The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1922-10-20
The READING
Of the Riddle
IiiiIillIiilillililiiiliIlIllililliiiillIllI
Copyrisht. 1922. By the Macmillan Co.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

Dear. was 1t really you or /?
In truth the riddles Ill to read.
So many are the deaths we die
Before we can be dead indeed"
w. Z. Henley.
"HE town Of Willow Creek lies
at the junction Of rivulet of
l. that name, with the Big Mud
dy. But the people of that commu-
nifty being born scoffers have changed
the name Of the Big Muddy in COM
mon parlance to Mud Crick," and.
transformed by the alchemy of popu-
lar depreciation, the name Of the town
itself has shriveled into .Willer
Creek" 1t might have been some
thing Of town, as towns go in the
West, but instead of pulling with his
neighbors for the success of the town,
each Of its founders spent his time
making fun of the pretensions Of 9TH
ers. When there was talk on the part
Of "old man" Mead. tine primeval post
master, of securing the government |
land Office for Willow Creek, the In
dian trader, and the saloonkeeper, and |
the blacksmith, made great sport Of
| the old mans ambition. few years |
| later, when civilization had crowded
in with hotel, lumber yard, a new
saloon, and a barber shop, someone
| spoke Of starting a newspaper; but
the laugh that went up from. Willow
Creek was the only unanimity that
greeted Editor McCray when his back
was turned. But the newspaper came.
and SO did the people, and they kept
coming, until, when the boom" of the
later eighties struck Kansas, 1t found
Willow Creek with about two thou
sand scoffing inhabitants.
But, in one way or another. the
boon" seemed to bring wealth to
Willow Creek. And with wealth,
came some attempts at the organi-
zation Of polite society. There were
innumerable young real estate agents,
young doctors, young lawyers. and
clerks, all from the East, in the viii
lage; and these, with the daughters of
the early settlers and such friends as
they CHANGED to make In the high
school, constituted the aristocracy of
the town. 1t was a vulnerable aris-
tocracy, and the scoffers made sad
havoc with 1t.
1t was said Of Flora McCray. who
went to boarding school and came
back, timid, retiring, and distinctly
unsocial, that, "She needn't hold her
self so high. If her father would only
pay back the money he stole in the
, school land fraud she would be as
common as anybody" But the girl
|, paid no heed to these rumors, If she
: heard them. She quietly filed her
small sphere, bounded on one side by
. her meek-voiced mother and her busy
father, on another side by her church
and her "church social" on a third
!. side by very brief glimpse Of very
big world and her memory of 1t, and
on the fourth side by occasional day
: dreams and night thoughts, pretty
Il much the same as those which come
to any young girl of good health, good
spirits, and twenty-one years, who has
never had sweetheart.
As the reaction, caused by the de
a cadence of real estate prices set In
y Willow Creek became poorer AS tn
=" young men. who paid for the orches
y tras, and halls, and flowers. gradual.
y left town, the young women, who for
merly frequented receptions, parties
and balls, were seen more and NOR
often at the church socials." Afte
a two years Intellectual struggle WI
40 low Creek gave it up. the town coul'
9. no longer support two branches o
a society. and the church crowd" an
nt the dance crowd" merged into one
,k When 1t was announced that tn
40 entire social body of Willow Cree
III was going out to Robinson's for
w "taffy pull" one Saturday night. tn
7 rest of Willow Creek laughed. IN
N town people sneered at the young won
pd EN- who had planned the party, and IL
i, timated that the night ride out to Hot
%, inson's and back was a heroic meal
nv ure: and they laughed at old ma
Robinson and his family for toleratin
oeople who would snub them II the
came to town, and lastly they laughe
ut the young men who wouio nave
pay the livery bills.
~ saturday morning, John Howard
Mr.. McCray's partner In the stoc
business, came up from the farm O
an Dry Creek. and after going over SON
es, details of business, McCray asked n
RS. partner to Sunday dinner, as was n
ng, custom, when the young man was
ZEN town, and the invitation was accepte
la During the "boom" Howard had mac
'ot. money. He had mingled with what
'ist known as the swell set" OF WHO
ton Creek, and though not favorite
tho flood OF the boom" the very Ia
that he had the social instinct. mac
him a necessity in society at Its cd
VS. Soon after leaving his partners Q
OBJ fee. he had learned of the plans II
ew the -tafry pull" that evening he W,
his urged to go, and finding that all u
ans rigs" were full, and That all the gir
mes q, his "set" were provided with
of = A., a rnornept of despairing