The Seattle Star Newspaper, November 17, 1921, Page 13

em _PTHURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1921, a THE SEATTLE STAR PAGE 13 Se “MAIN STREET The Story of Carol Kennicott BY SINCLAIR LEWIS Copyright, 192¢, Harcourt, Brace & Howe, Ine. tinued From Yesterday) Second. I just wondered if you} m, could possibly have thought that 1/ People who hemmed her in | didn't eat. the onions this noon be been brilliantly reinforesd by | cause I didn't think they were prop | and Mra Whittier N. Smail-.|¢rly cooked, but that waan't the | mett's Uncle Whittler and Aunt |Teason at all, it wasn't because 1| didn’t think they were well cooked, | true Main Streetite defines a/ I'm sure that Svarsuing “in Seat | 4s a person to whose house | house is always very dainty and! # uninvited, to stay as long , Piece, tho I do think that Oscarina lke, If you hear that Lym|ls careless about some things, she | on his journey Bast has spent | doesn’t appreciate the big wages | is time “visiting” in Oyster Cen. | You pay hey, and she is #0 cranky, all M does not moan that he pre-| these Swedes are #o cranky, I don’t that village to the rest of New | feally see why you have a Swede, | i. but that he has relatives | but— Rut that wasn't it, I didn't It does not mean that he has | éat them not because I didn't think | to the relatives these many} they weren't cooked proper, it was | hor that they have ever given |Just—I find that onions don't agree of a desire to look upon him, | With mé, it’s very strange, ever since “you wouldn't expect a man to}! bad an attack of biliousness one spend good money at a hotel| time, [ have found that onions, | ion, when his own third| either fried onions or raw ones, and| live right in the same stato,| Whittier does love raw onions with | ur vinegar and sugar on them—" the Smails sold their cream. | It was pure affection orth Dakota they visited! Carol was discovering that the one Smail's sister, | Kennicott's| thing that can be more disconcert- Mher, at Lac-quiMeurt, then plod.|ing than Intelligent hatred is de- Bon to Gopher Prairie to stay | Manding love. their nephew. They appeared! She supposed that ounced, before the baby was | #Tacefully dull and standardised in took thetr welcome for grant.| the Smatis’ presence, but they scent- and immediately began to com.|* the heretic, and with forward. of the fact that their room | *tooping delight they sat and tried | north, to drag out her ludicrous concepts | Whittier and Aunt Beastie! for their amusement. They wer a that it was their privilege | tke the Sunday-afternoon mob star. | tives to laugh at Carol, and|!M@ at monkeys in the Zoo, poking duty. as Christians to let her | fingers and making faces and gig: | how absurd her sling at the resentment of the more! THREE WEEKS! WELL, THAT'S SOME DEVOTION! . NO, HE'S GOT | OH. MRS DUFF | WANT To RHEUMATISM! ' s] MAKE A COCOANUT CAKB HELLO MRS. BAILE 13 YOUR HUSBAND OUT | HE'S Home OP “TOWN? | HAVEN'T SEEN HIM LATELY! AND SAY, 1 WONDER IF You'D LET MB HAVE A COUPLE OF EGGS AND A CuP OF FLOUR Too? YOu HAVE THE COCOANUT, MRS BAnLey ? WELL, 1 KNOW, BUT HED BE JUST 7 FELLA T’ BU TH LINE * GEBWHIZ, ALEK <— WE WANT SOMEBODY MAT KIN KNOCK 'EM NER S$’ QUICK THEY WON'T KNOW WHAT You KIN JoIN MY ‘TEAM RED, IF VA DLAY LIKE THAT ALL TH TIME ! WEY, FRECKLES, WANT RED oN OUR HERE'S RED TEAM UE CANT PLAY FOOT BALL. 0 was being . ¢ “notions” They objected to the food, to ina’s lack of friendliness, to the Bd. the rain, and the immodest y | Carol's maternity gowns. They streng and enduring: for an at a time they coukt go on juestions about her father's about her theology, and the reason why she had not on her rubbers when she had o the street. For fussy on they had a rich, full ge and their example developed in cott a tendency to the same of affectionate flaying. Carol was so indisereet as to ur that she had a small head » instantly the two Smaile and it were at it. Every five , every time she sat down or or spoke to Oscarina, they et. “Is your head better now? does it hurt? Don't you keep tshorn in the house? Didn't you too far today? Have you tried horn? Don't you keep some in hous® so it will be handy? Does better now? How does it ? Do your eyes burt, too? What do you usually get to bed? As as that? Well! How does it now? her presence Uncle Whittier if she didn’t go end. to all these bridge whist some care of her- kept commenting, ‘ing, commenting. question. it her determination broke and | bleated. “For heaven's sake, % discuss it! My head's all listened to the Smafie and ott trying to determine by ties whether the copy of the which Aunt Bessie want- send to her sister in Alberta, to have two or four cents on it. Carol would have it to the drug store and it, but then she was a + while they weré practical fas they frequently admitted). dignified race. With a loose-tipped, superior, vil “What's thie I hear about your thinking Gopher Prairie ought to be jan tore down and rebuilt, Carrie? |T don’t know where folks get these | new-fangled ideas. Lots of farmers [in Dakota getting ‘em these days. About co-operation. Think they can — stores better. 