The Schulenburg Sticker (Schulenburg, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 14, 1921 Page: 7 of 8
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THE SCHULENBURG STICKER. SCHULENBURG, TEXAS
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Copyright. All fiigfrb Reserved
BEULAH AND JIM.
Synopsis.—Dissatisfied because of
the seemingly barren outlook of his
position as a school teacher In a
Canadian town, John Harris deter-
mines to leave it, take up land in
Manitoba and become a "home-
steader." Mary, the girl whom he
loves, declares she will accompany
him. They are married and set
out for the unknown country. Alec
McCrae, pioneer settler and ad-
viser of newcomers, proves an in-
valuable friend. Leaving his wife
with the family of a fellow settler,
Fred Arthurs, Harris and McCrae
Journey over the prairie and select
a homestead. Mary insists on ac-
companying him when he takes
possession, and they begin their
life work of making the prairie fer-
tile farm land. Returning from
selling his first crop, Harris finds
his wife despondent almost to in-
sanity from loneliness, and with
the Immediate expectation of be-
coming a mother. A son is born to
them, to whom they give the name
of Allan.
CHAPTER IV.
In the Spell of the Mirage.
, A quarter of a century Is a short
time as world history goes, but it is a
considerable era in the life of the
Canadian west. More things—momen-
tous things—than can be hinted at in
this narrative occurred in the 25 years
following the great inrush of 1882. The
boundless prairie reaches of Manitoba
were now comparatively well settled,
and the tide of immigration, which,
after a dozen years' stagnation, had
Mt in again in greatei flood than ever,
was now sweeping over the newer
lands still farther west The vast
sweep of the horizon, once undeflled
by any work of man, was pierced and
broken with elevators, villages, and
farm buildings, and the whiff of coal
smoke was blown down the air which
had so lately known only the bfreath
of the prairies.
Mary Harris hurried about her ca-
pacious kitchen, deep In preparation
of the evening meal. The years had
taken toll of the freshness of her
young beauty; the shoulders, in mute
testimony to much hard labor of the
hand, had drooped forward over the
deepening' chest; the hair was thin-
ner, and farther back above the fore-
head, and streaked with gray at the
temples; the mouth lacked the rosy
sensuousness of youth, and sat now
in a mold, half of resolution, half sub-
mission. Yet her foot had lost little
of its sprightliness, and the sympathy
in her fine eyes seemed to have deep-
ened with the years.
A moist but appetizing steam rose
from the vegetable pots on the range,
and when she threw back the iron
door to feed more coal the hot glow
from within danced in reflection along
the bright' row of utensils hanging
from the wall, and even sought out
the brass plate on the cream separa-
tor at the far end of the big room.
Through the screen door came the mo-
notonously redundant clic * * * a
* * * clank of the windmill, and a
keen ear might have caught the light
splash of water as it fell in the wood-
en horse troughs from the iron nozzle
of the pump.
Mary stuck a fork in a potato to as-
certain If the "bone" was all gone,
meanwhile shielding her face from the
steam with the pot lid, held aloft in
an aproned hand. Having satisfied
herself that the meal was making sat-
isfactory progress, she stepped to the
door and sent a quick look across the
fields, to where a streak of black
smoke was scrawled along the sky.
"Beulah," she called, turning to-
ward the interior part of the house.
"Come, Beulah, set the table. They're
coming from the field." i
In a moment a girl of twenty, plain-
ly attired in a neat calico dress, en-
tered the kitchen. She was fresh and
beautiful as her mother had been that
first summer in the sod house on the
bench, and something in her appear-
ance suggested that with her mother's
beauty and fine sensibility she had in-
herited the Indomitable spirit which
had made John Harris one of the most
prosperous farmers in the district. She
moved In an easy, unconscious grace
of self-reliance—a reliance that must
be just a little Irritating to men of
old-fashioned notions concerning wom-
an's dependence on the sterner sex—
drew the long wooden table, with Its
covering of white oil cloth. Into the
center of the kitchen, and began plac-
ing the dishes in position.
The scraping of heavy boots on the
plow share nailed to the block at the
door, and John Harris, followed by
Allan and the hired man, Jim, walked
into the kitchen. The farmer's frame
was heavier than in his younger days,
and his hair, too, was streaked with
gray, but every muscle in his great
body seemed to bulge with strength.
His ftfce was brown with the prairie
«un and wind of 25 summers, and
lines of worry and care had cut their
tracings about the mouth and eyes.
