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Show Thursday, July 30, 1931 THE MIDVALE JOURNAL CIM By EDNA FERBER THE STORY Yancey CraYat, just returned from the newly opened Indian territory, relates his experiences to a large gathering of the Venable famlly. Yancey Ia married to Sabra Venable; Ia a criminal lawyer and editor of the Wichita \Vigwam. When the Run started, Yancey had raced his pony against the thoroughbred mount of a girl. The girl"a horse was injured and when Yancey stopped to shoot It she grabbed his pony and got the land Yancey wanted. Yancey announces he Is going back to the Oklahoma. country with Sabra and their four-yearold aon, Cimarron. They make journey In two covered 1the wagons. They arrive a.t Osage, where Yancey Intends to start a newapaper. Yancey Is determined to lind out who killed Editor Pe~r ler of the New Day. Preparations for the publication of the Oklahoma Wigwam are completed. Yancey consent• to condnct divine worship on Sunday. During the services Yancey announces he has learned who kllled Pegler. He stoops In time to escape a bullet tired by Yountia. Still stooping, Yancey ahoots and kills Yountls. Then he announces that Tountla killed Pegler. Sabra's aecond chlld, Donna, Ia about three vears old when she returns to wichita for her ftrst vlolt. Yancey frustrates a bank robbery and kills two desp~radoes. Yancey urges Sabra to Join him In the Run at the opening of the Cherokee strip. She refus~s. 0 Copyrltrht by Edna Ferber. WNU Servlc.. Sabra Cr:1vat, mentioning no names, had had an editorial about It in which the phrases "Insult to the fair womanhood of America'' and "orgy rivaling the Bacchanalian revels of history" (Yancey's library stood her In good stead these days) figured prominently. lt was-this red brick brothel-less sinister than these good and Innocent women suspected. Dixie Lee, now a woman of thirty or more, ruled It with au Iron hand. Within It obtained certain laws and rules of conduct so rigid as to be almost prim. It was, In a way, a club, a rendezvous. a salon. For hundreds of men who came there It was all they had ever known of richness, of color, of luxury. Here they lolled, sunk deep In rosy comfort, while they talked territory politics, awapped yarns of the old cattle days, played cards, drank wines which tasted Uke sweet prickling water to their whisky-scarred palates. They kissed these women, thought tenderly of many or them, and frequently married them; and these women, once married, settled down contentedly to an almost slavish domesticity. A hard woman, Dixie Lee; a bad woman. Sabra was morally right In her attitude toward her. Yet this woman, as well as Sabra, filled her place in the early life of the territory. CHAPTER VII-Continued The Oklahoma Wigwam had flourIshed In thesP. last five years of Sabra·s -11She was thinking Sabra's farewell was Intended to be proprietorship. cold. Her heart, she told herself, was seriously of making It a dally Instead breaking. The change that these last of a weekly ; of using the entire bull d:tour years had made In her never was Ing on Pawhuska avenue for the newspaper plant and bulldlng a proper more apparent than now. "You felt the same way when I went house for herself and the two chiloff to the first Run," Yancey reminded dren on one of the residence streets ber. "Remember? You carried on newly sprung up-streets that boasted just one degree less than your mother. neatly painted hou!les and elm and cot.l.nd If I hadn't gone you'd st!11 be tonwood trees In the front yards . Some one came up the steps of the living In the house In Wichita, with your family smothering you In South- little porch and Into the office. It was ern tried chicken and advice." There Mrs. Wyatt. "Well!" she exclaimed, was much truth In this, she hac to ad- simply, but managing to put enormous bite and significance Into the monomit. Sbe melted; clung to him. syllable. Her glance followed Sabra's. ''Yancey ! Yancey !" .. Smile, sugar. Walt till you see Together the two women, tight lipped, Ctm and Donna, five years from now, condemnatory, watched the gay parade of Dixie Lee's girls go by. riding the f'ra,·nt acres." The flashing company dlsap!Ji!ared. After all, a hundred other men In' Osage were going to make tbe Chero- A whifl' of patchouli floated back to kee Strip Run. The town-the whole the two women standing by the open territory-had talked of nothing else window. Their nostrils lifted In