'n storekeepers! duh! “Whit and I didn't need no co-op. eration as long as We was farming!" triumphed Aunt Bessie. “Carrie, se your old auntie now: don't you fart go to church on Sunday? You do go sometimes? But you ought to go every Sunday! When you're matter how smart folks think they are, God knows a whole lot more than they do, and then you'll realize and be glad to go and listen to your pastor! ¢ In the manner of one who has Just beheld a two-headed calf they repeated that they had “never heard such funny ideas! They were stag. | fered to learn that a real tangible person. living in Minnesota, and married to thelr own flesh-and-blood relation, could apparently believe that divorce may not always be im | moral; that illegitimate children do [not bear any special and guaran. | teed form of curse; that there are lethical authorities outside of the Hebrew Bible; that men have drunk wine yet not died in the gutter; that the capitatintic system of distribu. | tion and the Baptist wedding-cere. Mony were not known in the Gar- den of Eden; that mushrooms are as edible m= corn-beef hash; that the | word “dude” is no longer frequently | used: that there are Mintsters of the [Gospel who accept evolution; that some persons of apparent. inteili- gence and business ability do not al | Ways vote the Republican tirket | straight: that it te not a universal jeustom to wear scratchy finnnels next the skin In winter; that « violin is not inherently anore immoral than |@ chapel organ: that some poets do they sought to evolve the postal| not have long hair; and that Jews if Carol was from their inner consciousness, combined with entire fran! in thinking aloud, was their of settling all problems. Smaiia did not “believe in all nonsense” about privacy and ce. When Carol left a letter You ought to go writing a letter to a mate, or plaming the week's us, she could be certain that unt Bessie would pup in and titter, don't let me disturb you, I just d to see where you were, don't I'm not going to stay ofly a |are not always pediers or pants makers, “whi does she get al them the'ries?" marveled Uncle Whittier |} Smail; while Aunt Bessie inquired, “Do you suppose there's many folks got notions like hers? My! If there are,” and her tone settled the fact that there were not, “I just don’t know what the world’s coming to!” Patiently— more or less — Carol awaited the exquisite day when they would announce departure. After [three weeks Uncle Whittier re. marked, “We kinda like Gopher Prairie. Guess ubybe we'll stay here. We'd been wondering what 'd do, now we've sold the cream- ery and my farms. So I had a talk with Ole Jenson about his grocery, and I guess I'll buy him out and storekeep for a while.” “Throw it away,” said Mr. Nautilus, mysteriously © queer-looking eréature that ey and Nick had discovered look- pretty sour when he heard that was his house and not himself that incy admired. “Humph," ecletins. ‘Oh, we've heard ok u he grunted. ‘House! t kind of a house do you think have if 1 didn’t build it? I'm prize builder of the Land of the I'm Mr, Sautilus.” of you,” said “len't there @ poem about ” believe so,” answered Mr, Nau- ancy, curiously, “Your hotise looks lovely and smooth and perfect, it finighed?”" 's never finished,’ ‘answered Mr itilus, “Every Uttle while I build w room Jarger than the last one. then I Jock the door of the old and live in the new room. My ise is made up of locked rooms,” “Like Blue Beard's house,” whis- d Nancy. “And do you bide the | “Throw it away,” said Mr, Nauti- |lus, mysteriously. “What is gone is | gone. What Is closed is closed,” “But what do you keep in your locked rooms?’ persisted the little |girl. She was a8 curious as Blue Beard's last wife, “It's a secret,” whispered the nau | tus, mysteriously. Suddenly an idea occurred’to both ‘Twins at the same instant. Could Mr. Nautilus be hiding wicked Mr. Hermit Crab? Was it possible? The white pearly door into the old room was not quite «hut. Why was Mr. Nautilus hurrying so to close it? “Come, Nancy,” whispered Nick, |"Let’s go in and find out what's there,” Before Mr. Nautilus could stop |them, in they scampered, for, just jas Cap'n Pentywinkle had said, their | Green Shoes could and did make them as little as pepper-corns, (To Be Continued) (Copyright, 1921, by Seattle Star) as old as I am, you'll learn that no} lage smile Uncle Whittier hinted, | He did. Carol rebelled. Kennioott soothed jher: “Oh, we won't #ee much of |them. ‘They'll have their own house.”" She resolved to be so chilly that they