| Show CIMARRON I By Edna Ferber Copyright by Edna Ferber Service THE STORY Yancey Cravat Just returned from tram the newly opened Indian territory relates his experiences to a largo large gathering feathering of oC the Venable Venable Ven- Ven able family Yancey Is married to Sabra Venable Is a 0 criminal lawyer and editor of ot the tho Wichita Wigwam When the Run faun started Yancey had raced his hs pony against the tho thoroughbred mount of ot a R girl Irl Tho The girls girl's horse was Injured and when Yancey stopped to shoot hoot It she grabbed his pony and got tho the land Yancey wanted Yancey announces he Is golnback going back to the Oklahoma country with Sabra and their year tour old son Cimarron They make the Journey In two covered wagons They arrive at O age where Yanc Yancey Intends to start a aI I newspaper Yancey Is determined to find out who killed Editor Peg- Peg ler Ier of oC the New Day Preparations for tor the publication of the Oklahoma Okla Okla- I homa Wigwam are completed I I Yancey consents to conduct di divine divine dl- dl I vine worship on Sunday During the tho services Yancey announces he has learned who killed Peg- Peg ler lie stoops in time to escape It a bullet fired by Still stooping stooping- Yancey shoots and kills Then he announces that killed d Sabra's so second and ond child Donna Is about three years old when she returns to Wichita for tor her first visit CHAPTER VII VII Continued Continued 10 10 Well the Wigwam aint been so regular since you been away She allowed that to pass without comment Up In the hills he stumbles on Doctor Valliant drunk but not so drunk he dont don't recognize Yancey Tancey Well he tells Yancey drunk as he Is that hes he's right In the camp where the Kid and his gang Is hiding out One of them was hurt bad In that last Santa Fe hold up at Cimarron Like to died only they sent Bent for doc doe and he came and saved him They got close to thirty thousand thousand thousand thou thou- sand that trick and It kind of at went to their heads Valliant overheard them planning to ride In here to Osage like today and hold up the Citizens' Citizens National National National Na Na- In broad daylight like the Kid always does They was already started Well Yell Yancey oft off on his horse to warn the town and knows hes he's got to detour or hell he'll come on the gang and they'll smell a rat Well say Bay he actually did meet em am Came Cameon on em accidental The Kid sees him and grins that wolf grin of at his and sings out Yancey you still thAt that paper OT l no f e of y ourn down at of Oat Osa on r V oI- oI b ge Yancey says Yes Well Nell say he heays hays ays how much Is It Yancey says a dollar a year The Kid reaches down and throws Yancey a shot sack with ten silver sUver dollars In it Send me the paper for tor ten years he says sas Where Whereto to Yancey asks him Well Yell say the Kid laughs that wolf lau laugh h o of his again and he says I never thought of at that Ill I'll have to leave you know later Well Yell Yancey looking as as- as meek and mouthed mealy-mouthed as a baby he herides herides herides rides his Ills way hes he's got a little book of at poems In his hand and hes he's reading as he rides or pretending to but first chance he sees he cuts across the hills puts nuts his horse through the gullies and Into the draws and across the scrub b oaks like he was a 0 circus horse or n centipede or something He gets Into Osage dead tired and his horse In a lather ten minutes before the Kid and his gang sweeps down Pa Pawhuska Paw Paw- w- w hu huska hucka ka avenue their six shooters sl barkIng barking barking bark bark- ing like a regiment was coming and makes a rush for the bank But the town Is exp expecting them Say Blood 1 Sabra waited for no more She turned And as she turned she saw coming down the road in a cloud of ot dust a 0 grotesque scarecrow all shanks shank and teeth and rolling eyes ees Black Isaiah Nom Miss Sabra he aint hurt hurt hurt- not what yo rightly call hurt No maam Jesa nip In n de arm and he got It slung In a black silk and looks right handsome They wouldn't let him alone Evy body in town they his hand caze he shoot the shot dat kill de KidAn KidAn Kid An you know v what he do then Miss Sabra He kneel down an he cry like a baby Le me tote dig yere valise vaUse Ah kin tote Miss Donna too My she sho stio grooved 1 The newspaper office the print shop her parlor her kitchen her bedroom were packed with with- men In boots spurs sombreros men In overalls women with children Mrs Wyatt was there the the as one woman were I here acre Dixie Lee actually everyone everyone everyone every every- one but sinIsterly but Louie Hefner Well Nell Mis' Mis Cravat I guess you must be pretty proud of at him YOU mica missed or rt the the tho ills ills' 1 O at t b u ut youre you're In time to help Yancey cele cele- brate brote Say the Santa Fe alone aloneo o offered five live thousand dollars for the capture of at the Kid dead or alive Yancey gets It all right And the Katy Kaly done the same And theys they's a government price on his head and the Citizens Citizens' National Is making up a purse You'll be ridin In your carriage carriage carriage car car- In silks from now Yancey was standing at his desk In Inthe Inthe inthe the Wigwam office He looked up as she came In and at the look