disdain. The sound of the horses' hoofs fer months. grew fainter. She dried her E'yes. She e'\'en man"It•s a disgrace to the communlty"aged a watery smile. He was making the Run on a brllliant, wild-eyed mare l\Irs. Wyatt's voice took on Its platnamed Cimarron, with a strain of form note--"and an Insult to every Span! h In her for S!Ji!ed and grace, wife and mother in the territory. and a strain of American mustang for There ought to be a law." Sabra turned away from the winendurance. The start was made shortly after sunrise so as to make progress dow. Her eyes sought the orderly before the heat of the day. But a rows of hooks, bound neatly In tan cavalcade awoke tht>m before dawn and red-Yancey's law books, so long with a rat-a-tat-tat of six-shooters and unused now, except, perhaps, for occaa blood-curdling series of cowboy yip~. sional newspaper reference. Her face The escort rode with Yancey and the set itsel! In lines of re olve. "Perothers for a distance out on the plains. haps there is." A man like Yancey Cravat-specSabra, at the last minute. had the family horse b.ttcbed to the buggy, tacular, dramatic, Impulsive--has a bundled Clm and Donna In with her, thousand critics, scores of bitter eneand Isaiah hanging on behind, some- mies. As the weeks had gone by and how-the prim little vehicle bUm!Ji!d Yancey failed to return-had failed and reeled Its way over the prairie to write--rumor, clouded by scandal, road in the wake of the departing ad- leaped like prairie fire from house to house In Osage, from town to town In venturers. the Oklahoma country, over the SouthAt the last Sabra threw the reins west, Indeed. All the old stories were to Isaiah, sprang from the buggy, ran revived, and their ugly red tongues to Yancey as he pulled up his horse. licked a sordid path through the newHe bent far over In his saddle, picked ly opened land. l!er np In one 11;reat arm, held her They say he Is living with the close while he kissed her long and Cherokee squaw who Is really his hard. wife. "Sabra, come with me. Let's get They say he was seen making the clear away from this." Run in the Klckapoo land opening In "You've gone cra?.y! The children!" 1895. "The children, too. All of us. Come They say he killed a man In the on. Now." His eyes were blazing. Cherokee Strip Run and was caught She saw that he actually meant lt. A by a posse and hung. sudden premonition shook ht>r. They say he got a 11ectlon or land, "Where are you going? Where are sold It at a high figure, and was seen you going?" lording It around the bar of the Brown He set her down gently and was Palace hotel In Denver, In his white otr, turned halfway In his saddle to sombrero and his Prince Albert coat. face her, his white sombrero held They say Dl:de Lee Is his real wife, aloft In his hand, his curling black and he left her when she was sevenJocks tossing In the Oklahoma breeze. teen, came to Wichita, and married Five years passed before she saw Sabra Venable; and he Is the one who him again. has set Dixie up In the brleli: house. They say he drank five quarts of CHAPTER VIII whisky one night and died and is burled in an unmarked grave In Dixie Lee's ~Iris were riding by on Horseshoe ranch, where the Doolin their dally afternoon parade. Sabra gang held forth. glanced up as they drove by, She was They say he Is really the leader of seated at her desk by the window In the Doolin gang. They say. They the front office of the Oklahoma Wig- say. They say. wam. It Is Impossible to know how Sabra Her fll.ce darkened now as she ~aw survived those first terrible weeks that them driving slowly by. Dixie Lee lengthened Into months that lengthnever drove with them. Sabra knew ened Into years. There was In her the where she was this afternoon. She wiry endurance of the French Marcys; was down In the back room of the the pride of the southern Venables. Osage First National bank talking She told herself that Yancey was business to the president, Murch Ran- dead. She told the world that he was kin. The business men of the town dead. She knew, by some det>p and were negotiating for the bringing of unerring Instinct, that he was ali'l'e. the packing house and a plow works She ran the paper competently; and a watch factory to Osage, Any wrung from It a decent livelihood for cne of these Industries required a sub- herself and the two children. When stantial bonus. The spirit of the day it had no longer been possible to keep was the boom spirit. Boom