The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-08-21
CHAPTER XII
lis.

Cept Tor cOlOred woman servant sent
from Kansas. She ran the paper
alone. as she wished 1t run. She or
dered the house as she wished 1t. She
very nearly ran the town Of Usage.
She was a power In the territory.
And Yancey was gone, Chm was gone.
Donna was gone. Sabra had refused
to compromise with life, and life had
taken matters out of her hands.
Donna was away at an eastern fin-
fishing school--Aliss DIgnum's on the
Hudson. Yancey had opposed that.
of course II had been Sabra's idea
to send Donna east to school.
"East?" Yancey had said. kansas
City?"
Certainly not"
"0h-Chicago."
II mean New York"
"You're crazy"
II didn't expect you to approve. l
suppose you'd like her to go to an In
dian school, Donna's an unusual girl.
She's not a beauty and never will be,
but she's brilliant. that's what she Is.
Brilliant. / don't mean intellectual.
You needn't smile. mean that she's
got the ambition and the insight and
the foresight, too. Of woman of twice
her age"
I'm sorry to hear that"
aim not. She's like mamma in many
ways. only she's got intelligence and
drive. She doesn't get along with the
girls here-Maurine Turket and Ga
zelle Slaughter and Jewel Riggs and
Czarina Mckee. and those. She's diff
ferent. They go switching up and
down Pawhuska avenue. They'll
marry one of these tobacco-chewing
loafers and settle down like vegeta-
bles. Well. she won't. I'll see to
that"
"Going to marry her of to an east
ern potentate-at fifteen?"
"You walt. You'll see. She knows
what she wants. She'll get It, too"
''Sure 1t isn't you who knows what
you want her to want?"
But Sabra had sent her Off to Miss
Dignum's on diet of prunes and
prisms that even her Highland mighty
old grandmother Felice venable APP
proved.
Gin, walking the prairies beyond
Usage with that peculiar light step Of
his, his eyes cast down; prowling the
draws and sprawling upon the clay
banks of the rivers that ran so red
through the Red Mans territory. said
that he wanted to be a geologist. He
spoke of the Colorado school of mines.
He worked In the Wigwam Office and
hated It. He could pi case OF type
more quickly and completely than
drunken tramp printer. Even Jesse
Hickey. his mournful mustache more
dropping than ever. protested to
Yancey.
"She can't make newspaper man
out of that KID" he said. mot in
million years. Newspaper men are
born, not made. CHM. he just natural
ly hates news, let alone newspaper
Office. He was born without an arm.
or something. You can't grow It If
you haven't got it."
IT know It," said Yancey. YEARLY.
SHELL find way out"
For the first time rival newspaper
hourished In the town of Usage. The
town was scarcely large enough to
support two daily papers, but Yancey's
political attitude so often was at vari-
ance with the feeling of the territory
politicians that the new daily, slipshod
and dishonest though 1t was, and
owned body and soul by territorial In
terests, achieved degree of popu-
larity.
Sabra, unable to dictate the policy
of the Wigwam with Yancey at its
head, had to content herself with the
management Of its mechanical work.
ings and with its increasingly I'M
portant social and club columns.
Usage swarmed with meetings. COM
mittees, lodges, knights of This and
Sisters Of That. The Philomathean
and the Twentieth Century clubs ba-
gan to go in for Civic Betterment, and
no Usage merchant or professional
man was safe from cajoling and I'M
attractive females in shirtwaists and
skirts and eyeglasses demanding his
name signed to this or that petition
with a contribution. Whatever you
feel that you can give. Mr.. Hefner.
OF course, as leading business
man j.
They planted shrubs about the Gin
der-strewn environs Of the Santa Fe
and the Katy depots. They agitated
for the immediate paving of Paw
huska avenue lit wasn't done). The La
dies Of the Eastern Star. The Venus
lodge. Sisters of Rebekah. Daughters
of the Southwest They came into the
Wigwam office with notices to be
printed about lodge suppers and
church sociables. Strangely enough,
they We're likely to stay longer and to
chat more freely IL Yancey and not
Sabra were there to receive them.
Sabra was polite but businesslike to
her own sex encountered In office
hours. But Yancey made himself ut
terly charming. He could no more
help It than he could help breathing.
1t was almost functional with him.
He made the stout. commonplace.