The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 18, 1921, Page 17

The Story of Carol Kennicott BY SINCLAIR LEWIS Copyright, 1920, Harcourt, Brace & Howe, Inc. SYNOPSIS OF orm CAROL MILFORD, small Minnes: Deautitying the St. Paul young, Versat of t rol to Gopher Prairie. thought of living attractive, but 4 and finde it Gull and bop BEA SORENSON, the street. To (Continued From Yesterday) nds of They gaVe up trying to be festive;! pought a hot-water bottle—expensive | they began to talk naturafly, as they @id at their shops and homes. The men and women divided, .as they had been tending to do all evening. Carol was deserted by! the men, left to a group of matrons Steadily pattered of children, | and cooks—their own shop | talk, She whs piqued. She remem- Dered visions of herself as a smart| married woman tn a drawing room, fencing with clever men. Her de- Jection was relieved by speculation | a5 to what the men were discussing, im the corner between the piano and the phonograph. Did they rise from these housewifely personalities to a larger World of abstractions and af. fairs? She made her best curtsy to’ Mrs. Dawson; she twittered, “I won't have | My husband leaving me #0 soon! I'm | going over and pull the wretch’s ears.” She rose with a jeune fille bow. She was self-absorbed and selfapproving because she had at tained that quality of sentimentality. She proudly dipped across the room and, to the interest and commenda- tion of all beholders, sat on the arm Of Kennicott’s chair He was gossiping with Sam Clark. Dawson, Jackson Elder of the ming mill, Chet Dashaway, Dave} » Harry Haydock, and Ezra [ \Stowbody, president of the tonic| ke. Ezra Stowbody was a troglodyte. | He had come to Gopher Prairie in| 1865. He was a distinguished bird of | thin nose, turtle) . thick brows, port-wine cheeks, floss of white hair, contemp- ftuous eyes. He was not happy in ‘the social changes of 30 years. Three decades ago, Dr. Westlake, Julius erbaugh the lawyer, Merriman Congregational pastor and Been the arbiters. That ine, law, religion, and finance ~-recognized as aristocratic: four chatting She t determined that the be her it seems lively and Inte eecvecccccccocs| iG INSTALLMENTS enthusiastic, is graduated from a tm tite te & physictan nioott Cakes C ified at the Kennicott's home mid-Victorian and She explores Main street dean, Att me time & Swedish farmer, is exploring Main ting was in town couple days ago? She one, too—two dollars and thirty centa!” “Yaaaaah!" snarled Mr. Stowbody. “Course, She's just like grandad was, Two dollars and twenty it?—two dollars and thirty cents for a hot-water bottle! Brick wrapped up in a flannel petticoat just as good, anyway!" “How's Bila's tonsils, Mr, Stow. body?" yawned Chet Dashaway. While Mr. Stowbody gave a som: atic and psychic study of them, Carol replected, “Are they really tn terested in Ella's tonsils, or even in Ella's esophagus? I wonder if, I could get them away from personal ities? Let's risk damnation and try.” “There hasn't been much labor trouble around here, has there, Mr Stowbody?" she asked innocently, “No ma’am, thank God, we've been free from that, except maybe with hired girls and farm hands. Trouble enough with these foreign farmers; if you don't watch these Swedes they turn socialist or popu Ust or some fool thing on you in a) they have! minute. Of course, if loans you can make em listen to reason. I just have ‘em come into the bank for a talk, and tell ‘em few things. I don’t mind their bei democrats, so much, but I won't stand having socialists around. But thank God, we ain't got the labor trouble they have im these cities. Even Jack Elder here gets along pretty well in the planing mill, don't you, Jack?" “Yep. Sure. Don't need so many | akilied workmen in my place, and jie a lot of these cranky, wage ‘hogging, half-baked skilled mechan. | tes that start trouble—reading a lot of this anarchist lterature and | union papers and all.” “De you approve of union labor?” “Me? I should say not! It's like this: I don't mind dealing with my men if they think they've got any grievances—tho Lord knows what's come over workmen, nowadays— don't appreciate a good job. But i} still, if they come to me honestly, as in cul He by occasionally ap- ie the younger men and by a wintry eye banker none of on their vulgar nti i bi a 34 + lyn. They've been arguing it all| evening") Dave Dyer interrupted to give tid- | ings, “1 tell you that Clara Biggins oe There were Prof. Peerabout's eyeglasses with the big rims| women stuck their combs more firm. ‘Everything