Show I 1 agath A N by edna ferber by edna edn rrth pervies arl WHAT WENT BEFORE yancey tancey cravat just returned from the newly opened indian territory where he participated in the ittin over the border relates his adventures to Is gathering of the venable family yancey Is a criminal lawyer editor of 0 the wichita wigwam and husband of sabra cravat when the run started yancey rancey raced his pony against the thoroughbred mount ot of a girl the thoroughbred broke two legs lees and when yancey stopped to shot it the girl grabbed his pony and beat him to the land he be wanted tancey with his wife and tour four year old sou soil cimarron Cl marron start for the oklahoma country they arrive at osage where yancey tancey intends to start a new newspaper or yancey shows he can handle a gun eun CHAPTER Ill continued 6 oh barrels she now repeated trying to appear intensely practical well let me see theres cooking of 0 course and all the cleaning around the house and drinking and bathing I 1 always give clat his bath in the evening if 11 I 1 can you rou believe bow dirty that child gets by the end of the day well I 1 should think ten barrels a day would be enough lough er ten barrels said doc la in a flat voice utterly devoid of expression a day 1 I should think that would be ample sabra repeated judiciously cious clou sly ly doe doc now regarded sacra sabra with a look of active dislike then he be did a strange thing ue ile walked across the little porch shut the front door locked it put the key in his bis pocket seated himself in the chair and tilted it up a against the wall at exactly the angle at which they had bad come upon him sabra stood there seeing lier her it would have been almost impossible to believe that anyone so bravely decked out in silk and plumes and pink roses could present a figure so bewildered so disconsolate so defeated abed literally she did not know what to do she had met and surmounted many strange experiences in these last ten days but she had been boro born of generations of women to whom men had paid homage perhaps in ell all her life she had never encountered the slightest discourtesy in a nan man much less this abysmal boorishness Ish ness riess she looked at him film her face white shocked she looked up in embarrassment at the glaring steel sky she looked down at the blinding red dust she looked helplessly in the direction that yancey bad i so blithely taken she glanced again at doc pr propped OPP ed so woodenly against the wall of his bis hateful house bouse she should of course have gone straight up to him film and said do you mein mean that ten barrels are too much I 1 know I 1 am new dew at all this whatever you say but she was young and inexperienced rien irlen ced and full of pride and terribly offended so without another word she turned and marched down the dusty street tier her head in its plumed hat was high on either cheek burned a scarlet patch her ebes aies in her effort to keep back the hot tears were blazing liquid enormous she saw nothing from doe Nis hett yancey received laconic information to the effect that the noire houte had been rented by a family whose aquatic demands were more modest than sabra sahra sabra was inconsolable but yancey did not once reproach her for her mistake it was characteristic act of him that he was most charming and considerate in crises which might have been expected to infuriate him never mind sugar dont take on like that well find a house and anyway were here the main thing he stretched his mighty arms shook himself like a great shaggy shag lion in all this welter of red clay cay and indians and shirt ale ees and juice and drought tie he seemed to tind rind a beauty and an exhilaration hil tint eluded sabra quite but then sabra after those first two anys hod had censed ceased to search for a reason for anything she met del and accepted the most grotesque the most fantastic happenings when she looked back on the things she had done dime and the thing things she had said in the ilist few hours of her oklahoma horna experience it was as though she were tolerantly re gardina the nai vetes of a child ten barrels of wafer a dayl day I 1 she knew now that water in this hum burn ing land was a precious tiling life here was an anachronism a great erent crude crone joke it ft was hard to realize unit hint while the rest of the united states in this year of ls was urine a conventionally civil lazed nod primly victorian P existence ti stence in which plumbing trees gardens gardikis gar dITIS hooks books laws millinery sunday churchgoing were taken for granted here in tills this okla ohla homa country life hod been set gel buck back according to the frontier standards of half a century earlier literally she was pioneering in a wilderness Ild erness surrounded but untouched by civilization yancey ancey hod had reverted always even in his still dest in tarn zar atlon nation a somewhat incredibly to romantic mantle figure he be now was re even in this tr tarn ara of fantastic gathered from every corner of the 1 picturesque southwest ills his towering form his alg ending curling locks his massive head his vibrant voice his dashing dress his meld M alf eld speech his personality drew attention wherever he be went on tile the day following their arrival yancey had token from his