would stay away. But she had [no talent for conscious Insolence. | They found a house, but Carol was never safe from their appearance with a hearty, “Thought we'd drop lin this evening and keep you from | being lonely. Why, you ain't had | them curtaing washed yet!” tnvari ably, whenever she was touched by | the realization that it was they who were lonely, they wrecked her pity: | ing affection by commente—ques- tions —comments—advice, ‘They immediately became friendly | with all of their own race, with the |Luke Dawsons, the Deacon Pier } sens, and Mrs, Bogart; and brought jthem along in the evening. Aunt Bessie was a bridge over whom the |older women, bearing «ifta of coun jsei and the ignorance of experience, | poured into Carol's island of reserve. | Aunt Bessie urged the good Widow Bogart. “Drop in and see Carrie real often. Young folks today don't un- derstand housekeeping like We do.” Mrs. Bogart showed herself per: | fectly willing to be an associate rela- tive, | Carol was thinking up protective | insult» when Kennicott’s mother | came down to stay with Brother Whittier for two months, Carol was fond Mre. Kennicott. She could) not eafry out her insults. ! She felt trapped. } She had been kidnaped by the town. She was Aunt Beasie’s niece, and she was to bea mother. She |was expected, she almost expected | herself, to sit forever talking of ba- bies, cooks, embroidery stitches, the! price of potatoes, and the tastes of husbands in the ‘matter of spinach She found a refuge in the Jolly | Seventeen. She suddenly understood that they could be depended upon to laugh with her at Mrs. Bogart, and the now saw Juanita Haydock's gos sip not as vulgarity but as galety| and remarkable analy Her life had changed, even before | Hugh appeared. She lqeked forward | |to the next bridge of the Jolly Sev. | lenteen, and the security of whisper. ing with her dear friends Maud Dyer jand Jusnita and Mre. McGanum, She was part of the town. Ita | philosophy and its feuds dominated | her. ur She waa no longer irritated by the cooing of the matrons, nor by their opinion that diet didn't matter #0 long as the Little Ones had plenty of lace and moist kisses, but she) concluded that in the care of babies, as in polities, Intelligence was # perior to quotations about pansies, Bhe liked best to talk about Hugh | to Kennioott, Vida, and the Bjorn. | stams. She was happily domeatic| when Kennicott sat by her on the| floor, to watch baby make faces, She was delighted when Miles, speaking as one man to another, | admonished Hugh, “T wouldn't stand | them skirts if 1 was you. Come on. | Join the Make ‘em give you pants As a parent, Kennicott was moved to establish the first child-welfare week held in Gopher Prairie, Carol helped him weigh babies and exam- ine their throats, and she wrote out! the diets for mute German and Scandinavian mothers. The aristocracy of Gopher Prairie, even the wives of the rival doctors, took part, and for several days there was community spirit and much up- lift. But this reign of love was over: thrown wherthe prize for Rest Baby was awarded, not to decent parents! but to Bea and Miles Bjornstam! The good matrpns glared at Olaf Bjornstam, with his blue eyes, his haney-colored hair, and magnificent back, and they remarked, “Well, Mrs, Kennicott, maybe that Swede brat Is ae healthy as your husband says he is, but let me tell you I hate to think of the future that awaits | any boy with a hired girl for a mother and an awful irreligious so- cialist for a pat” She raged, but so violent wag the current of their respectability, #0 union and strike, ning to her with their blabber, that whe was embarrassed when she took Hugh to play with Olaf. She hated herself for it, but she hoped that no one saw her go into the Bjorm stam shanty. fhe hated herself and) i the town’s indifferent eruelty when she saw Bea's radiant devotion to both babies alike: when she saw Miles staring at them wistfully, He had saved money, had quit} ti Elder's planing-mill and started a| ti dairy on a vacant lot near hia shack, He wae proud of his three cows and sixty chickens, and got up nights to nurse them. ¥ “Tl! be a big farmer before you can bat an eye! I tell you that young feliow Olaf is going to go East to college along with the Hay: dock kids. Uh— Lots of folks drop ping in to chin with Bea and me now, Say! day! tir HELLO, GvuErert 1 way THe Ax POTORISTS MAYES occuRREeD ¢ ar Page 523 AN IDOL, (Chapter ID "00-00-00" said David, “I'd like to have been there; didn’t you stay out on the bluff and watch it just about all of the time?