White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-08-27


hood of America" and "orgy rivaling
the Bacchanalian revels of history"
(Yancey's library stood her in good
stead these days) figured prominently.
1t was-this red brick brothel-less
sinister than these good and innocent
women suspected. Dixie Lee, now a
woman Of thirty or more, ruled 1t with
an iron hand. Within 1t obtained GER
tain laws and rules Of conduct so rigid
as to be almost prim. 1t was, in a
way, club, rendezvous, salon.
For hundreds Of men who came there
it was all they had ever known of
richness, of color, Of luxury. Here
they lolled, sunk deep in rosy comfort,
while they talked territory politics,
snapped yarns of the old cattle days,
played cards, drank wines which tasted
like sweet prickling water to their
whisky-scarred palates They kissed
these women, thought tenderly of
many Of them, and frequently married
them; and these women, once married,
settled down contentedly to an almost
SlavlSh dOmeSt1clty.
A hard woman, Dixie Lee; a bad
woman. Sabra was morally right in
her attitude toward her. Yet this
woman, as well as Sabra, filled her
place in the early life of the territory.
The Oklahoma Wigwam had -four
ished in these last five years of Sabra's
proprietorship. She was thinking
seriously of making it daily instead
Of weekly; Of using the entire build
ing on Pawhuska avenue for the news
paper plant and building proper
house fzx herself and the two chill
dren % one of the residence streets
nessly sprung up-streets that boosted
1eatly painted houses and elm and cot
tonwood trees in the front yards.
Some one came up the steps Of the
little porch and into the Office. 1t was
Mrs. Wyatt. "Well!" she exclaimed,
simply, but managing to put enormous
bite and significance into the mono
syllable. Her glance followed Sabra's.
Together the two women, tight Tipped,
condemnatory, watched the gay parade
of Dixie Lees girls go by.
The flashing company disappeared.
A Whit of patchouli foated back to
the two women standing by the open
window. Their nostrils lifted in dis
dain. The sound of the horses hoofs
grew fainter.
tits disgrace to the community
Mrs. Wyatt's voice took on it's plat
form note-"and an insult to every
wife and mother in the territory
There ought to be law"
Sabra turned away from the win.
dow. Her eyes sought the orderly
rows of books, bound neatly in tan
and red-Yancey's law books, SO long
unused now, except, perhaps, for occa-
sional newspaper reference. Her face
set itself in lines of resolve. per.
haps there is"
A man like Yancey Cravat-spec-
! tacular, dramatic, impulsive-has 8
| thousand critics, scores Of bitter enc
mics. AS the weeks had gone by and
Yancey failed to return-had failed
to write-rumor, clouded by scandal
leaped like prairie fire from house te
house in Usage, from town to town IL
| the Oklahoma country, over the South
west, indeed. All the old stories were
| revived, and their ugly red tongues
licked sordid path through the new
ly opened land.
| They say he Is living with the
| Cherokee sQuaW who Is really his
wife.
They say he was seen making the
Run in the Kickapoo land opening III
1895.
They say he killed a man in the
Cherokee Strip Run and was caught
by posse and hung.
They say he got section Of land
sold it at high figure, and was seer
lording it around the bar of the Brown
Palace hotel in Denver, in his whit,
sombrero and his Prince Albert coat.
They say Dixie Lee is his real wife
and he left her when she was seven
teen, came to Wichita, and married
Sabra venable; and he is the one wht
has set Dixie up in the brick house.
They say he drank five quarts O
| whisky one night and died and il
buried in an unmarked grave il
Horseshoe ranch, where the Doolil
gang held forth.
They say he is really the leader o
the Doolin gang. They say. The.
say. They say.
1t is impossible to know how Sabr;
survived those first terrible weeks tina
heightened into months that length
ened into years. There was in her tn
wiry endurance Of the French Marcys
the pride of the southern Venables
She told herself that Yancey wa
dead. She told the world that he wa
dead. She knew, by some deep an
unerring instinct, that he was alive.
She ran the paper competently
wrung from it decent livelihood TO
herself and the two children. Whe
it had no longer been possible to kee
secret from her parents the fact Q
Yanceys prolonged absence, Felic
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