went smoothly for awhile in the Land of the Wiggle- ) fins. Cap'n Pennywinkle and Curly, vhis sea-horse, minded the traffic bog it was thickest, and took care the big fishes from the North did not bump into the little fishes _ from the South, and that the big fishes from the South did not get in way of the little fishes from the big fishes {rom know the rest of it. you don’t know, my dears, that reason for such care was that big fish bumps into a tittle @ little fish bumps into a usually one of them disap- man to man, I'll talk things over with them. But I'm not going to "| Wurttemberg. We got started about "| becnuse I had to stop and fill the! Same way, if I don’t like him, he sits. And that's all there to it. I simply can’t understand all these | these fellows are balling up the la- bor situation with, when it's all per fectly simple. They like what I pay That's all fl thig Sara Hetwiggin professors are just about as bad, the whole kit and bilin’ of ‘em are nothing in God's world but so. clalism in disguise! And it's my bounden duty as a producer to resist DVENTURES WINS wor) {hadn't a single minute to spare from his duties to do it. Did you think that the Fairy Queen was the only |person who lost anything! No, in |deed—think of the boats! Folks were so careless about things, and drop- |ping all sorts of belongings over- board. There were Prof. Peer jabout's eyeglasxes with the big rims, and Aunt Fanny Fingerfly’s knitting needles, one of the pair that her [second cousin, Josephine Flat had jsent her from the city, with the green knobs—I mean~ the knitting needies had green knobs, not the city, altho I've seen pictures of cities with green knobs on the buildings, and I've also seen cities in faigy books, with green knobs—there, I her} Never save a cent,| thirty, was! SEATTLE STAR DOINGS OF THE DUFFS HELEN, THERE 1S ONE OF THOSE NEW AUTOMOBILES | WAS TELLING You ABouT! 'S AND HIS FRIENDS every attack on the integrity of American industry to the last ditch. Yes—SIRI" Mr. Elder wiped his brow Dave Dyer added, “Sure! You bet! What they ought to do is simply to hang every one of these agitators, | and that would settle the whole | EVERETT TRUE “~ 1 CAN STAND YOoue PRLTALITY AUST Soe Lona, ANO THAT'S ALL « ANO Unintentional Gallantry WATCH YouR STEP HERE, DEAR? TwiSWT WANT EATEN MAT PIECE WHY-(T DIONT MAKE You Sick, DID rr? i, D9? OUR BOARDING HOUSE , << A son» vast AILS VATHIS OL! HARMONY BOX 2 Atte ~. | i don’t have much time to read.” | check against,” said Sam Clark. | thing, right off. Don't you think 80, doc?” “You bet," agreed Kennicott. trusions and they settled down to the question of whether the Justice of the peace had sent thgt hobo drunk to jail for 10 days or 12. It was a matter not readily determined. TA ve Dyer communicated his ca: adventures on the trail: “Yep. flivver, tored down to New Wurttemberg. That's 43— No, let's see; It's 17 miles to Belldale, and ‘bout six and three-quarters, call it seven, to Tor- yiuist, and it's a good 19 miles from there to New Wurttemberg— 17 and seven and 19, that makes, uh, let me see; 17 and seven ‘e 24 plus 19, well say plus 20, that) makes 44, well anyway, say about 43 oF 44 miles from here to New I get good time out of the seven-fifteen, prov ly seven-twenty,| radiator, and we ran along, keeping up a good steady galt—”" Mr. Dyer did finally, for reasons and purposes admitted and Justified, attain to New Wurttemberg. Once—only onc®&sthe presence of | the alien Carol was recognized. Chet | Dashaway leaned over and said) asthmatically, “Say, wh, have you been reading this serial “Two Out'| in Tingling Tales? Corking yarn! Gosh, the fellow that wrote it cer- tainly can sling baseball slang!” ‘The others tried to look literary. | Harry Haydock offered, “Juanita ts a great hand for reading high-class | stuff, lke “Mid the Magnolias’ by Butts, and/ ‘Riders of Ranch Reckless.’ Books| But me,” he glanced about import- aptly, as one convinced that no other hero had ever been in #0 strange a plight, “I'm so darn busy Just) “I never read anything I can't ‘Thus ended the literary portion of the conversation, and for seven min- utes Jackson Elder outlined reasons for believing that the pike fishing | was better on the west shore of Lake | Minniemashie than on the east—tho| it was indeed quite true that on the east shore Nat Hicks had caught a pike altogether agmirable, The talk went on, it did go on!) Their voices were monotonous, thick, emphatic, They were harshly pomp. ous, like men in the smoking com- partments pf Pullman cars. They | did not bore Carol. They frightened her. She panted, “They will be cor-| dial to me, because my man belongs to their tribe. God help me if 1| were an outsider!” Smiling as changelessly as an! ivory figurine she sat quiescent, | avoiding thought, glancing about | the living room and hall, noting! their betrayal of unimaginative com-| mercial prosperity, Kennicott said, | Dandy interior, eh? My idew of how| a place ought to be furnished. Mod ern.” She looked polite, and ob served the oiled floors, hard wood} staircase, unused fireplace with tiles | which resembled § brown linoleum, | cut glass vases standing upon doi- les, and the barred, shut, forbidding unit bookcases that were half filled with swashbuckler novels and un- read looking sets of Dickens, Kip- ling, O. Henry, and Elbert Hubbard She perceived that even personal ities were failing to hold the party. The room filled with hesitancy as with a fog. People cleared their throats, tried to choke down yawns. The men shot their cuffs and the ly into their back hair, Then a rattle, a daring hope in every eye, the swinging of a door, the smell of strong coffee, Dave Dyer's mewing voice in a triumph- ant, “The eats! They began tovchat- ter. They had something to do. They | could escape from themselves. They fell upon the food—chicken sand. | wiches, maple cake, drug-store ice cream. Even when ¢he food was gone they remained cheerful. They | could go home, any time now, and go to bed! They went with a flutter of coats, chiffon scarfs, and good-byes, Carol and Kennicott walked home “Did you like them?” he asked. “They were terribly sweet to mi “Uh, Carrie You ought to be | The conversation was at last re-| |ileved of the plague of Carol's In sipsy | "Bout a week ago I mo! | | t | THE VIOLIN “Before I left the Fraser,” the first policeman continued, “I got hold of a sort of treasure. “There was in our crowd of goldseekers# a young man who had brought to this country with him a fine fiddle, It seemed that it had been in his family a long, long time, the date in the back of it read 1744, yet the wood looked new; it had had good care, that fiddle, and if it hadn't been worn down where men’s chins had rest- ed on it when they played, you'd never have believed it to be over @ hundred years old. “It was a strange place to find a thing like that, way up there with only the river and the stars and the big trees and a bunch of rough men, and wolves prowling round at night. “Well, this young man (mame was Emory) was leaving like the rest of us, but instead of going South or East he was going on to Caribou and the fiddle had to be left behind, “And I bought it from him for two ounces of gold and carried jt with me to Seattle. “Yesler’s mill was pretty well known by that time (winter of '59 and '60) and I wanted to see it. I'd been told Yesler had a circular \ cH saw, and I'd never seen one, 0 first thing I did was to go to that old mill that stood where Pioneer Square is now. “I walked In and there was George Frye tending the circular saw and at the engine (engine stood exactly why the totem pole Is) was Hinékiey—yes, same man for whom Hinckley building is named.” The old man stopped as if he were going alone awhile back down the tral of the years and he smiled before he took up his story. “There were just 14 women in Seattle when I came,” he said, “and half of them danced and half of them didn't dance. But as soon as they learned there was a fid- dier to be had, they began having dances over a store, and for seven years that fiddle was Seattle's dance musfe. 4 “Where ts It now?"’ Again he smiled. “That fiddle is right here in town; I lent it to the little granddaughter of an old friend of mine, She's using it right along. She's in one of your school or- chestras, I think. I don’t know how fine a fiddle it ix, but it made the music for Seattle's dances in the beginning.” “And that’s that!” said daddy. “Now let's hear how bad men used to be when you were a po- liceman.”” (To Be Continued) wouldn't give her a chance to crit!