The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1939-03-02

EVen during longtime Illness last year Kept
guests, who might have been long-faced, bright and
CHEEKY. And when Hank Thielen went over to his
house and began playing his favorite tune, which
is of the minstrel show variety, Lynn sang 1t with
great gusto. man like that has an innate sense
Of funninessand for the matter of that is the more
real humorist for he dsdains to prate his troubles
to others troubled There is place-a big
place-for humor like that
Add nominations God Bless America" for the
national anthem at least honorary place In the
istc tar Spangled Banner and let it top the rather
mediocre and rather namby-pamby America, the
Beautiful" Perhaps it was Kate Smiths rendi-
ton that caught the other night For Kate seems
to be who can stay on top without resorting to
cheap publicity. Hates hens seem to be well
off the dust of the road.
Best from the high schools Schoolmaster-Mark
Ingerso who during the worst blizzard of the year.
walked six miles to school because, he put it,
Jaw, didn't want to stay home" -.
Rolling Stones
Perhaps things are darkest when the pale light
of evening is scampering away before the black
shades of night I remember Fay Domke in the last
few months he was in town, working part time in
an uptown store. He itching to go away,
wanderlust tour, to see new places and do new
things. Then came his chance to go to Hawaii
Turning to there is Virgil Sieben just
returning from round the world trip that took him
to far-removed places And then there is brother,
Clifford Domke, out in China. All products of
DeSleSeS
In straightforward defiance of the old that goes
rolling stones gather no moss" these boys and
hundreds like them saw that for them to stand idly
by and watch the world in its sweep leave them
behind, indeed gathering moss-a kind of moss
they didn't for.
Fay's is probably case in point with which I'm
most familiar. Fay and went to school together,
and I remember his saying Charlie, let's go
to South Amerca"-or Australia-or Cape of Good
Hope. 1t mattered little where it was-he wanted
to 60 small town boy, spending earlier years
the farm, Fay stifled here. On the early
days on the farm those Domke boys hiked to town
in the bitterest weather because there some
thing they wanted to do or to see.
Then Fay went to college and along with him
this yearnng to see new places College is strangely
a fosterparent of such notions. He entertained
strongly notion to go to South America at college.
So many college boys do it seems. Tom Fleming
too talking of the lower Americana. Well,
Fays idea of going Latin dissolved, but not the
wanderust itself. And finally his chance to
go to Hawaii. Right up to the last minute he
wouldn't let me break the story. Something might
happen yet. There was no happier day than the
day he left, now sure of an outward bound trip to
Hawaii. -.
At Christmastide, was at the Domke household.
felt emptiness that is present in homes where
families have dissolved at least in personal attend
ance-an emptiness that is as present as the tomb
like stiffness that affects place that gay
and lifeful asked Mrs. Domke if she didn't
them to be happy too. don't want them home to be
fidgetng to be someplace else." The under
standing of parents is patient resignation perhaps
it is the undercurrent of presence that outsiders
wouldn't know of. Fay, she said, has always
entertained laundering to see bits of the world.
So the long Of the small town reaches out
through these young missionaries Small town boys
from every inland hamlet, reach out-gather moss
perhaps-but they throttle the world. They encom-
pass it, what makes it tick, and gather exper-
fences that neither money, nor position, nor kings
themselves, can ever take from them. say to
heck with moss"
South Pine Tragedy
Billy than ordinary kid. He had
reached the ripe old age of nine, ten-no one was
quite sure-and was in fact no longer kid. He
wore with distinction his goatee. You see Billy
could wear such adornment with more flare than
the ordinary, because he a goat. pet of
the Lee Johnson household, down South Pine
Bly's dead-dead from pning love as near as any
one can fathom the antics of the minds of these
dumb creatures.
Buster the dog in the Buster
pet too of the household, and he limped around be-
cause one leg had been broken. Buster and Billy
were pals They romped together, the dog barking
defiance at the goat. Billy his head lowered, play
fully charging the dog. They slept together too
in the barn. Then one day early this winter
Buster dead. He shot when he accompan-
led the Johnson boys a hiking excursion :.
Then Billy became morbid, sulky. He seemed not
his old self. He wouldn't eat And then quietly a
few weeks ago, Billy died. They say the death
Of Buster presaged Billys pining away.
The loss Of pets is funny business It's feel
ing that few who have not owned a dog
some animal I've known people to lose horse,
a dog, or cat and renounce with finality
owning another. Once they've felt the remorse
of losing animal to which they've become bonded
in mute friendshp-the disaster isn't easily courted
a second time. So South Pine, where dogs
abounded once, loses familiar sight. Billys con-
tented expression he closecropped the grass along
the roadway. =.
Coincidence in journalism: On the very day,
February 23rd, that Editor Ed Rathe of this sheet
edtoritemed that Barnum, in his sucker axiom, had
been right and pointed to the Drake swindle-the
on the identical Barnum theme. The Herald
hits homes here in the morning the Star in late
afternoon. -.