Beside him stood Allan, his only son,
straighter and lither of figure, but al-
most equally powerful. The younger
man was, Indeed, a replica of the old-
er, and although they had their dis-
agreements, constant association had
developed a fine comradeship, and, on
Author of -3
*TH# Cow ftinchenltc.
Illustration*
by
Irwin Myers'
the part of the son, a loyalty equal to
any strain. The hired man, Jim, was
lighter and finer of feature, and his
white teeth gleamed against the nut-
brown of his face in a quiet smile
that refused to be displaced in any
emergency, and at times left the be-
holder in considerable doubt as to the
real emotions working behind.
The men all wore blue overalls, dark
blue or gray shirts, and heavy boots.
They were guiltless of coat or vest,
and tossed their light straw hats on
the water bench as they passed. There
was a quick splashing of greasy hands
at the wash basin, followed by a more
effectual rubbing on a towel made
from a worn-out grain sack. The
hired man paused to change the water
and wash his face, but the others pro-
ceeded at once to the table, where no
time was lost in ceremony. Harris
helped himself generously to meat
and vegetables and having done so,
passed the platters to his son, and in
this way they were circulated about
the table. There was no talk for the
first few minutes, only the sound of
knife and fork plied vigorously and
interchangeably by father and son, and
with some regard for convention by
the other members of the family. John
Harris had long ago recognized the
truth that the destinf of food was the
mouth, and whether conveyed on knife
or fork made little difference. Mary,
too, had found a carelessness of little
details both of manner and speech
coming over her, as her occasional
"aint" betrayed, but since Jim had
joined their table she had been on her
guard. Jim seldom said anything, but
always that quiet smile lay like a
mask over his real emotions.
When the first insistent demands of
appetite had been appeased, Harris,
resting both elbows on the table, with
"Don't Be Cross, Dad," She Whispered.
knife and fork trained on opposite
corners of the ceiling, straightened
himself somewhat and remarked:
"Allan an' me's goin' to town to-
night; anything you want from Semp-
ter's store, Mary?"
"That lets me in for the cows," said
Beulah. "You were in town night be-
fore last, too, and It was 9:30 before
I got through milking."
"Oh, well, Jim was away that
night," said Allan.
"Jim has enough to do, without milk-
ing cors after hours," returned the
girl. What do you want to go to
town for again tonight, anyway?"
"Got to get more coal," said Harris.
"We'll take two teams, an' it'll be late
when we get back."
"1 think it's all nonsense, this day-
an'-nlght work," persisted Beulah. "Is
there never going to be any let-up on
it?"
"Beulah, you forget yourself," said
her father. "If you'd more to do you'd
have less time to fret about It. Your
mother did more work in one summer
than you have in all your life, an' she's
doin' more yet."
"Oh, Beulah's a good help," inter-
posed Mary. "I hope she never has to
work like I did."
"I guess the work never hurt us,"
said Harris, helping himself to pre-
served strawberries. "Just the same,
I'm giad to see you gettin' tt a bit
easier. But this younger generation—
it beats me what we're comln' to.
Thlnkin' about nothin' but fun and
gaddin' to town every night or two.
And clo'es—Beulah there's got more
clo'es than there were in the whole
Plainville settlement the first two or
three years."
"I got more neighbors, too," inter-
jected the girl. Then springing up,
she stood behind her father's chair
and put her arm around his neck.
"Don't be cross. Dad." she whis-
pered. "Your heart's in the right
place—but a long way In."
He disengaged her, gently enough.
As Beulah said, his heart was all right,
but a long way in. Twenty-five years
of pitched battle with circumstances—
sometimes in victory, sometimes In de-
feat, but never in despair; always
with a load of expense about him, al-
ways with the problem of income and
outlay to be solved—had made of Har-
ris a man very different from the
young idealist of '82. During the first
years of struggle for a bare existence
in some way the flame of idealism still
burned, but with the dawn of the "bet-
ter times" there came a gradual shift-
ing of standards and a new conception
of essentials. The crops of the early
years were unprofitable on account of
the great distance to market; later,
when the railway came to their doors,
the crops were still unprofitable, owing
to falling prices and diminishing yields
due to poor cultivation. Then came
decade during which those who stayed
in the country stayed because they
could not get out, and it became a cur
rent saying that the more land a man
farmed the deeper he got in debt.
