lean dry body" ,s:. f
He looked down at his :table-desk,
lingering the starry enameled vase.
. She could not comment. She pic
, tured herself running across the room
to pat his hair. She saw that his lips
were firm, under his soft faded u
tache. She sat still, and maundered,
Il know. The Village Virus. Per-
haps it will get me. Some day I'm
going Oh, no matter AT least,
Il am making you talk! Usually you
have to be polite o .my garrulousness,
but now Pm sitting at your feet"
A., 1T would be rather nice to have
o literally sitting at my feet, by a
fire.
Would you lave a fireplace for
me?"
Naturally! Please don't snub me
now! Let the old man rave. How
old are you, Carol?"N
"Twenty-six, Guy"
"Twenty-six! I was just leaving
New York at t~wenty-six. 1 heard
Patti sing, at twenty-six. And now
yet I'm old enough to be your father
So it's decent]y paternal to imagine
you curled at my feet. al. OF
course l hope 1t isn't, but We'll reflect
the morals of Gopher Prairie by Off
cially announcing that it is! . !.
These standards that YOU n 1 live
up to! There's one thing that's the
matter with Gopher Prairie, at least
with the ru ing-class (there is a rul-
ing-class, despite all o:r professions
of democracy. And the penalty we
tribal rulers pay is that II subjects
watch US every minute. We can't get
wholesomely drunk and relax. We
have to- be 80 correct about sex NOR
ais. and inconspicuous clothes, and
doing u commercial trickery only
in the traditional ways, that none of
~ AS S01i ANS dP ~ AS,-"AN We OSSOLAAC1
horribly hypocritical. Unavoidab.y.
The widow-robbin deacon of fiction
y can't help being hypocritical. The
widows themselves demand it! They
admire his righteousness. And look
at me. Suppose I did dare to make
love to-son,e exquisite married
woman. l wouldn't admit it to my
!. self. 7 giggle with the most revolt
& ing ~salaciousness over La Vie Paris
ienne, when l get hold OF one in Chi
..cago, yet l shouldn't even try to hold
your hand. I'm broken. It's the his
torical lAnglo-Saxon way of making
life miserable. Oh, my dear,
l haven't talked to anybody about
myself and all our selves for years.
Guy! Cant we do something with
the town., Really:'
we can't!" He disposed Of it
like a judge ruling cut an improper
objection: returned to matters less
i. Internationally energetic: Curious,
Most troubles are unnecessary. We
have Nature beaten; we IAN make
her grow wheat; we can keep warm
when she sends blizzards. So we
raise the devil just for pleasure
disputes. Here in Gopher Prairie
we've c.eared the fields, and become
soft SO we make ourselves unhappy
! artifictally. at great expense and ex-
ertion: Methodists disliktng Episco-
palians. the man with the Hudson
laughing at the man with the flivver.
The worst IL the commercial hatred
the grocer feeling that any man
who doesn't deal with him is robbing
] him. What hurts me Is that It ap-
plies to lawyers and doctors tand de-
cidedly to their wtvesi) as much as
to grocers. The doctors-you know
I about that--how your husband and
Westiake and Gould dislike one an
other."s
mo! / won't admit It'll"
He grinned.
"Oh. maybe once or twice, when
VIII has positively known OF a a
where Doctor-where one Of the oth-
ers has continued to cali on patients
longer than necessary. he has laugh
ed about It, but" ~
He still grtnned.
No, really! And when Won saw
the wives ofsthe doctors share these
jealousies-4. Mrs. McGsanMm ana I
haven't any particular crush on each
other; she's 80 Atolid. But her moth.
er, Mrs. Westiake-nobody could Be
sweeter.gy
res, I'm sure she's very bland, But