trunk a pair of silver mounted ivory handled six shooters and a belt and bolster studded with silver sue had bad never before seen them ills white sombrero tie had dart banded with a rattlesnake skin ol of gold and silver with glass eyes a treasure also produced from the secret trunk as well as a pair ot of gold mounted spurs which further enhanced tile the texas star boots thus bedecked bedecker be decked for his legal find and editorial pursuits he was by far the best dressed and most spectacular male in till nil the oklahoma country sabra learned many astounding things in these first few days and among tile the most terrifying were the things she learned about the husband to whom she had been happily married tor for more than five years she learned for example that this yancey cravat was famed as tile the deadliest shot in all the deadly shooting southwest ile he had bad the gift of being able to point hla his six shooters without sighting as one would point with a finger lie he was one of the few who could draw and fire two six shooters at once with equal speed and accuracy ills his hands would go to tits bis hips with a lightning gesture that att was so smooth so economical that the onlookers eye scarcely followed it ile he could hit bit his mark as lie he walked ns as he ran as he rode his bis horse sabra was vaguely uneasy wichita bad not been exactly effete and dodge city kan was notoriously a gunplay gun play town but here no man walked without his six shooters strapped to tits body on the very day of tier her harrowing encounter with doe doc sabra her composure regained had gone eone with yancey to see still another house owner about the possible renting of his treasure the man was found in his bis crude one room shack which he used as a combination dwelling and land office he glanced up at them from the rough pine table at which he be was nas writing howdy ll yancey Tan ceyl Is howdy cass I 1 yancey rancey all grace performed an introduction this lean leather skinned house owner wiped his bis palms on tits his pants seat in courtly fashion and thus purified extend ed a hospitable hand to sabra concey revealed reveal Fd d to him their plight well now say plumb terr ble that aint Is might be I 1 can help you out you and your good lady here but say yancey just wi ill SAL the placing of this sign took the better part of a day let me heep out will you to the corner and mall mail tills this here letter the bags coln any minute now ue he licked and stamped the en delope rose and took from the table beside hirn him his bis broad leather belt with its pair of bolstered six shooters evidently temporarily told laid aside for comfort while writing thisbe this he now strapped quickly about tits his waist with the s same ime unconcern that another man would use in slipping into his coat ile he merely was nas donning conventional street attire for the weil n ell dressed man of the locality ile he picked up tip his til sheaf of 0 envelopes and stepped out in three minutes he was us hick back and affably ready to talk terms with them it was perhaps tills this simple and sl sinister nister act more thin anything she ind had nit hitherto herto that impressed sabra with the utter imwie lawlessness asness ot of tills this new land to which her husband had bad brought her tills this house horse so dearly held by the man called cas cais turn turned d out to be a four room dwelling to their needs and they were in despair at the thought of 0 heins being obliged to wait until a house could be built then yancey had a arii ilant idea lie found a two room cabin male of rough boards thi was nas hauled b aled to the site of the main house plastered ed and added to it provided them m with ith a six room combination newspaper news poper plant and law office there was nil all the splendor of sitting room dining room bedroom and kitchen to live in one room of the small attached cabin na vas a law lind and newspaper office the other served as composing room and print stint the hefner fur alture and undertaking Under inkIng parlors provided them will walli furniture furn iturea a large wooden to fit Sih ras mattress and spring a small bed for cini tables chairs the plain est of bieri thing in two day dav sahra sabra was a housewife established in tier her routine as though she hod had been at it for years setting uy ur the newspaper plant and law office was not so simple yancey for example was inclined 0 to o write his first editorial entitled whither oklahoma Ohla homal before the hand blind press had been put together ile he was more absorbed in the effect of the he sign tacked up over the front of the shop than he was in the proper mechanical arrangement of the necessary appliances inside THE OKLAHOMA WIGWAM read the sign tn in block bloch letters two feet hughso that the little cabin itself was almost obscured then beneath in letters scarcely less impressive YANCEY CRAVAT AND EDITOR ATTORNEY AT LAW NOTARY the placing of this sign took the better part of a day during which time all other work was suspended while the operation was in progress yancey crossed the road fifty times ostensibly to direct matters troia a proper vantage point of criticism but really to bask in the dazzling effect of the hold tat fat black letters As always in the course of such proceedings