October 27, 1971 (12 pages)

6 The Nevada County Nugget, Wednesday, October 27, 1971 one (Continued from last week) As Mrs. Wakefield, although almost restored to health, was still an invalid, she contented herself with a lazy life that involved no exertion beyond the comfort of a rockingchair and the manufacture of tidies and other vexations adornments, interrupted by an occasional visit to or from Ruth. Her soorow over her husband's strange affliction became less poignant as time passed and she bore the cross without complaint. There was always the hope of restoration and the solace of his comrades' sympathy, and not one of them gave more sincere expression to this feeling than Brant. Out of harmony in all other directions, here at least was a/relief from the solitude and ennui that oppressed him, and it was not long before he was ona most friendly footing. So much of his old life as would bear relating he confided to her, and she was a sympathetic listener and in turn gossipped of her native village, its oppressive atmosphere and narrow social restrictions, the dull round of simple diversions, the two trips to that wonderful place, New York, visits that had revealed a new world and filled her with longing for an escape from the stuped town; the return of her husband and the abandonment of the old life — not very startling or exciting happenings, for beyond the voyage to California her existence had run on without incident. And here it was all so new and so strange. The dead weight of ancient customs was lifted, the Puritanical fetters that regulated the daily walk, ‘the obsequious deference paid to Mrs, Grundy, the absence of those pin-pricks of village criticism that tyranized-the conduct and paralyzed the will of the boldest; all these suddenly vanished, and although the little hamlet numbered scarce a ‘ hundred sons, it was as broadly cosmopolitan and as tolerant as the biggest of cities. At first her mind gave but a tired acquiescence to the breaking down of the old barriers and left her in a state of mental topsy-turviness, There was an inward protest against this freedom that brooked none of the old restraints, that recognized no class distinctions, that measured the individual by his achievements and ridiculed any pretension that was not justified by his work. In her birthplace Mike would have been impossible, yet here he loomed up as the one man capable, He was illiterate, his brogue was deliciously absurd, he had been a brawler, a rollicking winebibber, a type that she had been taught to regard as a parish; here he commanded respect and obedience by force of dominant will and capability. : And Tex, a large-minded careless frontiersman, who was a stranger to the polish and social amenities of civilization— how dwarfed in comparison were her old acquaintances, the aristocratic country banker, the spiring clerk, the humdrum lawyer, the plodding farmer, in contrast with this simple ‘The City giant. As she listened to his reminiscences of a border life, thrilling episodes that were told as commonplace occurrences, he was to her imagination a man who had done things other than lend money at usury, measure tape, settle village quarrels, or raise a crop of corn, It was Rance, however, that upset all her traditions and dispelled lifelong prejudices, The seed of abolitionism hadgrown and flourished in the Mohawk Valley, and the slave-, holder had been held in abhorrence and destestation. While politics were of but little interest to her, the prejudices aroused by the fulminations against slavery and slaveholders had so biased her mind that she could see no good that could come out of Nazareth; and yet Rance, a type of the South upset all her theories, beliefs and traditions. He was an oppressor and nigger-driver, had. lived off the toil and sweat of the slave, and yet was so absurdly different from anything she had imagined. He was kindly, considerate, tolerant of others’ opinions and not intolerant in the expression of. his own; if he was a fair representative she would need to revise her opinions. Not that she pondered very deeply on the matter; it was only one of the many revisions that this new life made necessary. With restored health there at first came a sense of loneliness, a feeling that she was outside of the general affairs of the camp. Her husband's strange monomania had brought about a partial estrangement. He had apparently ceased to recognize her as a wife, carrying it so far as to not dwell under the same roof. Indulging the whim, Rance had’ given him a bunk in the office and there he slept, taking his meals at the boarding-house and passing the day in woodland rambles with -his daughter, to whom he gave a dogged fidelity. As Rance f-it it incumbent upon himself to guard them both, the wife saw but little of him, and Brant became. her Companion and consoler, PART XXVI To the man the companionship had an indescribably charm. Self-ostracized from contact with all good women (for in his old profession they had gathered up their skirts and passed him by in scorn), his enforced association with the other kind had bred in him a contempt for the sex; for gambler that he had been, he had remained a clean man morally. A bird of prey, perhaps, prospering and thriving on the passions and weaknesses of mankind, yet he could not refrain from dispising his victims for their weakness. "They know the percentage is against them. Why do they buck at the game?" was his comment; and then, as his and bur! bacl had betv side stra dau: ing to i min she to . gore brot gave she Evel was not give take up Pro advi

