The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-07-17
Of money. The committees and the
checks went back as they had come.

OF money. The committees and the
checks went back as they had come.
Sabra noticed that Yancey's hand
shook with perceptible palsy before
breakfast, and that this was more than
ever noticeable as that hand ap-
preached the first drink Of whisky
swallowed before he ate morsel. He
tossed it down as one who, seeking
relief from pain, takes medicine
When he returned the glass to the
table he drew deep breath. His
hand was, miraculously, quite steady.
More and more he neglected the
news and business details of the Wig
wan. He was restless, moody, dis
trait. Sabra remembered with pang
of dismay something that he had said
on first coming to Usage. cd, when
think of those years in Wichita!
Almost five years in one place-that's
the longest stretch I've ever DONE"
The newspaper was prospecting, for
Sabra gave more and more time to it.
But Yancey seemed to have lost in
terest, as he did in any venture once
it got under way.
Even in the courtroom or while adj
dressing meeting of townspeople Yam
cey sometimes would behave strangely.
He would stop in the midst of ford
period At once a creature savage
and overcivilized, the flaring lamps,
the hot, breathless atmosphere, the
vacuous white faces looming up at him
like balloons would repel him. He
had been known to stalk out, leaving
them staring. In the courtroom he
was an alarming figure. When he was
defending local county or Territorial
case they flocked from miles around to
hear him., and the crude pine shack
that was the courtroom would be
packed to suffocation. He lowered
over any jury Of frontiersmen-a be-
hemoth in a Prince Albert coat and
fine linen, his great shaggy buffalo's
head charging menacingly at his op-
ponent. His was the florid hifalutin
oratory of the day, full of sentiment,
hyperbole, and wind But he could
be trenchant enough when needs be;
and his charm his magnetic power,
were undeniable, and almost invari-
ably he emerged from the courtroom
victorious.
Sabra saw more and more to the
editing and to the actual printing of
the Oklahoma Wigwam. She got in
as general houseworker and helper an
Usage Indian girl Of fifteen who had
been to the Indian school and who
had learned some of the rudiments Of
household duties: cleaning dishwash-
ing, laundering, even some of the SIM
pier forms Of cookery. She tended
Donna, as well. Her name was Arita
Red Feather, quiet gentle girl who
went about the house in her calico
dress and mOccasins and had to be
told everything over again, daily.
Isaiah was beginning to be too big for
problem in the household. At the sug-
gestion that he be sent back to Wich-
tia he set up bowling and wailing
| and would not be consoled until both
Sabra and Yancey assured him that
he might remain with them forever.
When Jesse Hickey was too drunk to
stand at the type case and Yancey
was off on some legal matter, he slow
ly and painstakingly helped Sabra to
make possible the weekly issue of the
Oklahoma Wigwam.
Sabra, in a pinch, even tried her
unaccustomed hand at an occasional
editorial, though Yancey seldom failed
her utterly in this department. A
rival newspaper set up quarters across
the street and, for two or three
months, kept up feeble pretense Of
existence Yancey's editorials, during
this period, were extremely personal.
But it was Sabra who held the wom-
en- readers with her accounts of the
veal loaf, coleslaw, baked beans, and
angel-food cake served at the church
supper, and the somewhat touching
decorations and costumes worn at the
wedding of local or county belle.
If, in the quarter of century that
followed. every trace Of the settling of
the Oklahoma country had been lost,
excepting only the numbers OF the
Oklahoma Wigwam, there still would
have been left clear and inclusive
record Of the lives, morals, political
and social and economic workings of
this bizarre community. Week by
week, month by month. the reader
could have noticed in its columns
whatever of progress was being made
in this fantastic slice Of the republic
Of the United States.
Sabra, except for Yancey's growing
restlessness, was content enough, The
children were well; the paper was
prospecting; she had her friends; the
house had taken on an aspect Of COM
fort; they had added another bed