Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-04-22
BY
Ed MA FERBER
90. Doubleday. Pase & Cob
WNU Service.

e"0 muse VI AiddS FOOL, the truck
farmer. It was August Hempel who
mad brought 1t all about; or Julie,
urging aim. This was in September.
/ Higf Prairie school did not open until
the first week in November. In that
region OF truck farms every boy and
girl over six was busy In the fields
throughout the early autumn. Two
years Of this and Selma would be
qualified for a city grade. August
Hempel indicated that he could ar
range that, too, when the time came.
Selma thought this shrewd red-faced
butcher a wonderful man, indeed.
Which he was.
AT forty-seven, single-handed, he
was to establish the famous Hempel
Packing company. At fifty he was the
power in the yards, and there were
Hempel branches in Kansas City,
Omaha, Denver. At sixty you saw the
name of Hempel plastered over pack
ing sheds, factories, and canning
plants all the way from Honolulu to
Portland You read:
Don't Say Ham: Say Hempers."
Hempel products ranged incredibly
from pork to pineapple; from grease
to grape-juice. Something of his
character may be cleaned from the
fact that farmers who had known the
butcher at forty still addressed this
millionaire, at sixty, as Aug. At sixty
five he took up golf and beat his SON.
in-law, Michael Arnold at 1t. A mag
nifcent old pirate, sailing the perilous
| commercial seas of the American '9Os
before commissions, investigations,
aNd inquisitive senate insisted on ap-
plying whitewash to the black flag of
| trade.
Selma went about her preparations
In a singularly clear-headed fashion,
considering her youth and inexperi-
ence. She sold one of the blue-white
diamonds, and kept one. She placed
her Inheritance of four hundred and
ninety-seven dollars, complete, in the
bank. She bought stout, sensible
boots, two dresses, one a brown lady's-
cloth which she made herself, finished
with white collars and cuffs, very neat
(the cuffs to be protected by black
sateen sleeveless, of course, while
teaching); and a wine-red cashmere
(mad, but she couldn't resist it) for
best
She eagerly learned what she could
of this region once known as New
Holland. Its people were all truck
gardeners, and as Dutch as the Meth
erlands from which they or their ia
theirs had come. Many of them had
come from the town Of Schoorl, or
near 1t. Others from the lowlands out
side Amsterdam. Selma pictured 1t
another Sleepy Hollow, replica Of
the quaint settlement In Washington
Irving's delightful tale. Picturing mel
low golden corn fields; crusty crullers,
crumbling oly-koeks, toothsome wild
ducks, sides of smoked beef, pumpkin
pies; country dances, apple-cheeked
farmer girls, she felt sorry for poor
Julie staying on in the dull gray COM
monplaceness Of Chicago.
The last week in October found her
on the way to High Prairie, seated be-
side Klaas Pool in the two-horse wagon
with which he brought his garden stuff
to the Chicago market. Mile after mile
of cabbage fields, jade-green against
the earth. Mile after mile of red cab
bage, rich plummy Burgundy veined
with black. Between these, heaps of
corn were piled-up sunshine. Against
the horizon an occasional patch of
woods showed the last russell and
bronze of oak and maple. These things
Selma saw with her beauty-loving eye,
and she clasped her hands in their
black cotton gloves.
ooh, Mr.. Pooll she cried. "Mr.
Pooll How beautiful 1t is herei"
Klaas Pool, driving his team of
horses down the muddy Halsted road,
was looking straight ahead, his eyes
fastened seemingly on an invisible spot,
between the off-horse's ears. His was
not the kind of brain that acts quickly,
nor was his body's mechanism the sort
that quickly responds to that brains
message. His eyes were china-blue in
a round red face that was covered
with stubble Of stiff golden hair His
round moon of head was set low and
solidly between his great shoulders, so
tnaL as ne began 10 turn IL now, SLOW
~, you marveled at the process and
waited fearfully to hear creak. He
was turning his head toward Selma,
but keeping his gaze on the spot be
tween his horses ears. Evidently the
head and the eyes revolved by quite
distinct processes. Now he faced Sc
lima almost directly. His pale blue eyes
showed incomprehension.
Beautiful" he echoed, In puzzled
interrogation. what is beautiful
Selina's slim arms flashed out from
the swathings of cloak, shawl, and muf
fer and were flung wide in a gesture
that embraced the landscape on which
the late afternoon sun was casting a
glow peculiar to that lake region, all
rose and golden and mist-shimmering,
"Thisl The-the cabbages."
A slow-dawning finn Of fun crept
over the blue of Klaas POOLS stare.
This film spread almost imperceptibly
so that It fluted his broad nostrils, met