on the part ol of the laboring male there was much hoarse shouting gesticulation and general rumpus it t was first realization that the male of the species might be fallible A product of southern training even though a dally witness during ner her girlhood to the dominance of tier her matriarchal mother oer 01 er tier her weak and war shat father she had been bred to tile the tradition that the male was always right always to be deterred deferred to yancey still her passionate lover had always treated her tenderly as a charming tittle little fool and this role she had bad meekly even gratefully accepted but now sus biclon began to rear its ugly only head these last three weeks had shown her that the male was often mistaken as a sex and that yancey was almost always wrong as an individual dil dual but these frightening discoveries co she would not yet admit even yancey tills this ease case of types bad ly pled jesse rickey journey man printer and periodic drunkard was responsible for this tune having dropped a case face down in the dust of the road while assisting yancey in tile moving have to be sorted before you can get out a paper oh nick RIck eyll tend to that ive got a lot of important work to do editorials to write news to get lot of real estate transfers and im going to find out who killed and print it in the first issue it it takes the last drop of blood in me ill show them first crack that the oklahoma wigwam prints till the news all the time knowing no law but the law of god and the government of these U tilted culled states say a pret ty good slogan top of the page just above the editorial column in the end it was sabra who sorted the case of pled pied type the five years of yanceys Yance ys newspaper ownership in wichita had familiarized her almost unconsciously with many of the mechanical aspects of a paper printing shop theland the hand press was finally setup set up and the little job press and the lie case rack containing the type the rollers were in place and their lit fit tle tie stock of paper curiously enough though neither yancey nor sabra sabra was conscious of it it was she who bad directed most of this manual work and had indeed actually performed much of lt it with isaiah and jesse rickey to help her yancey would lose himself hl insell in the placing of his law library his books of reference and his favorite volumes for which he be con tended there was as not dot enough shell shelf room in the house proper lie ile had brought along boxes of books stowed away to in the covered wagons if the combined book wealth contained in all the houses offices and shops of tile the entire oklahoma country so newly settled could have been gathered in one spot it probably would have been found to number less than this preposterous library of the paradoxical yancey cravat glib and showy though he was with his book knowledge yancey still had in these volumes of his the absorption of the true book lover lost to all else he would call happily in to sabra as she bent over the case rack her cheek streaked with ink sobel sabel oh sabe saba listen to this lie ile would clear his throat son of nestor delight of my heart mark the hashing flashing of bronze through the echoing halls and the flashing ot of gold and of amber and of silver and of ivory such like methinks is the court of OlymP olympian lIn zells lihan milian lih ln for the world of things that are here wonder comes over me as I 1 look thereon C G d sahra sabra its as fine as the old testa ment mant finer the world of things that are here echoed sabra not bitterly but with grave common sense perhaps if paa pa more atten tion ion to those and less to your non sense in hooks about gold and sll sit ver aud and ivory we might get set tied but he was ready with a honeyed reply culled from the same book so dear to tits his heart and his grand grandlic lio quent niec nt tongue ile be not wroth with ole me goddess and queen the goddess and queen pushed her hair bak back from her forehead tor iiii fill a sooty hand bond leaving still an other smudge of printers ink upon dorried jesse rickey the printer known naturally to liis ills famil familiars lars as gin richey filc key owing to periods of 0 intemperance and black isaiah were to sabra sabira most for the aMoun amounting ding fact that tile tie cravat family finally was wa settled in the house and ollice the ali front rout door hleb was the office entrance faced the wide wallow ol of the main street in the midst ol of clay and refue in a sort of 0 shed kennel hied little natoli isaiah rather he slept there like ilke A faithful do log for all day long he was about the house uda ana printing priming ollice olace tireless fireless illing invaluable he lie belonged to bilbro body and soul US as COM coin plemely as though the cili war had never been A little servant of tac le he born to labor he be be came ai a i dear to sabra as accustomed as one of tier her own children despite her southern training and tits ills black skin ile he dried the dishes a towel tied round his bis neck he laid the table he was playmate aud and nursemaid nurse maid for he ran errands it a swift and splayfooted Aler cury lie he was a born reporter and iq the course of his days scurrying about tile the town on this errand or that brought into kitchen more |