Then came the swing of the pendu-
lum. No one knows just what started
it prosperitywards. Some said it was
that the farmers, disheartened with
wheat growing, were applying them-
selves to stock, and certain it is that
in "mixed farming" the community
eventually found its salvation; others
| attributed the change to improved ag-
j ricultural implements, to improved
j methods of farming, to greater knowl-
j edge of prairie conditions, to reduc-
: tions in the cost of transportation and
i enlarged facilities for marketing, or to
I increasing world demand and higher
I world prices for the product of the
j farm. But whatever the causes—and
! no doubt all of the above contributed
. —the fact gradually dawped upon the
settlers that land—their land—was
i worth money.
• It was the farmers from the United
| States, scouting for cheaper lands than
j were available in their own communi-
I ties, who first drove the conviction
! home. They came with money in their
wallets; they were actually. prepared
to exchange real money for land
Such a thing had never before been
heard of in Plainville district.
But a few transactions took place;
lands were sold at five dollars, six dol-
lars, eight dollars an acre. The farm-
ers began to realize that land repre-
sented wealth—that it was an asset,
not a liability—and there was a rush
for the cheap railway lands that had
so long gone a-begging. Harris was
among the first to sense the change in
the times, and a beautiful section of
railway land that lay next to his
homestead he bought at four dollars
an acre. The first crop more than
paid for the land, and Harris sudden-
ly found himself on the way to riches.
The joy that tame with the realiza-
tion that fortune had knocked at his
door and he had heard was the con-
trolling emotion of his heart for a
year or more. But gradually, like a
fog blown across a moonlit night, came
a sense of chill and disappointment
If only he had bought two sections! If
at least he had proved up on his pre-
emption, which he might have had for
nothing! He saw neighbors about him
adding quarter to quarter. None of
them had done better than himself,
but some had done as well. And in
some way the old sense of oneness,
the old community interest which had
held the little band of pioneers to-
gether amid their privations and their
poverty, began to weaken and dis-
solve, and in its place came an indi-
vidualism and a materialism that
measured progress only in dollars and
cents. Harris did not know that his
gods had fallen, that his Ideals had
been swept away; even as he sat at
supper this summer evening, with his
daughter's arm about his neck, he felt
that he was still bravely, persistently,
pressing on toward the goal, all un-
aware that years ago he had left that
goal like a lighthouse on a rocky
shore, and was now sweeping along
with the turbulent tide of Mammon-
ism. He still saw the light ahead, but
it was now a phantom of the imagina-
tion. He said, "When I am worth ten
thousand I will have reached it;"
when he was worth ten thousand he
found the faithless light had moved
on to twenty-five thousand. He said,
"When I am worth twenty-five thou-
sand I will have reached it;" when he
was worth twenty-five thousand he
saw the glow still ahead, beckoning
him on to fifty thousand. To stop
now might mean losing sight of his
goal, and John Harris held nothing in
heaven or earth so great as Its attain-
ment.
So, gently enough, he disengaged his
daughter's arm and finished his sup-
per in silence. As soon as it was
ende^l the men started for the barn,
and in a few minutes two wagons rat-
tled noisily down the trail.
Beulah helped with the supper dish-
es, and then came out with the milk
palls to the corral where the cows,
puffing and chewing, complacently
awaited her arrival. But she had not
reached the gate when the hired man
was at her side and had slipped one
of the pails from her arm.
"Now, Jim, I don't think that's fair
at all," she said; and there was a
tremor in her voice that vexed her.
"Here you're slaving all day with coal
and water, and I think that's enough,
without milking cows at . night."
But Jim only smiled and stirred a
cow into position.
There was a tuneful song of the tin
pails as the white streams rattled on
their bottoms.
"Here I've slaved and saved
until I'm an old woman."
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
1
Turned Out to Be Serious.
"What became of that girl Maslier-
ton was flirting with last summer?"
"You mean the girl that Masherton
thought he was flirting with? She
married him."—London Opinion.
A Big Drop
1A.
cJell-0
9
res
25
The Genesee Pure Food Company,
Le Roy, N."Y. J
if
=£te
SZ
Nature sometimes stores a lot of
brains behind a pretty face.
ImDortant to Mothers
Examine carefully every bottle of
CASTORIA, that famous old remedy
Cor infants and children, and see that it
Bears the
Signature of,
In Use for Over 30 Years.
Children Cry for Fletcher's Castoria
If the necessary work is well donp,
don't be too particular how.
I
Strong Resemblance.