In his face she forgave him his neglect of her Zier forgave him the house full of what Venal Venable l would term riff riU- I Ii raft raIT and worse his faithlessness to the Wigwam Donn Donna tired and frightened had set up a wall wail Clra bewildered had gone on a rampage But as Yancey Yancey Yancey Yan Yan- cey took a stumbling step toward her hershe hershe hershe she had hind only one child and that one needed her She thrust Donna again Into Isaiah's arms left whirling among the throng ran toward him She was in his great grent arms but It was washer washer washer her arms that seemed to sustain him Sabra Sugar Send them awa away Im I'm so tired Oh God Im I'm so tired Next Nest day they exhibited the bod body of at the Kid In the new plate glass show window of Hefner's Furniture Store and Undertaking Parlors All Osage came to view him all the county came cameto cameto cameto to view him they rode In on trains on horses In wagons In ox or carts for miles and miles around The Kid The boy who in his early twenties had sent no one knew how now many men to their death whose death whose name was the symbol for terror and daring and merciless marauding throughout through through- out the Southwest Even en In the East EastIn In In New York York the the name of the Kid was known Stories had been written about him He was long before his death a mythical figure And now he together with Clay McNulty his lieutenant lay side by side quite still quite passive Sabra did a strange a terrible thing Yancey would not go near the grisly window Sabra upheld him denounced the gaping crowd as scavengers scavengers scavengers engers and ghouls Then suddenly I at the last minute as the sun was setting setting setting set set- ting blood red across the prairie she walked out of the house down the road as If Impelled as If It In a trance like a sleep walker and stood before Hefner's window The crowd made way for her respectfully They knew her This was the wife of Yancey Cravat the man whose name appeared In headlines In every newspaper throughout the United States and even beyond the ocean They had dressed the two bandits In new cheap black suits of store clothes square in cut clumsy so that they stood woodenly a away way from the lean hard bodies Clay McNulty's face had a faintly surprised look His long sandy mustache drooped over a mouth singularly sweet and resigned But the face of the boy was fixed In Ina Ina ina a smile that brought the lips In a sardonic snarl away from the wolf wolf- like teeth and the eyes whose lightning lightning lightning light light- ning glance had pierced you through Ott-I Ott I M 1 11 But the Town Is Expecting Them and through like one of the bullets from his own dreaded six-shooters six now were extinguished forever behind the waxen shades of his e eyelids It was at the boy that Sabra looked and ha having Ing looked she turned and walked back to the house They gave them a decent funeral and a burial with ever everything in proper proper order and when the minister refused to read the service over o these two sinners Yancey consented to do It and did standing there with the fresh- fresh turned mounds of red Oklahoma clay sullying his fine high heeled boots and the sun blazing down upon the curling locks of his uncovered unco head They put up two rou rough h wooden slabs marking the graves But souvenir souvenir souvenir sou sou- venir hunters with little bright knives soon made short work of ot those The two mounds sank lower lower Soon nothing marked this spot on the prairie to differentiate It from the red clay that stretched for miles all about it They sent to Yancey by mall In checks hec s. s and through solemn commit commit- tees in la store clothes and white collars the substantial money rewards that for almost five years had been offered of of- by the Santa Santo Fe road the M. M K T. T the government Itself and various various various vari vari- ous banks for the capture of the Kid d dead sad or aU alive vet Yancey refused every penny of it The committees committee s the townspeople the county were shocked and even of ot- fended Sabra tight lipped Upped at last broke out In protest We could have a u decent house house a a anew new printing press press Cims Cims education Donna Donna I I dont don't take money for killing a man Yancey repeated repented to each offer of mone money The committees and tho the checks went back as they had hIli come 1 Sabra noticed that Yance Yanceys Yancey's s hand shook with a perceptible palsy before breakfast and that this was more than thun ever noticeable as that hand approached approached approached ap ap- ap- ap the first drink of whisky y swallowed before belore he lie ate a morsel He tossed It down as one who seeking relief reller from rom pain takes medicine When he returned the glass glas to the table he drew v a deep breath His hand was miraculously quite steady More and more he neglected the news and business details of ot the Wig Wig- II He was restless moody dis dis- trait Sabra remembered with a pang of at dismay something that he had hind said saidon on first coming to Osage G G d d when I think of at those years jears In Wichita Almost five years in one place place that's that's the longest stretch Ive I've ever done The newspaper was prospering for Cor Sabra gave ave more and