- cize me.” si “My poor effort to lift up the party! Was I wrong to try to amuse j them?” “No! No! Honey, You were the only up-and coming I didn't mean— circle might have been criticizing her, laughing at her. “Don't, please don't worry!” pleaded. Silence, “Gosh, I'm sorry I spoke about it. he TVE BEEN PLAYIN THIS PAGE 17 BY ALLMAN NO, BUT IF T HADNT GATEN fT I COULD WHEN A WOMAN TELLS By RUTH AGNES ABELING (Copyright 1981 by Beattie Star) CHAPTER LXIV—JOHN AMES IS MENTAL WRECK “I know—John's gone mad!" Lila Ames’ voice was coolaggnd steely. She looked as if she was about | to lose her own reason. “No, it isn’t quite that bad—it is} Just a mild case of collapse and phy- sicians who are attending him think that if he is given the right care he come back,” Tom assured her. ere is he? I must go to him. Lila's words were coming fast, but | | she was composed. Under strain, the | | woman who seemed so like a bit of | thistledown had a remarkable hold on herself. I marvelied at the change which had taken place in her within the past week. “I must see him,” earnestly. “It won't do any good to go rush- ing out there now,” Tom's voice was easy; “he wouldn't know us, not any of us. I have been out today. I was out yesterday. He didn’t know her suffering. “Do you think that by tomorrow you will beable to take an automo: | I just meant— But they were crazy about you. Sam said to me, ‘That little lady of yours is the slickest thing that ever came to this town,’ he said; and Ma Dawson—I didn't hardly know whether she'd like you or not, such a dried-up old bird, but she said, ‘Your bride is so quick and bright, I declare, she just wakes me up. Carol Hked praise, the favor and fatness of it, but she was so en- ergetically being sorry for herself that she could not taste this com: mendation. “Please! Come on! Cheer up!" His lips said it, his anxtous shoulder said it, his arm about her said it, as they halted on the obscure porch of their house. “Do you care if they think I'm flighty, Will?" “Me? Why, I wouldn't care ff the whole world thought you were this or that or anything else. You're my —well, you're my soul!* He was an undefined mass, as solid-seeming as rock. She found his sleeve, pinched it, cried, “I'm glad! bile ride—and would the doctor allow |that going to Mrs. Ames’ it?" Tom was speaking to me. “Why?" I replied in that foolish way women have of answering ques- tions by asking another. But it seemed rather @ strange subject to bring in just then, when Lila had so big a problem, “Because, I thought if you were, we might all drive out together and bring John in—for I think bringing him home is the only thing that will set him straight—bringing him to a real home.” The last came very slowly. “And it will be a real home this time,” Lila promised. “And now, Mrs. Ames, I'd like to talk with you a little while alone.” Tom smiled at me, and then came over to the bed. ‘Tomorrow, dear, perhaps there will be time for our talk.” then was gone. Tomorrow—1I thought. Always nowadays something intervenes, It appeared that Tom thought of me last of all, and like all women in love I pitied myself—though I knew was the finer thing for him to da And then I fell to bh he wanted to talk over with Ames—what could he have to 1 her that I could not hear? ‘Wondering, I went to sleep. Later that afternoon lila into my room. I was sitting on window seat enjoying the of the sun. “I can’t wait until tomorrow, we start to get John,” she said. “Do you know where he is?* sently. . “At a little sanitarium in the try about 20 miles from here, knew what was happening to self. He went alone after Tom the night of the party that he might go," she said. She didn’t have to say that was remorseful. Her voice told He touched my hand and /than words could have told. And then a question which been in the back of my mind morning came to the surface, : ep St Ser it would pain her, i It that T must know. % (To Be Continued) 7 GENUINE for COLDS Warning! Unless you say “Bayer,” you may not get genuine Aspirin prescribed by physicians for 21 years and proved safe by millions. skin, tail, 'n’ all, and it| mean the cities this time, the books | more careful about shocking folks. ” "i R fine, ediims ie Sennen ia tha: bomen Oe fest ae It's sweet to be wanted! You must didn’t fave any knobs. But what lots of er-jam I talking about? Oh, yes, I start- Talking about gold stockings, and about showing your ankles to school out for that, 'f 1 were you. Juanita —- Don't get onto legs and all that immoral stuff. Pretty conserva- tive crowd.’ fone was silent, raw with the Monti Collins and Laura Lavarnie played in the same stock company in 1870, After all these years they are playing together again in “The| house, Man With Tw Mothers,” Alice Dyer Miller's photoplay tolerate my frivolousness. You're all have!" £ He lifted her, carried her into the with her arms about his Accept only an unbroken “Bayer” package which contains : Proper directions not only for Colds, but for Headache, Pain, — Toothache, Neuralgia; Rheumatism, Neuritis, Lumbago. Handy tin boxes of 12 tablete—Botties Ain. Tey of 4