* ‘The little-lady-with-white - curls shook her head and put her hand to her forehead as if she were thinking hard. “Just wait a min- ute,” she said, gently, “You'll have to be careful or you will get me mixed up. You see, one thing brings another in my memory, and I forgot that you don’t know what happens tn between. "You see, my father did not stay in Oregon City véry long. After atime he built a frame house out on his claim about two and @ half miles from the town, and we moved out there, “So I was living that two and a half miles back from the rive: at the time of the flood, “But that wasn’t much of a walk for a little pioneer, and one morning after the water had gone down and left the banks strewn with wreckage of all sorts, I was idly wandering along ,on the sandy bank below the persistent Waw Aunt Bessie in run: |§ vores Ma Bogart come in one She was— 1 liked the old lady And the mill foreman comes n right along. Oh, we got lots of friends. You bet!" Iv Tho the town seemed to Carol to change no more than the surround- ing fields, there was a constant shift. ing, these three years, The citizen of the prairie drifts always westward, It may be because he is the heir of ancient migrations—and it may be because he finds within his own spirit #o little adventure that he ts driven to seek it by changing his horizon, ‘The towtis remain unvaried, yet the individual faces alter like classes in college, Tho Gopher Prai- Seattle * + Sd lcland— + bluff, Just looking among the drift to see what I could find. “TI walked back and forth sev- eral'times before I found anything which looked interesting, then I came upon the idol. “There it sat, a great stone rab- it with clipped ears, worn and washed by long years of rain, and flood, and drifung sand. “Before it were two hollowed stone bowls with crude stone pestles in them. Rabbit and bowls ‘were half buried in the sand, the flood had washed away only enough to allow one to see their tops. “I dropped to my knees and be gan to dig; curiosity Jent strength "to my arms afd the sand fairly flew, and after working till my forehead was damp and my shoulders ached, I stood up and looked at Thy find. “A stone rabbit!” I said to my- self. “And he's mine ‘cause I found him, I am going to have him in the front yard. And off I started for help., ‘ (To Be Continued) betiathal rie jeweler sells out, for ho discern: ible reason, and moves on to Alberta or the state of Washington, to open @ shop precisely like hig former one, in a town precisely like the one he has left. There is, except among pro- fessional men and the wealthy, small permanence either of residence or occupation, A man becomes farmer, grocer, town policeman, garageman, restaurant-owner, postmaster, insur. ance-agent, and farmer all over again, and the community more or less patiently suffers from his lack of knowledge in each of his expert- ments, . Ole Jenson the grocer and Dahl the butcher moved on to South Da- kota and Idaho. Luke and Mrs. Dawson picked up ten thousand SAY EGGPLANT= I WISH You'D LAY OFF THIS OPEN WINDOW PELISH TRYIN' TO SLEEP ACT= 1 Dowty WA ROOM FULL OF GALE* LIKE BEING SIDE A BY AHERN =a <i) AND’ YoU WERE TH’ GUY THAT WAS I “H' AVIATION CORPSE, EH? HOW DID YOU STAND TH’ AIR THEN 2 © LEAVE IT OPEN! No WONDER You Confessions of a Movie Star (Copyright, 1931, Seattle Star) CHAPTER XIII—ROSE’S CHATTER WORRIES ME START HERE TODAY May Beott, young movie actrens, tells the story, She is engaged in vee. | e picture, “Love in Leash.” Her leading fan, Cyfua Bheldon, is in love with her, The = Dick Barnes, in—ehe feels certain I went to the studios, next morn- ing, In great depression. I had not told Motherdear about what had happened the day before. If Jimmy Alcott was determined to remain dead to old friends, it was not for me to resurrect him. Rose-—-Mrs, Algernon Montilion in the cast—Mrs. Henry Larkin at home—dropped into my dressing room to talk while I made up. Some- times I think she's horrid, but I am as nice to her as I know how to be, because, once upon a time when I most needed help, she was good to me, Rose is nearer 60 than 40, and the grand little gossip collector of the crowd, She's old—but how she can act! * I was slipping into my riding habit and boots—it was for an in- terior introduction to exteriors we were going to shoot the week follow- ing—when, without any obvious rea- son, Rose observed: “Dear me! Dear met I feel so sorry for th. directors! When a woman is young and beautiful, she can't act! And when she is as as I, and has learned to act, she's lost her good looks! Just give my throat-line the once over!” T cast a quick glance at her, I couldn't stop to talk, I was shaping a Cupid's bow with a@ lip stick and had to be careful. . I aimost fancied Rose was slam- ming me. Was she implying that 1 jcould not act? Then how did she suppose I had risen to stardom? Perhaps she caught the meaning of my glance, for she hurried on with other shop talk. It was about MeMasters, dur producer. “He's just bought a villa for Aline Gilliard over on the lake,” she averred, “Henry heard about