the town secret from her parents the fact of cf Osage. Dixie Lee was es~entially Yancey's prolonged absence, Felice a commercial woman-shrewd, clear Venable had descended upon her preheaded. She had made a great suc· pared to gather to the family bosom cess of her business. She was a per- her deserted child and to bring 11er, sonage In the town. Visitors came to together with her ofl'~pring, back to her house now from the cities and the parental home. Lewis Venable countiE-S round about. She had built had been too frail and III to accomfor herself and her thriving business pany his wife. so Felice had brought the ftrst brick structure In the wooden with her the more Imposing among the town; a square, solid, and Imposing Venables, Gotorths, and Yians who two-story house, Its bricks formed chanced to be visiting the Wichita from tht> native Oklnhoma red clay. house at the time of her departure. The hou e ha<I been opened with a Osage bad looked upon the e stately c'!lchrl\ti n the 1ll e of which had figures with much awe, but Sabra's re· "'"""r tJ• ell seen ill the Southwest. ceptlon of them had been as coolly cordial as her rejection of their plans for her future was firm. "I intend to stay right here In Osage.'' she announced, quietly, but In a tone that even Felice Venable recognized as inflexible, "and run the paper, and bring up my children as their father would have expe<.1:ed them to be brought up, I mean to stay here In Osage until Yancl'y-until-" She ne,•er finished that sentence. The Osage eoclety notes lx!came less simple. From bare accounts of quiltIngs, sewing bees, and church sociables they blossomed Into flowery Imitations of the metropolitan dallies' descriptions of social events. Sabra wu. without being fully aware of it, a power that shaped the social aspect of this crude southwestern town. The ladles of the new Happy Hour club, on her declining to become a member, pleading lack of time and press of work (as well she might) made her an honorary member, resolved to have her Influential name on their club roster, somehow. As Sabra Looked at Him She Knew. They were paying unconscious tribute to Oklahoma's first retnlnist. She still ran the paper single handed, with the aid of Jesse Hickey, the most expert printer In the Southwest (when sober), and as good as the average when drunk. '!'here still was very little actual money In the territory. People traded this for that. Sabra often translated subscriptions to the Oklahoma Wigwam-and even advertising space--Into terms of fresh vegetables, berries, wild turkeys, quail, prairie chickens, dress lengths and shoes and stockings for the children. Sol Levy's store, grown to respectable proportions now, provided Sabra with countless necessities In return for the adYertisements which were sent through the country via the Oklahoma Wigwam. In a quiet. dreamy way Sol Levy had managed to buy a surprisIng amount ot Osage real estate by now. He owned the lot on which his atore stood, the one just south of It, and, among other pieces, the building and lot which comorlsed the site of tl1e Wigwam and the Cravats' house. In the year following Yancey's departure Sabra's economic I!Urvlval was made possible only through the almost shamefaced generoelty of this quiet, sad-eyed man. "l"'l'e got It all down In my books," Sabra would say, proudly. "You know that It will all be paid back some day." He began in the Oklahoma Wigwam a campaign of advertising out of all proportions to his needs, and Sabra's debt to him began to shrink to the vanishing point. She got into the hahlt of talking to him about her business problems, and he advised her shrewdly. When she was utterly discouraged he would say, not triumphantly, but as one who states an irrefutable nnd not particularly happy fact: ''Some day, Mrs. Cravat, you and I will look back on this and we will laugh-but not very loud." "How do you mean-laugh?" "Oh-I will be very rich, and you will be very famous. And Yancey-" "Yancey!" The word was wrenched from her like a cry. "They will tell stories about YanCI'Y until he will grow Into a legend. He will be part or the history of the Southwest. They will remember him and write about him when all these mealy-faced go,·ernors are dead and ~!"one and forgotten. They will tell the little children about him, and they will dispute about him-he did this, he dirt that; he was like this, be was like that. You will see." Sabra thought of her own children, who knew so little of their !ather. Donna, a thin secretive cl1ild or almost seven now, with dark, straiJ:"ht black hnlr and a sallow skin like Yancey·s; Cim, alm o ~t thirteen, moody, charming, Imaginative. Donna was more like her grandmother Felice Yenable than her own mother; Cim resembled Yancey so strongly In mood, manner, and emotion!