The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1922-12-22
a BUNDLE
OF MuRRH
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
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Copyrisht. 1922, by the Macmillan Co.

TOWN. Until he Knows who is kin to
whom, and how, a reporter Is likely
at any time to make bad break.
Now, the kin0logy Of country town
Is no simple proposition. After a
man has spent ten years writing up
weddings. births and deaths, attend
Ing old settlers picnics. family re-
unions and golden weddings, he may
run into a new line Of kin that opens
whole avenue of hitherto unex-
plainable facts to him, showing WHY
certain families line up in the ward
primaries, and why certain others are
fighting tooth and toenail.
The only person in town who knows
all of our kinology-and most Of that
In the county. where 1t is a separate
and interminable study-is "Arnt"
Martha Merryfield. She has lived
here since the early fifties. and was
Perkins, one of the eleven Perkins
children that grew up in town: and
the Perkinses were related by mar
riage to the MOrtons. of whom there
are over fifty living adult descendants
on the TOWNSHIP now. So one begins
TO see why she is called "Aunt" Mar
tina Merryfield. She is literally aunt
to over hundred people here.
She lives alone In the big brick
house on the hill. though her children
and grandchildren are In and out all
day and most of the night, so that
sha Is not at all lonesome. She Is
the only person to whom we can look
for accurate information about local
history. and when a man dies who has
been at oil prominent In affairs Of the
town or cednty or state. we always
call up Aunt" Martha on the phone,
or send a reporter to her. to learn
truth about him.
Aunt Martha used to bring us flow
ers for the office table, and ii was
her delight to sit down and take out
her corn-knife--as she called it-and
go after the town shams. She has
promised a dozen times to write an
article for the paper. which she says
We are not to print, entitled self
Made Women l Have Known" She
says that men were always Dragging
about how they had clerked. worked
on farms. dug bitches and whacked
mules across the plains before the
railroads came; but that their wives
insisted that they were princesses of
the royal blood.
Her particular luminosity In the
town is Mrs. Julia Neal Worthington.
Aunt Martha told us that when Tim
Neal came to town he had a brogue
you could scrape with a knife and an
80" before his name you could hoop
q hogshead with. And that woman"
exclaimed Aunt Martha, when she
was under full sail. that woman, be-
cause she has two bookcases in the
front room ana reads the book re-
views in the Delineator. thinks that
she is cultured. When her folks first
came TO town they were as poor as
Jobs turkey. which was not to their
6iscredit-everyone was poor in those
days. The old man Neal was as hon
est an old Mick as you'd meet in a
days journey. or at a fair, and he
used to run lemonade and peanut
stand down by the bank corner. But
his girls. who were raised on 1t, I'M
til they began teaching school, used
to refer to the peanut stand as pa
pas hobby pretend that he only ran
1t for recreation. and say: Now why
do you srppose papa enjoys Tive
Just cart get him to give 1t up! And
now Julia is president of the Won-
ans federation, has stomach trouble,
has had two operations. and is suf-
fering untold agonies with acute cul-
suritis And yet" Aunt Martha would
say through beatific smile. shes
/, good-enough woman In many ways,
and | wouldn't say anything against
ner for the world"
Once Miss Larrabee, the society
reporter, brought back this from
visit to Aunt Martha: 81 know, my
Hear. that your paper says there are
40 cliques and crowds In society In
this town, and that IL Is so demo
cratic. But you and know the truth.
We know about society in this town.
We know that II there ever was
town that looked Nike a side Of ha-
con-streak of lean and streak OF fat
all the way down-it is this blessed
place. Crowds why. I've lived here
over fifty years and II was always
crowds. Way back in the days wien
the boys used TO pick us up and carry
rs across Elm Greek when we went
to dances, there were crowds. The
girls who crossed on the boys backs
weren't considered quite proper by
the girls who were carried over In
the boys arms And they didn't dance
In the same sci"
Miss Larrabee says she looked Into
he elder woman's eyes to find which
.rowd Aunt Martha belonged 10. when
The flashed out:
"Oh. child. you needn't look AT me
did both: II depended on who was
cooking, But, as was saying. II /
,nyone knows about society IN this /
town do. went 10 every dance |
In town for the first twenty-five years. /
and have made potato salad TO pay |
H. .oisrv NJ eyery Methodist prea cher l