The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-06-12

little at the deviled kidneys. The food
had been patterned as far as possible
after the pale flabby viands served at
English hunt breakfasts and ruined
In an atmosphere Of lukewarm steam.
The women were slim and perfectly
tailored but wore their hunting clothes
trifle uneasily and self-consciously
like girls in their first low-cut party
dresses. Most Of the men had turned
stubborn on the subject of pink coats.
but Captain Stokes-Beatty wore his
handsomely The fox-a worried and
somewhat dejectedlooking, animal
had been shipped in crate from the
South and on being released had way
of sitting socially in an Illinois corn
field instead Of leaping fleetly to cover
AT the finish you had a feeling of
guilt, as though you had killed a cock
roach.
Dirk had told Selma about it, feeling
rather magnificent. A fox hunt.
"a fox hunt! What for?"
"For! Why, what's any fox hunt
for?'
81 can't imagine. They used to be
for the purpose of Kidding a fox-in-
tested country Of nuisance. Have
the foxes been bothering 'em out In
Lake Forest?"
snow mother, don't be funny" He
told her about the breakfast.
"Well, but it's so silly, Dirk. It's
smart to copy from another country
the things that that country does bet.
ter than we do. England does gar
dens and woodf1res and dogs and
tweeds and walking shoes and pipes
and leisure better than we do. But
those luke-warm steamy breakfasts of
theirs! It's because they haven't gas,
most of them. No Kansas or Ne
braska farmers wife would stand for
one of their kitchens-not for minute
And the hired man would balk at such
bacon" She glggled.
"Oh, well. if you're going to talk
like that"
But Dallas O'Mara felt much the
same about these things. Dallas, it mp
peared, had been something of fad
with the North Shore society crowd
after she had painted Mrs Robinson
Gilman's portrait. She had been in
vited to dinners and luncheons and
dances, but their doings, she told Dirk.
had bored her.
They're NICE" she said, shut they
don't have much fun. They're all try
ing to be something they're not. And
that's such hard work. The women
were always explaining that they lived
in Chicago because their husbands
business was here. They all do things
pretty well-dance or paint or ride or
write or sing-but not well enough.
They're professional amateurs, trying
to express something they don't feel;
or that they don't feel strongly enough 4
to make it worth while expressing"
She admitted. though, that they did
appreciate the things that other people
did well. Visiting and acknowledged
writer's, painters, lecturers, heroes,
they entertained lavishly and hospit-
ably in their Florentine or English or
Spanish or French palaces ON the North
side of Chicago. Ill. Especially for
eign notables Of this description.
Since 1918 these had descended
upon Chicago (and all America) like
plague of locusts, starting usually
in New York and sweeping westward.
devouring the pleasant verdure of
greenbacks and chirping as they came.
Returning to Europe. bursting with
profits and spleen, they thriftily wrote
of what they had seen and the result
was more clever than amiable; bear
ing, too, the faint of bad taste.
(TO BE CONTINUED)