The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-08-09
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Igiving life to little Patricia. From
that moment John Braithwait lived
but for his daughter. And the Yer,
isolation Of his intellectual life
tended to shelter his devotion to hia
ideals.
His contacts with the world had
been limited to occasional visits ia
New Orleans, New York, and other
points where he had attended thea
tres, the opera, been entertained BY
wealthy and apparently circumspect
friends.
Through reading, and the inevi-
table drift Of conversation, he was
fully informed concerning all this
so-called modernism" with its 70.
bellion and destructiveness: its
f1amboyant fouting Of manners and
morals. But it had touched him
somewhat as q foreign war, in
which one has no part "a regret
table fact; but out Of ones province,
He thought Of "moderns'' in the
strict sense. - . sort Of bohemian
class drawn from tho theatre and
other arts. That young people were
more sophisticated than in his
youth, he also knew; but Of this he
approved. Did not the very tsnets
Of his doctrine Of Beauty include
knowledge and freedom? But free
dom which included debassd con-
duct was . phase that had never
even remotely attached itself In his
mind to respectable folk. Certainly
not to his friends nor their children.
His present circumstances had
come about through ono Of natures
curious vagaries. The Braithwait
plantation fronting two miles on
Red River had slowly been eaten
up by the ravenous stream. Til o
mansion house situated several hun
dred yards from the blu6 ct the
time Of young Braithwait's mar
riage, had been moved back once It
great cost before Patricia's birth.
and was again moved shortly after.
ward.
The river had not changed its
course. It simply rose each Spring.
ate into the bluff, and sank back
with the coming Of summer to its
original bed. In his boyhood he had
sat many hours on tho blur in front
Of the house, dangling his feet over
the swiftly flowing water. Patricia,
standing on tho blu6 ~ little girl.
had looked across . waste Of sandy
marsh to the river . half mile
away.
And to sell caving land, once the
fact becomes known, is impossible.
Every planter for miles on each
side Of him, making futile efforts
to sell, had finally, in desperation
and without success, tried to real
ize something BY putting ridiculous. |
" low mortgages on their lands.
They had one and ali been forced
to cit BY and watch the river eat
their substance from under them,
Pamela's father, who had IN |
ofics in Wall Street, alone Of all
the sufferers, had sold. And be had |
found = buyer for Mr.. Braithwait |
"A wealthy banker who wanted 4
plantation for . plaything. The
man. coming down to see the place.
had expressed his entire satisfae.
ton. -. And Mr.. Braithwait had
told him that the land was cavinr. |
well, why haven't you bulkhead- |
ed it," demanded the banker.
THE only bulkheads that would |
be OF any use would be q cement
wall" Mr.: Braithwait replied.
"And that to be Of use would |
have to extend the full length Of |
all the caving land in this section, !
since q wall across the face of one
or two plantations would let the
water In 1T each end"
II see. And that would cost sew.
eral million dollars-with perhaps |
not more than . dozen men inter- |
ested in the project. How fast is it !
caving?"
Mr.. Braithwait told him.
AT that rate your land will all |
be gone In. say, twenty-five years 2"
Unless it stops. Gazing some. |
times stops as suddenly as It starts. |
A change in the course Of the river, ]