The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-06-19
CHAPTER v

Cherokees, Creeks. They viewed the
proceedings impassively, their faces
bronze masks in which only the eyes
moved. Later, on their reservations,
with no white man to see and hear,
they would gossip like fishwives; they
would shake with laughter; they would
retail this or that absurdity which,
with their own eyes, they had seen
the white man perform. They would
slap their knees and rock with mirth.
"Great jokers, the Indians" Yancey
had once said, offhand, to Sabra. She
had felt sure that he was mistaken.
They were sullen, taciturn, grave.
They did pot speak; they grunted.
They never laughed.
Holding Gins hand tightly in her
own, Sabra, escorted by Yancey, found
that two chairs had been placed for
them. Sabra glanced shyly about her.
Men-hundreds of men. They were
strangely alike, all those faces; young
old, weather-beaten, deeply scanned,
and, for the most part, beardless. The
Plains had taken them early, had
scorched them with her sun, parched
them with her drought, buffeted them
with her wind, stung them with her
dust. Sabra had grown accustomed
to these faces during the past two
weeks. But the women-she was not
prepared for the women. Calico and
sunbOnnets there were in plenty; but
the wives of Osage's citizenryg had
taken this first opportunity to show
what they had in the way Of finery.
Near Sabra, and occupying one of the
seats evidently reserved for persons
of distinction, was a woman who must
be, Sabra thought, about her own age;
perhaps twenty or twenty-one, fair,
blue eyed, almost childlike in her girl
ish slimness and purity Of contour.
She was very we'll dressed in wine
color silk-wrap henrietta. hustled, very
tightly basqued, and elaborate with
1uting on sleeves and cellar. Dress
and bonnet were city made and very
modish. From Denver, Sabra thought,
or Kansas City, or even Chicago.
Sabra further decided that the man
beside her. who looked old enough to
be her father, must be, after all, her
husband. 1t was in the way he spoke
to her, gazed at her, touched her.
Yancey had pointed him out one day.
She remembered his name because 1t
had amused her at the time: Waltz,
Evergreen Waltz. He was notorious
Southwest gambler, earned his living
by the cards. The girl looked I'M
happy; and beneath that, rebellious.
Still, the sight Of this lovely face,
and of the other feminine faces look
ing out from at least fairly modish
and decent straw bonnets and toques,
gave Sabra glow of reinsurance. I'm
mediately this was quenched at the
late, snowy, and dramatic entrance,
just before Yancey took his place, Of
group of women of whom Sabra had
actually been unaware. AS matter
Of fact, the leader Of this spectacular
group had arrived in Usage only the
day before, accompanied by bevy of
six young ladies.
Usage, since that first mad day
of it's beginning, had had its quota
of shady ladies, but these had been
raddled creatures, driftwood from this
or that deserted mining camp or aban-
doned town Site, middle aged, un-
savory, and doubtless slightly sub
normal mentally.
These were different The leader,
a handsome black-haired woman Of
not more than twenty-five or three,
had taken for herself and her COM
panions such rooms as they could get
in the town. Within an hour it was
known that the woman claimed the
name of Dixie Lee. That she was a
descendant of decayed southern aris-
tocracy. That her blooming COM
panions boosted such fancy nomencla-
ture as Cherry de st. Maurice, Carmen
Brown, Belle Mansero, and the Like.
sharp as knife, had driven bar
gain whereby she was to come into
possession, at a stiff price, of the
building known as the Elite Rooming
House and Cafe, situated at the far
end of Pawhuska avenue, near the
gambling tent; and that she contem-
plated building a house of her own,
planned for her own peculiar needs,
If business warranted. Thus harlotry,
heretofore sordid enough in wrapper
and curling pins, came to Usage in
silks and plumes with a brain behind
it and a promise of prosperity in its
gaudy train.
Dixie Lee, shrewd saleswoman, had
been quick to learn of Sundays meet
ing, and quicker still to see the ad-
vantage of this opportunity for pub
lie advertisement of her business. So
now, at Osage's first church meeting,
in marched the six, with Dixie Lee at
their head making seventh. They
rustled in silks. The air of the close
packed tent became as suffocating
with scent as Persian garden at
sunset. The Woodworking worthy
wives of Usage, in their cheviots and
their faded bonnets and cotton gloves,
suddenly seemed sallow, scrawny, and
almost spectacularly unalluring.
All this Sahra hphald in q Sip1Io