"Contentment," remarked Shinbone,
"am a mighty fine thing; de only
trouble 'bout it is it's kin' o' hahd to
'stinguish from jes plain laziness,"—
Boston Transcript. ,
Insist on bavin? Dr. Peery's "Dead Shot" foi
Worms or Tapeworm and the druggist -will
procure it. It is the only Vermifuge which
operates thoroughly after a single dose.--Adv.
ARMY BLANKETS
CLOTHING, ETC.
New Wool Olive Drab Officers' Blankets $ 6.95
New Wool Gray Officers' Blankets ... 6.45
Re-issue Olive Drab Officers' Blankets 5.95
Re-issue Gray Officers' Blankets 5.45
Regulation Wool Overcoats, marching length 10.50
New Regulation O. D. Shirts 5.75
Slightly Used Regulation O. D. Shirts 3.00
Khaki Pants, lace regulation, slightly used .1.50
Canvas Leggings, cuff, new #J 1J25
The above sent by prepaid insured parcel post. Also,
all kinds of tents, cots, comforts, mattresses, new shoes,
etc. Write for our complete price list. Satisfaction guar-
anteed or money refunded upon return of goods. We are
the largest dealers in army goods in Texas, Louisiana
and Oklahoma. We purchase direct; from the Govern-
ment. Order from the nearest store and save freight or
express. Our stores are located as follows:
Crawford & Orand, 906 Franklin St, Houston, Texas
ARMY EQUIPMENT CO.
708 Milam St., Shreveport, La. Ill Main St., Ft. Wortb, Texas
1519 Commerce St., Dallas, Texas.
223 North Side Square, Waco, Texas. 31S East 3rd St., Tulsa, Okla.
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Cash Buyers EGGS—TURKEYS—POULTRY
WB ABB BONDHD. HHTABLI8HRD 189L
JONES-BREWSTER CO., Houston, Tex.
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Couldn't Hear Him.
Mrs. Benbam—"What did the minis-
ter preach about?" Benham—"My
hearing is sadly defective when I am
not awake."
It's time to cross your fingers when
you hear a man boasting of his good
deeds. '
A11 ounce of contentment is more
beneficial to a woman's complexion
than a pound of cosmetics.
Not Always on Tim$
Pride goeth before a fall—so
before in many instances that
ous people are weary waiting for the
catastrophe.—Boston Transcript.
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enYl-
1 mm fkezasF&U
If a man is a millionaire he *can
all the fool things he wants to w
out impairing his reputation.
'M -
A Whole
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*
SKINNER?
>T
FREE—one package of your favorite SKIN-
NER'S Macaroni, Spaghetti or Egg Noodles.
Tear off the coupon, take it to your grocer, buy
one package and he will give you another free.
If he will not supply you write us, giving his
name and address.
One package of SKINNER'S Macaroni Prod-
ucts should make a full meal for the average
family.
If at any time you do not find the superiority of
SKINNER'S immediately noticeable return the
empty package to your grocer and he will Re-
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Hundreds of appetizing dishes can be prepared
from SKINNER'S Macaroni Products. Write
us for our 48-page book of recipes, enclosing 4c
in stamps to cover postage.
Unfortunately there are grocers that do not
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cheap raw material under unsanitary conditions.
Demand SKINNER'S Macaroni Products for
your family's sake. REFUSE TO USE MAC-
ARONI THAT COOKS UP MUSHY AND
DOES NOT HAVE A REAL FLAVOR, EVEN
IF YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR
GROCER.
Just tear off the coupon that appears below.
It's "legal tender" at any store—will buy you
one package of SKINNER'S Macaroni Products
if you buy another. You get two packages for
only 10 cents by presenting this Free 10-cent
coupon.
Cosrnre
FRfC FROM ARTIFICIAL C010RIH6
MA0C roo
5,0 (?£.
AUWAV5
h GH
BUY ONE
OF THESE
" i
•fH
WE
GIVE YOU THIS
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Ott
' sKinwrRgro CQ|
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NOTICE TO
GROCERS:
This coupon, signed by your
customer, will be redeemed at
10 cents in cash. Return coupon
direct to Skinner Manufacturing
Company, Omaha, U. S. A. If you
do not have our full line stocked send
us name of your jobber.
NOTICE TO PURCHASER
Coupon, if presented within 30 days, good for
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if you purchase another at the regular price.
SIGN THE FOLLOWING:
I hereby certify that I have this day purchased one
package of SKINNER'S Macaroni Products from my
grocer and received one package free.
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Price, J. A. The Schulenburg Sticker (Schulenburg, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 14, 1921, newspaper, January 14, 1921; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth189698/m1/7/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Schulenburg Public Library.