< as to ha ,.e almost no trace of Sabra. She wondered, with a pang, If she had failed to lmi>ress herself on them because of her absorption In the town, In the newspaper, In the resolve to succeed. She got out a photograph of Yancey U1at she had hidden away because to see It was to feel a stab of pain, and had It framed, and hung It on the wall where the children could see It daily. "Your father-" Sabra would begin, courageously, resolved to make him lh·e again In the minds of the children. Donna wa~ not especially Interested. Clm ~aid, "I know It," and capped her story with a tale of his own In which Yancey's feat ot derring-do outrivaled any swashbuckling escapade of D'Artagnan . "Oh, but Clm, that's not true! You mustn't believe stories like that about your father." "It Is true. Isaiah told me. I gues!l he ought to know." And then the question she dreaded. "When are Isaiah and father coming bact-?" She could answer, somehow, evasively, about Yancey, for her ln~tlnct concerning him was sure and strong. But at the fate that had overtaken the negro boy she cowered, afraid even to face the thought of ft. F'or the thing that bad happened to the black boy was so dreadful, so remorseless that when the truth of It came to Sabra she felt all this little world of propriety, of middle-class Middle 'Vest convention that she had built up about her turning to ashes under the sudden fiaring fire of hidden savagery. She tried never to think of It, but sometimes. at night, the hideous thing took possession of her, and she was swept by such horror that !lhe crouched there under the bedclothes, clammy and shivering with the sweat of utter fear. Her hatred of the Indians now amounted to an ob!lession. It was In the fourth year of Yancey's absence that, coming suddenly and silently Into the kitchen from the newspaper oftlce. where she had been busy as usual, she saw her Indian maid twisted In a contortion In front of the table where she had been at work. Her face was grotesque, was wet, with agony. It was the agony which only one kind of pain can bring to a woman's fa~. The Indian girl was In the pangs of childbirth, Even as she saw her Sabra realized that something about her had vaguely disturbed her In the past few weeks. ***************************************************** Boomerang Long in Use as Weapon of Warfare An article In the Encyclopedia Britannica on the boomerang of the Australian aborigines mentions various peoples that have used similar Instruments. Both the return and nonre· tum boomerang are found In most parts of Australia. The return form was, according to General Pitt-Rivers, used In ancient Egypt. A weapon closely resembling the boomerang survives to the present day In northeast Africa, with allied forms made of metal, or throwing knives. In south India Is found a boomerang-shaped Instrument which can be made to return. The Bopls of Arizona use a nonreturn torm. Tbe Indian Cyclopedia gives details of the chakra or steel disk, formerly carried by Sikh soldiers. Thes were 6 to 9 Inches In diameter and about an Inch of breadth of rim, Trinidad Land ot Birda The Island of Trinidad Is aptly called the "Land of Humming Birds." The tiny lride~cent creatures swarm about the rost>s, hibiscus, poinsettia, crotons, bougalnYilleas, jasmine and other flowers that grow on the island. One of the mo1:t prosperous of the West IndiPS, Trinidad has a strangely mixed population. Here one sees Hindus, remnants of the East Indian slaves Introduced Into the Island In 1839. the men In elaborate turbans, silk blouses and fiow!ng robes. the women "beautified" with gold rings, anklets, heavy earrings and silver braceJets, which cover their arms from wrist to elbow. and had sharply ground edges. They were rotated on the forefinger, then projected with considerable force 150 feet or more. They are called expensive and almost useless weapons. Another form of boomerang used In India Is made of wood and Iron at Gujerat and of wood and ivory at Trlchlnopoly. En~rliab Like Pantomimes Englishmen In exile seem to cling to pantomime as tenaciously as to plum pudding, write• a