Show WIDE OPEN SPACES i I v v. By FANNIE HURST Q by Ne Newspaper Syndicate Service NE of ot those experiences that ONE O you ou read about In books came cameto cameto to Alonzo Meierberg when he was thirty-one thirty and on the upward plunge of success as ns a young surgeon surgeon surgeon sur sur- geon that was carrying car him to the top of ot his profession He walked out ot of t the e office of one of his most distinguished confreres with wIlh his own suspicion of himself corroborated One of his lungs had hada a hole bole in It Tuberculosis had him The man who was was considered the most brilliant plastic surgeon In the city of New V York and that meant practically In America was doomed at nt thirty one to exile lIe If It not permanent permanent permanent per per- manent exile and most probably that then for a period of years that was apt to play havoc with the soarIng soarIng soaring soar- soar Ing of his career Well Vell Meierberg was about as logical logical logical logi logi- cal as the crago a intellectual would be under such conditions He placed his situation before him so to speak Reckoned on the alternative e advantages ad of ot remaining at his post and dying young oung and perhaps brIllIantly brilliantly bril brIl- or going off olI to struggle for foran foran an nn existence that might not be worth the living With his mind the latter alternative alternative tive won But love lore of t life was too strong In this man to go down before before before be be- fore the mere argument of a sophisticated sophisticated sophis sophIs- brain In the end Doctor went out to a shanty town of ot an altItude altItude altitude alti altI- tude and dryness necessary to his well being and there took up his abode The wide open spaces Gods God's country Back to nature Cactus Post was all aU those A little smear of ot a town situated on the I slope of ot a mountain that hung bung between between between be be- tween desert and snow The sun came up in glory over o Cactus Post and went down In cence The air was as dry as thin thin- tasting as ns sparkling as champagne and every morning of his life Doctor Doctor Doctor Doc Doc- tor M Meierberg lerberg awoke to the IncredIbly Incredibly ably lovely 10 of birds he did not know by name and to the clear ringing sound of at axes aces hurling into the wilderness of ot tree boles that lined the mountain side Glory hung over Cactus Post mornings Peace drenched noondays Long somnolent afternoons afternoons afternoons after after- filled with what the doctor doctor- knew was sedative balm for his wounded lung Evenings before a apine apine apine pine wood fire that went deeply into the nostrils like the tickling elixir of ot a chartreuse Leisure for readIng readIng reading read- read Ing that never before beCore In all his closely packed years of struggle and endeavor had the doctor enjoyed Boxes of books arrived ed from the East almost weekly and were read I INot INot Not merely placed on a reading table to be read at some future time But read there and then The folks In Cactus Post were a goodly enough sort too Simple women and girls Bred to the open spaces Fearless g folk Fine FinC the doctor thought And yet et it must be admitted as the Ule months marched along and then the years such a nostalgia began to lay hold of the doctor that the heart of him was almost as sore as his healing lung had been Years of the riddled coyote-riddled night silences The flaming sunrise ushering usherIng usher- usher usherIng Ing In the long somnolent days The gorgeous sunsets ushering them out Mon Monotony ton The old days began to gnaw at him Closing his eyes of an evening eve eve- evening ning beside his stocked book-stocked fireplace fireplace fireplace fire fire- place the doctor could visualize things back home The eyed cent city cItro Women who were a n million years and three thousand miles alien to these husky calico- calico clad ones wrapping themselves In furs and riding out Into the spangled spangled spangled span span- evenings The warm vibrant flare of at life along New Yorks York's Broadway Broad Broad- way Mental stimulant of ot theaters and co concerts The voice of the city The warm pulsing note of ot human human- ity That was it Humanity The doctor was lonesome unto death The Tho wide open spaces were too wide Too open Humanity was a cb charmed closing circle within it life and find love and warmth and beauty S Secretly the nostalgia was becomIng becoming becoming becom becom- ing almost more than the doctor I could bear And yet he knew that somehow he must stick It out for another year He knew w himself on the road to recovery reco but he dared not hasten basten the way along that road Another year what with careful living liv liv- living ing and right habits would see the spot on his lung healed Another ear 1 b J 4 Sometimes during the passing of ot It the doctor feared for his sanity Tedium of ot waiting Terrible