6 The Nevada County Nugget, Wednesday, October 27, 1971 one (Continued from last week) As Mrs. Wakefield, although almost restored to health, was still an invalid, she contented herself with a lazy life that involved no exertion beyond the comfort of a rockingchair and the manufacture of tidies and other vexations adornments, interrupted by an occasional visit to or from Ruth. Her soorow over her husband's strange affliction became less poignant as time passed and she bore the cross without complaint. There was always the hope of restoration and the solace of his comrades' sympathy, and not one of them gave more sincere expression to this feeling than Brant. Out of harmony in all other directions, here at least was a/relief from the solitude and ennui that oppressed him, and it was not long before he was ona most friendly footing. So much of his old life as would bear relating he confided to her, and she was a sympathetic listener and in turn gossipped of her native village, its oppressive atmosphere and narrow social restrictions, the dull round of simple diversions, the two trips to that wonderful place, New York, visits that had revealed a new world and filled her with longing for an escape from the stuped town; the return of her husband and the abandonment of the old life — not very startling or exciting happenings, for beyond the voyage to California her existence had run on without incident. And here it was all so new and so strange. The dead weight of ancient customs was lifted, the Puritanical fetters that regulated the daily walk, ‘the obsequious deference paid to Mrs, Grundy, the absence of those pin-pricks of village criticism that tyranized-the conduct and paralyzed the will of the boldest; all these suddenly vanished, and although the little hamlet numbered scarce a ‘ hundred sons, it was as broadly cosmopolitan and as tolerant as the biggest of cities. At first her mind gave but a tired acquiescence to the breaking down of the old barriers and left her in a state of mental topsy-turviness, There was an inward protest against this freedom that brooked none of the old restraints, that recognized no class distinctions, that measured the individual by his achievements and ridiculed any pretension that was not justified by his work. In her birthplace Mike would have been impossible, yet here he loomed up as the one man capable, He was illiterate, his brogue was deliciously absurd, he had been a brawler, a rollicking winebibber, a type that she had been taught to regard as a parish; here he commanded respect and obedience by force of dominant will and capability. : And Tex, a large-minded careless frontiersman, who was a stranger to the polish and social amenities of civilization— how dwarfed in comparison were her old acquaintances, the aristocratic country banker, the spiring clerk, the humdrum lawyer, the plodding farmer, in contrast with this simple ‘The City giant. As she listened to his reminiscences of a border life, thrilling episodes that were told as commonplace occurrences, he was to her imagination a man who had done things other than lend money at usury, measure tape, settle village quarrels, or raise a crop of corn, It was Rance, however, that upset all her traditions and dispelled lifelong prejudices, The seed of abolitionism hadgrown and flourished in the Mohawk Valley, and the slave-, holder had been held in abhorrence and destestation. While politics were of but little interest to her, the prejudices aroused by the fulminations against slavery and slaveholders had so biased her mind that she could see no good that could come out of Nazareth; and yet Rance, a type of the South upset all her theories, beliefs and traditions. He was an oppressor and

nigger-driver, had. lived off the toil and sweat of the slave, and yet was so absurdly different from anything she had imagined. He was kindly, considerate, tolerant of others’ opinions and not intolerant in the expression of. his own; if he was a fair representative she would need to revise her opinions. Not that she pondered very deeply on the matter; it was only one of the many revisions that this new life made necessary. With restored health there at first came a sense of loneliness, a feeling that she was outside of the general affairs of the camp. Her husband's strange monomania had brought about a partial estrangement. He had apparently ceased to recognize her as a wife, carrying it so far as to not dwell under the same roof. Indulging the whim, Rance had’ given him a bunk in the office and there he slept, taking his meals at the boarding-house and passing the day in woodland rambles with -his daughter, to whom he gave a dogged fidelity. As Rance f-it it incumbent upon himself to guard them both, the wife saw but little of him, and Brant became. her Companion and consoler, PART XXVI To the man the companionship had an indescribably charm. Self-ostracized from contact with all good women (for in his old profession they had gathered up their skirts and passed him by in scorn), his enforced association with the other kind had bred in him a contempt for the sex; for gambler that he had been, he had remained a clean man morally. A bird of prey, perhaps, prospering and thriving on the passions and weaknesses of mankind, yet he could not refrain from dispising his victims for their weakness. "They know the percentage is against them. Why do they buck at the game?" was his comment; and then, as his and bur! bacl had betv side stra dau: ing to i min she to . gore brot gave she Evel was not give take up Pro advi