columnist ln the Manchester Guardian. When the Resolute wintered in the Ice at Melville Island In 1852 Christmas was celebrated by the production of a pantomime, which had the novelty of being played entirely for the fun of the performers. There was no audience, for every member of the crew took part, with the commander, Sir George Nares, starring as Columbine. In 1875, when on another polar expedition In the Alert, ·ares "reopened the Royal Arctic theater" after It had been closed for 25 years, and pantomime was again the favorite pastime of all concerned. l Super-Clock One of the world's most Intricate clocks is In the old tower of Cornelius at Lierre, Belgium. The timepiece not only indicates the time from Greenwich, but virtually keeps track of the universe, giving the signs of the Zodiac, the solar system, days of the week, phases ot the moon and tbe tldeL Yet she had not known, bad not dreamed of this. The loose garment which the girl always wore--her strong natural slenderness-the erect dignity or her Indian carriage--the stoicism of her race--had served to keep secret her condition. She had had, too, Sabra now realized tn a flash, a way of being out of the room when her mistress was In It; busy In the pantry when Sabra was In the kitchen ; busy In the kitchen when Sabra was In the dining room; In and out like a dark, swift shadow. "Arlta! Here. Come. Lie down. I'll send for your father-your moth~ er." Her father was Big Knee, well known and something of a power In the Osage tribe. Ot the tribal oftl.cerl he was one of the eight members of the council and as such was part of the tribe's go'l'ernlng body. Dreadful as the look on Arlta's face hnrl been, It was now contorted almost beyond recognition. ''No! No!" She broke Into a storm of pleading In her own tongue. Her eyes were black pools of agony. Sabra had never thought that one of pure Indian blood would thus give way to any emotion before a white person. She put the girl to bed. She sent Isaiah for D tor Valliant, who luckily was In town and sober. He went to work quietly, efficiently, aided by 8ubra, milking the best of such crude and hasty necessities as came to hand. The girl made no outcry. Her eyes were a dnll, dead black; her face was rigid. Sabra, passing from the kitchen to the girl's bedroom with hot water, cloths, blankets, saw Isaiah crouched In a corner by the wood box. He looked up at her mutely. Bls face was a curious ash gray. As Sabra. looked at him she knew. 'l'he child was a boy. His hair was coarse and kinky_ Ills nose was wide. Ills lips were thick. He was a negro child. Doctor Valliant looked at him as Sabra held the writhing red-purple bundle in her arms. "This Is a bad businE-ss." "I'll send for her parents. I'll speak to Isaiah. They can marry." "~farry! Don't you know?" Something In his voice startled her. Polytechnic College of Engineering 13111 ... MW.. Sb.., OaklaM, Colifonia · Leading Engineering School UDiftnicy Swodanla in Tmnicel S d l!.ttd6WW ift zlg.f-Onr l•oo,ooo 1'1.111.. C/wriDft/lo v-111 1/qreu ia zgu All llon-easentlal subjects omitted. Intenslve--PTactlcal-thoroug-h cours• In Electrical, Hechanieal, Civil, Mi,._ lng, Architectural and Structural En- Jrineerlng-, New courses ln Aeronautleal aDd Airplane Entrlneerln&". Special courses ln Airplane Me.,hnnlca, Anto lll~chaniCII, Jllnchlne Shop, Electrle Shop, IKultlon, Batte17, etc. Compl~e Electrical, H.vdmnlle, Steam and Testlnc Laboratories. s.r- ~two,..,,.,;. Students all81ated In llnanclng their courses. Write for tree catalotr. W- 11:. GIBSON W. 1. WOOD Preal<ient Reclatrar Mennonite• in Para~ruay The Mennonites, reputed descendants of the Dutch Waldenses of the Middle ages, have found a haven in the Paraguayan Chaco. They went to South America after their venture had failed In Prussia, llussla and Canada. The government of I'araguay granted them a colonization concession In l!J21 and the colony now numbers 1,400 persons. Their charter allows them to maintain schools In their own language, German. Also, they are exempt from military service and swearing in court, affirmation being sufficient. The Mennonites are desirable colonists, especially lf allowed to llve accordin~; to the traditions of their ancestor!!. GIANT NEON ROOF SIGN Beacon ol HoopitalilJf "'Vhat~" "The Osngoes don't marry negroes. It's forbidr!en." "Why, lots or them hnve. You see negroes who are Indians every day. On the street." "~ot Osages. Seminoles, yes. And