more time to It But Yancey seemed to have lost interest Interest Interest In In- terest as he lie did In any venture once It got under way I Even ven In the courtroom or while addressing addressing addressing ad ad- dressing a n meeting of townspeople Yancey Yancey Yancey Yan Yan- cey sometimes would behave strangely He would stop In the midst of a florid period At once a creature savage and the flaring lamps the hot breathless atmosphere the vacuous white faces looming up at him like balloons would repel him He had been known to stalk out lea leaving them staring In the courtroom he was an alarming figure When hen he was defending a local county or Territorial case they flocked from miles around to hear him and the crude pine shack that was the courtroom would be packed to suffocation He towered vered over any Jury of frontiersmen a a behemoth behemoth behemoth be be- In a Prince Albert coat and fine linen his great shaggy buffalos buffalo's head charging menacingly at his op op- His was the florid oratory of at the day full of ot sentiment hyperbole and wind But he could be trenchant enough h when needs be and his charm his magnetic power were undeniable and almost invariably Invariably Invariably ably he emerged from the courtroom victorious Sabra saw more and more to the editing and to the actual printing of ot the Oklahoma Wigwam She got In Inas Inas inas as general and helper an Osage Indian girl of fifteen who had been to the Indian school and who had learned some of at the rudiments of household duties cleaning I ing laundering even some of or the simpler sImpler simpler sim sIm- forms of cookery She tended Donna as well Her name was Arita Red Feather a quiet gentle girl who went about the house In her calico dress and moccasins and had to be told everything over again daily Isaiah was beginning to be too big for these duties He was something of a problem In the household At the suggestion suggestion suggestion sug sug- that he be sent back to Wichita WIchIta Wichita ita he set up a howling and wailing walling and would not be consoled until both Sabra and Yancey assured him that he might remain with them forever When Jesse Rickey was too drunk to stand at the type case and Yancey was off orr on some legal matter he slowly slowly slowly slow slow- ly and painstakingly helped Sabra to tomake tomake tomake make possible the weekly Issue of the Oklahoma Wigwam Sabra In a pinch even tried her unaccustomed hand at an occasional editorial thou though h Yancey seldom failed her utterly In this department A Arival Arival rival newspaper set up quarters across the street and for two or three months kept up a feeble pretense of ot existence Yanceys Yancey's editorials during this period were extremely personal But it was Sabra who held the women women women wom wom- en readers with her accounts of the veal yeal loaf coleslaw baked beans and food angel cake served at the church supper and the somewhat touching decorations and costumes worn at the thew w wedding of a local or count county belle If It In the quarter of a century that followed every trace of the settling of or orthe the Oklahoma countr country had been lost excepting only the numbers of ot the Oklahoma Wigwam there still would have been left a clear cleur and inclusive record of ot the lives morals political and social and economic workings of at this bizarre community Week by week month by month the reader could have noticed In Its columns I whatever of progress was being made maden In n this fantastic slice of the republic of the United States Sabra except for Yanceys Yancey's growing restlessness was content enough The children were well the paper was prospering she had her friends the house had taken on an aspect of comfort comfort comfort com com- fort they had added another bed bed- room She Sho was sas In a way a leader In Inthe Inthe inthe the crude social life of or the tile com com- Church suppers sewing societies societies so so- cleties family picnics One thing rankled deep Yancey had been urged to accept the office of territorial delegate to congress without with out ut vote ote and had refused All sorts of ot territorial political positions were held out to him The city of Guthrie capital of at the territory wooed him In vain He lie laughed at political position position position tion rejected all offers of at public na na- na- na ture Now he was being offered the po position of governor of at the territory His oratory his dramatic quality his record In man many a affairs including the Pe ler murder and the shooting of the Kid had spread his fame even beyond the Southwest Oh Yancey I l Sabra thought of the Venables the the the At last her choice of at a amate amate amate mate was to be vindicated Governor But Yancey shook his great reat head There was no moving him lie He would go on the stump to make others congressmen congressmen congressmen con con- gressmen and governors but he himself himself him him- self would not take office oNce Palaver Pala Good G G-d G d Sleeves Ing to a lot of at greasy office seekers and panhandlers Dancing to the tune of that gang In Washington I know the whole dirty lot of them Restless Moody Irritable Riding Hiding out into the prairies to be gone for I days Coming back to regale with stories of or evenings spent on this or that |