terrible terri tern blo ble tedium of ot waiting Then there thera was his sense of ot delicacy delicacy deli deli- cacy cacy and of actual fear tear of ot revealing revealing reveal reveal- ing his hl state of mind to the people about him To the sweet sweet-e sweet eyed ed ClarIssa ClarIssa Clarissa Clar Clar- issa who rode In twelve miles on horseback to tend his shanty for him day da by day and rode rodo home home through the purple star-spangled star desert without fear The cowboys s 's the ranchers the homesteaders who had bad been friends Who took him along on their Jaunts Into the heart of ot the tile universe Who taught him the secret things of ot na na- na ture Who had been kind to him Who were vere kind to him It was unthinkable to let these good people know bow how the heart within him was a heavy thing Up to the very day of his departure departure departure depar depar- ture for the East he kept It from them Had not the heart beart to tell them that his departure was final That he was shaking the desert dust from his feet forever They had been good goo Kind Hind Their delight In his cure was scarcely less than his own When he finally stepped into the rattling tin can cnn of ot a n car that was to drive him the forty miles mites to the nearest station where he lie took his train It was with the tho understanding understand understand- ing that ho was to return to them In the autumn His shanty was to tobe tobe tobe be there and waiting His friends LIko a sneak the doctor turned his back hack on Cactus Post knowing he ho had lied fled to them and yet et had lied out of ot the kindness of ot his hla heart The Tho little group of them waving him good The fellows Bless them The TIle handful of women in their calico calico cali call co who had been so kind to him Mrs Hodges the general storekeepers storekeeper's ers er's wife who had nursed him through bronchitis Sweet-eyed Sweet Clarissa Clarissa Clar Clar- issa who bad had tended him so faith faith- fully Bless them The city met him like a boom of ocean a surf url of humanity running I and hissing up against l his feet his first step off the train Bing Boom Bang The heart leapt in his bosom The eager quick-footed quick men There I The women women women wom wom- en in their furs and the beautifying beautify beautify- ing wrappings that he had so missed Even their painted faces I Galet Gaiety was here Pulse of life The streets swam vitality Rush Eager Eager- ness Lights blazed The hotel where he stopped had the warm perfumed quality to it that reminded remind remind- ed him him of the bare shoulders of ot women and the whisper of furs Life Vitality Sophistication I Here Sere were the men who made the universe go around The women who iho ho made the universe matter The Tho city caught him up once more morl Goaded him Spurred him Within the tho month he was on the old tread mill again straining yearning aspiring The young docor doc- doc doctor doctor tor or was back In the race The professIon profession pro pro- which had practically forgotten forgotten forgotten for for- gotten him began to turn an nn eye upon him again The rhe doctor was back again Cured In n the race And after niter the first six months it was borne In upon an nn amazed a startled young doctor that the race no longer mattered His work the scientific curiosity that spurred him himon himon on this love of ot it it could not be best pursued here bere in these marts of men The doctor hid had had tasted of ot the beauty and peace and the nobility of quiet He missed the ring of axes Into wood The gibberish of birds against dawn The clear voices of women calling through high thin air all This was a n roar The lights of ot the theater represented the cheap tarnished pastimes that p people sought People without the leisure of ot the nerves for quiet reading rending People People Peo Pee pie who must forever be jamming pushing seeking In all the months since his return he had bad not had one evening of quiet reading The stack of ot books beside his bed was half halfa a man high Life had him once nce more By the of ot the neck The painted faces of ot the women mocked him Pallid faces gone flabby from lack of ot the simple things that had kept those clad calico-clad ones out there firm fleshed and bright eyed even by light of ot dawn The Tho autumn care around The color of asphalt In the city The color of ot quartz and topaz and cornelian cornelian cor cor- nelian and ond ruby and lapis lazuli In Cactus Post The doctor knew 1 Knew It with his heart that was aching And so came autumn as he had promised the doctor did return to his shanty In Cactus Post A sunset sunset sunset sun sun- set the color of the blood that must have been surging around his heart met him as ns he ho stepped out of the rickety tin automobile that had driven him the many miles from the station Clarissa of ot the sweet eyes met him too The doctor had come home |