The Argosy, August 1905 — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

faded, he sat on the side of his bunk and groaned aloud. : . . And it was then, as if the snow lang was moved to pity for the spendthrift, that the heavens shook great white flakes from lowering clouds and covered the earth. The snow fell for days until Tontic, eighty miles from a railway sta- tion, ten thousand feet above sea-level, approachable only by winding roads up the mountainsides, found itself cut off from the great world without. A year before, when the camp was Im the first bloom of its youth, a similar incident had not concerned any one. Tontic had been snowbound for twenty days and had survived. It would doubt- less survive now, even if its supply of fresh meat was not forthcoming. The tin can of civilization was here, for the tin can ever accompanies the advance to the frontier. The Tontie commissary—stocked against just such an emergency with the all-seasonable things that come in tins square and circular, tins oblong and flat, tins gaily covered or merely stamped—would serve an army. Tonti¢ sank back complacently after the first week of the snow blockade, blessing the tin can. But it sat bolt up- right directly when it appeared that there was a famine in something to which the community had never before given a thought. And as this famine, strangely enough, had to do with the folly of Sowders, mention must be made at once of a most important person—the most important person—in Tontic society, Mrs. Senator B. V. L. Judson, wife of the represen- tative of the Tonmtic and Eldora dis- tricts in the upper house of the State legislature. Coincident with the beginning of the storm, Mrs. Judson had announced a function at the Tontic Grand Hotel, to which all that was socially possible in the town had been bidden. sis nol too extravagant to say that, in this function, the camp faced its first great social event. It had been whis- pered that Mrs. Judson had contracted for the entire second floor of the cara- vansary; and as for expense, Senator tion to a place remote. _— . THE ARGOSY. And it was further reported that among the items to grace the banquet were the rare and succulent provisions of the oyster beds to be transported directly from the sea-shore, thousands of miles away. ‘These provisions had, indeed, providentially arrived with the last loads of freight that came into camp before traffic was interrupted and had since been on ice awaiting the eventful night. Therefore let the storm king rage. Mrs. Judson was not to be denied. And thus, on the eve of the great function, when the five hundred elect of Tontic—and they were, at this period, mostly masculine—quivered with antici- pation of the morrow, a short, hoarse ery rahg out into the night. It was a ery for a white shirt with a stiff bosom, The ery went far and was echoed. Tontic made no great exactions in the matter of dress. In general it worried along in blue flannel and corduroy. But here was more serious matter. Respect for Mrs. Senator Judson, re- spect for a “ parlor affair,” demanded of all male comers at least a white shirt and a string tie. And it was the dis- covery that white shirts were not on the market that caused strong men to utter the language that comes only with great emotions. In vain the Levi Brothers affected to explain. In vain they realized too late that Mr. Abram Levi had made the financial mistake of his life when he sold, for two dollars each, shirts that would now bring almost any amount. And vainer still was the pleading of the Levis after they had gone down the long street to Sowders’ cabin and there offered him double and thrice his money. For Sowders, sitting in the midst of ruin, cowering under remorse, had at once grasped the situation, and sent his callers forth with a stern and firm voice. When, therefore, a committee of earnest citizens, representing nearly all who had been favored with an invita- tion to Mrs. Judson’s epoch-making party, waited upon Sowders, after Levis’ negotiations had failed, they found a calm, supremely-poised _ individual, basking in the sunlight of self-confi- ence. He listened unmoved to entreaties. > - x ‘ «* ; >. oF sd o- _ + comicbooks.com