The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-08-03


next stopping place The fat boy held
it would be st. Cloud, his adversary.
Melrose; and he was right. The fat
one had been asleep when We were
in st. Cloud, but appeared already to
have forgotten the nap.
Pro and Con ON .sNIain Street,
We wound among Lewis old neigh
bors in Sank Centre no bitterness to-
ward him, but rather, proper pride
think he had given the town unde
sirable advertising, but none charged
him with malice prepense; others ex-
pressed the opinion that the adver-
have been exported to the city's great
benefit. AS elsewhere, some like his
story, some do not Nobody with
whom we talked seemed to regard
Gopher Prairie as being either e por.
more than of any other community
anywhere.
0urself, having made painstaking
inquiry regaraing some points n oi in1
to Estate positively. without fear OF
successful contradiction" that Sauk
Centre was not Lewis model for Co
pher Prairie. In the first place, there
is in the town no family by the name
of Kennicot, and never has peen;
Furthermore, citizens told us that the
pussy willow, the pasque flower, the
buttercup and the plum tree 90 not OF
around Sank Centre. In the nelgn.
borhood of Gopher Prairie. they dld;
for do you not recollect the chapteir
beginning, Came wonderful Week
lures of Carol on walk up the RAJ
road track and into "copse De
side the track she gathered pussy
willows and pasaue flowers, saw c4 the
dren plucking buttercups ana IN the
,copse a plum tree in bloom. There
seems to be plenty of evidence that
the neurotic Carol, whose judicial ia
theirs thin legs "twinkled Whene1es
he drew his daughters on handsled
in Mankato, never lived in Stearns
But Lewis truly did. He was born
in Sank Centre and spent his ooyhooo
one now head miller in flour factory,
i'm nearby town; the other we'll
known surgeon of St. Cloud. The
famous one was not known as SIN
one adopted for reasons best known
to himself. His true name is Harry,
and no Sank Centrean speaks or MIN
by any other-nowadays, at any rate;
him poodle" for reasons best known
to themselves. 1t strikes US as un.
fortunate that the author dld hos
recollect that name and adopt II, =
1 he felt Hasry ery Ws saSmit the opinion
that III. Doodle Lewis would be q
very spiffy name for any sort OF
ahtist. $4,000.
Concerning one who achieves emil
nence, many things are remembered
that would have been Iore1.een
probably, had he remained at nome
and kept. store. The most moss hnvhood
was told us by gentleman VINO was
seated at his Preside Cor perhaps az
rectly in front Of the fire. OF over
a register; we do not preIeno v ve
when Harry came to call on ms
daughter. Also in the room were tne
girls brother, now professor Oh
dentistry at the u nnSedy yyoluntarils
and with pride wore "highwater
rants Harry's trousers were very
short POSSIBLY his thin legs twink.
led, but. at any rate, his appe ea &c
extreme embarrassment, struck the
future dent as funny, and he did not
strive to conceal his emotion put
bawled:. s'Haw-haw. Look Look At at Doc tSe
Youth. being SO ratified. probably.
pain1ull TO " fitness. and that the poor
that he scarcely knew what ne aiu.
opinion that all the pain our infor.
mant suffered from witnessing that
occasion was in his diaphragm.
Spent His Time Reading
Men who were boys with Lewis say
that they don't remember much
about him. He was never any nanI,
Gan omission for which he has been
making amends of late years we
hear), but spent most of his time
reading. He does not, today, very
CLOSELY resemble his photographs, In
which the hair and eyes appeaer dark.
In truth, his hair is red, his eyes
pale blue, and his complexion of the
sort that freckles readily. We have
the profession Of creative writing
are red-or bro p-haired and plue-
eyed.
had brown hair. tinged with red, and
blue eyes: Bill Nye and James Whit
comb Riley were blends; so is Will
liam Allen White; Irwin Cobb is
darker than any of these, but OF the
same order. lot of our humorous
or sandy Completed" We once
mentioned this matter to Charley
Flandrau, himself pink one, ana
were met with Here. squirrels, is
your food" expression. Some guys
not theirn.
we wonder whether, when man
goes far afield and achieves success.
as has Lewis, the home folk annoy
when he, visits the old town. Those
whom we met in Sank Centre seemed
too well-bre to behave in that way,
but then, we didn't meet everybody
who lives there. We know every
body, purity Nigh in our old town,
and some Of them are not over-nice
in their questions and comments
when we appear among them, They
are back slappers, too, and make one
mad with hearty thump before
shouting something OF this sort
wei, hello! | wouldn't hardly
a-knowed We! Hog fat, amt We!
WE'LL and how goes it? Maxim
Twin or jest existin off'n tn interest
of yer debts?" In our old town they
do love to take the expatr1ate down
a peg, as they phrase it. We imagine
what they would do to an old friend
who, like Lewis, had had the effront-
cry to make of his name a house
hold word: Thin as a rail, amt We?
Didn't s'pose you'd demean yerselft
to come back t. this little burg. Want
t. borry some money, or somethin'?
Huh?"
The Mayor Was Out
We missed seeing the mayor of
Sank Centre, who was away on bust
ness-fishing. likely. He is manager
of the Sank Centre flour mill, and
owner, too. for aught we know. He
lives in a large house with full
basement, north of the mill block or
two, and his name it is William
Parker. Asa Wallace, ''the ed.," said
that Lewis and Hendryx, writer of
adventure stories. are not Sank Cen