Creeks, and Choctaws, and even Chickasaws. But the Osages, except for intermarriage with whites, have kept the tribe pure." This information set>med to Sabra to be unimportant and slightly silly. Purity or the tribe, Indeed! Osages l She resolved to be matter of fact and senslhle now that the shocking e'l'ent wag at hand, waiting to be dealt with. She herself felt guilty, for this thing had bappPned in her own house. She should have foreseen danger and a ,·olrled it. Isaiah had been a faithful black chlld in her mind, whereas he was, In reality, a man grown. - Doctor Valliant bad finished his work. The girl lay on the bed, her dull black eyes fixed on them; silent, watchful, hopeless. Isaiah crouched In the kitchen. The child lay now In Sabra's arms. Donna and Clm were, fortunately, asleep, for it was now long past midnight. The tense exclteml'nt past, the whole affair seemed to Sabra sordid, dreadful. What would the town sny? What would the members of the Phllomathean club and thP. Twentieth Century Culture club think? Doctor Valliant came over to her and looked down at the queer shriveled mor11el In her arms. "We must let his father see him." 8abra shrank. "Oh, no!" He took the baby from her and turned toward the kitchen. "I'll do lt. Let me have a drink of whisky, w!ll you, Sabra? I'm dead tired." She went past him Into the dining room, wjthout a glance at the ~gro boy cowering In the kitchen. Doctor Valliant followed her. As she poured a drink of Yancey's store of whisky, almost untouched l!ince he had lett, she heard Valliant's volct>, very gentle, and then the sound of Isaiah's blubbering. All the primness In her was outraged. Her firm mouth took on a still straighter line. Valliant took the child back to the Indian girl's bed and placed It by her !!Ide. He stumbled with weariness as be en-o tered the dining room where Sabra stood at the table. As he reached for the drink Sabra saw that his hand shook a little as Yancey's used to do In that 11ame gesture. She mu1t not think of tbat. She must not think ot that. "There's no use talking now, doctor, about what the Osages do or don't do that you say Ia so pure. The baby'e born. I !!hall send for the old manwhat's his name1-Big Knee. As soon as Arlta can be moved he must take her home. As for Isaiah, I've a notion to send him back to Kansas, as I wanted to do years ago, only he begged so to stay, and Yancey let him. And now thl!'!." Doctor Valliant had swallowed the whlskv at a gulp-had thrown It down his throat as one takeg medicine to relieve pain. He poured another glass. His face was tired and drawn. It wa1 late. His nerves were not what they had been, what with drink, overwork, and countle~s nights without sleep as he rode the country on his black horRe. He swallowed his second drink. Bls face seemed IPss drawn, his hand steadier, his whole bearing more alert. "Now listen, Sabra. You don't undeJ.'o stand. You don't understand th• Osages. This Is serious. The Osage1 ha'l'e kept the tribe absolutely free ot negro blood. This Is a bad business." Her patience was at an end. "What of It? And how do you knowl Dow do you know?" (TO :a• 0i)NTJM1JJID,) HOTEL Newhouse SAL'I LAKE CITY, UTAH One of Salt Lake City's finest hotels, where guests find every comfort-with a warm hospitality. Garage in connection. Cafe and cafeteria. 400 Rooms. Each with Bath $2.00 to $i.OO 'IV. E- SUTI'ON, Mo114Jitll' Dream Fulfilled In Belmont (N. C.) on business W. D. Kennedy dreamed that one of his children had been killed, so he wrote a letter to his wife asking If they were all right. Mrs. Kennedy replied on a postal saying the children were all safe, and gave It to Charlie, fouryear-old son, to mall. As he was crossing the street to a mailbox he was run over and killed by a truck. truck. Sea Story A quartette of revelers were down on the waterfront one moonlit night, singing "Sweet Adeline," when the tenor fell olf the dock Into the bay. The incident passed unnoticed by the leader, but he perceived that something was wrong with the harmony. "'Smatter with you boys?" he complained. ''One of you don't sound right." "It's Jack.'' rumbled the basso, solemnly. "He's off quay."-Life. • mosqu1to es killed quicker if you Sprtt1Y taraest SeDer lD 121 Co1111trle. Perma.nent connection. Pr.rt or taU $12 DAILY Ume. Men. women. Prollta ~ ln bard. ttmes.lb:perlence.lnTenmen\ anneoeilll: IIORTB AMERICAN IUD IOCIETY, WICIUTA. W. N. U_ Salt Lake City, No. 31--1931. |