The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-12-19
THEY
ARE MADE
THAT
WAY"
By FANNIE HURST
t@. 1880. Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate,

~ EvEREND DOCTOR FLOX
~ and his wife, Deborah, were
somewhat of an incongruOus
pair on the great tranScOnti-
mental flyer known as the California. !"
1t was one of those magnificent.
through-service trains that stopped
only at such major points as Kansas
City and Albuquerque.
It was a train whose chief clientele
was the glittering one of motion pic
ture folks-players. directors, mag
nates-plying their way back and
forth between California and points
East.
The crew of the california" all
possessed autograph books, In which
were written the names of the great
and the near-great ones of the cinema
world, who had travelled on this road
from time to time.
1t was an exciting experience to the
layman to find himself on one of
these journeys. Not only were there
apt to be the great and the near-great
on board, but one was so apt to meet
the charming and oft pathetic picture
of youth, setting out on the great ad-
venture of seeking a career.
The California" was really an adj
venturer that was carrying them into
the unknown.
Reverend Flox and his wife, who
were in the act of transferring their
modest habitat from town called
Emporium, Mo-, to the sun-kissed
slopes of Los Angeles, were scarcely
part of this picture. They were rath-
er dim, gray, timid-looking pair
showing frankly in their faces the
handwriting of time. They were the
last pair in the world you would have
even remotely connected with the
spangled scene of the motion-picture
universe. And rightly. They were
just what they seemed to be, tired
old pair who. at tifty-eight and sixty.
were for the first time in their lives
experiencing freedom from the yoke
of the responsibilities of family, par
ish and duties.
At sixty, Reverend Flox, with a
tiny pension sufficient to sustain him
and his wife in tiny fashion were
bound for the Mecca of California.
His parish, which he had served in
defatigably for thirty-fve years-to
say nothing of the wife who had
served in like fashion beside him-had
sent them with Gods speed to finish
their gentle days in the land of be-
nign sunshine.
They were tired and grateful old
pair.
For twenty years the wife of Rev.
erend FlOx had carried on her slim
shoulders the responsibilities not only
of the sick, the lame and the blind
of her husbands parish, but. within
the confines of their own little home.
the mother of Reverend Flox and the
mother of Mrs. Flox had lived out
their lives. For twenty years Mrs
Flox had waited hand and foot on the
paralytic figure of her mother-in-law,
and had danced devoted attendance
upon the whims and fancies of her
own mother, whose last years had
been clouded by failing mentality.
The old ladies had died within a
week of each other-a QuerulOus, de-
handing pair of little people, filled
with the inconsistencies. the pathos,
the lovableness, and withal the tyran-
MES of the aged
There was no doubt about 1t, there
was more important reason for Rev.
erend FlOx moving to southern Cali
fOrnia than even the frailty of the
reverend doctor himself The long,
exciting years of service and servitude
had worn down the nerves of Mrs.
Flox. Gentle soul, she was tired. So
there were legitimate reasons why
Reverend Doctor Flox decided not to
accept even the part-time position of
rector in small outlying Los An
geles community, but to devote these
last years to the kind of leisure so
necessary to the well-being of them
both.
A strange enough pair to be travel
ing out to the land of sunshine, in the
gaudy company of the cinema world.
And it was natural enough that, dur
ing the long journey, they should drift
into acquaintanceship with the sole
other passenger on board who, in
many ways, seemed to be of their
kind. She was a little white-haired
wren of person, who occupied a
berth opposite theirs. A fussy little
soul with canary-bird in a cage,
profuse and somewhat outlandish lug
gage. and pair Of tiny. nervous feet,
which she kept propped up on the seat
opposite her in pink knitted slippers.
The outstanding note about her was
the quality of her rich. deep hair. 1t