it.” Henry Larkin, Rose Montillon’s husband, does comedy excellently. He bas been on the stage 30 years, but still he can make up like a lege freshman. He can d history of everybody in the spealt-— ing and the silent drama. grouch, says my old man. You see, Henry was telling some of the boys how McMasters has boasted that he can get any girl he picks out! And Dick Barnes asked, ‘You mean that's why McMaster’s stars reach the zenith so young? A “That's about the size of ft,* Henry admitted. “Henry Says Barnes got on his tit, ear, called somebody a cad, and tore off. Dick will have to mend his mam ners, Henry says, Can't be snippy in this company. What cause has he got to get peeved because Me Masters has pets and pushes ‘em om fast? Say, dearie, how long have_ you been starring? Not two years. yet, I do believe!” Rose smiled—but I felt like scowh Somehow her gossip made me acres of prairie soil, in the magic portable form of a small check book, and went to Pasadena, to a bunga- low and sunshine and cafeterias, Chet Dashaway sold his furniture and undertaking business and wan- dered to Los Angeles, where, the Dauntless reported, “Our good friend Chester has accepted a fine post tion with a real-estate firm, and his wife hag in the charming social cir. cles of the Queen City of the South: westland that same popularity which she enjoyed in our own society set Rita Simons was married to Terry Gould, and rivaled Juanita Haydock as the gayest of the Young Married Set. But Juanita adeo aequired mer: it. Harry's father died, Harry be: came senior partner in the Bon Ton Store, and Juanita was more acidu lous and shrewd and cackling than ever, She bought an evening frock, and exposed her collar-bone to the wonder of the Jolly Seventeen, and talked of moving to Minneapolis. To defend her position against the new Mrs. Terry Gould she sought to attach Carol to her fhetion by gig: gling that “some folks might call Rita innocent, but I've got a hunch that, she isn’t half as ignorant of things as brides are supposed to be —and of course Terry isn’t one-two- three as a doctor alongside of your husband.” 4 Carol herself would gladly have followed Mr, Ole Jenson, and mi- grated even to another Main Street: ew eunnas flight from familiar tedium to new tedium would have for a time the outer look and promise of adventure, able medical advantages of Montana and Oregon. She knew that he was satisfied with Gopher Prairie, but it gave her vicarious hope to think of going, to ask for railroad folders at the station, to trace the maps with @ restless forefinger. Yet to the casual eye she was not discontented, she was not an ab- normal and distressing traitor to the faith of Main Street, The settled citizen believes that the rebel is constantly in a stew of complaining and, hearing of a Carol Kennicott, he gasps, “What an aw. ful person! She must be a Holy Terror to live with! Glad my folks are satisfied with things way they. are!’ Actually, it wis not so much as five minutes a day that Carol de- voted to lonély desires. I¢ is proby able that the agitated citizen has within-his circle at least one inarticu- late rebel with aspirations as way- ward as Carol's, The presence of the baby had made her take Gopher Prairie and the brown house seriously, as nat- ural places of residence, She pleased Kennicott by being friendly with the complacent maturity of Mrs, Clark and Mrs. Elder, and when she had often enough been in conference upon the Elders’ new Cadillac car, er the job which the oldest Clark She hinted to Kennicott of the prob- | day. ——— boy had taken in the office of the flour-mill, these topics became im. portant, things to follow up day by. With nine-tenths of her emotion concentrated upon Hugh, she did not criticize shops, streets, acquaint+ ances... this year or two. She hurried to Uncle Whittier’s store for & package of corn-flakes, she abe stractedly listened to Uncle Whit tier’s denunciation of Martin Ma» honey for asserting’ that the wind last Tuesday had been south and not southwest, she came back along streets that held no surprises, nor the startligg faces of strangers, Thinking of Hugh’s teething all the )) way, she did not reflect that this” store, these drab blocks, made up all her background, She did her work, and shé triumphed over winning from the Clarks at five hundred. ~ Vv The most considerable event of the two years after the birth of Hugh occurred when Vida Sherwin re | signed from the high school and wag’! married. Carol was her attendant, and as the wedding was at the Epis © copal Church, the women wore © new kid slippers and long white kid gloves, and looked refined, i For years Carol had been little sister to Vida, and had never in the least known to what degree Vida’ loved her and hated her and in cue tious strained ways was bound t her, (Continued Tomorrow)