13

A CHARMING STORY.

Lincoln Journal; That charming and
able writer, Mrs. Elia W. Peattie of Omaha,
has a story in the June number of the
Cosmopolitian called" Jim Laney's Waterloo."
It treats of the experiences of a
bride who is taken directly from her Illinois
home to her husband's mortgaged
home in Nebraska. The first year the
crops are good, but prices are low and the
year is ended with a net loss of several
hundred dollars. Her husband becomes
so much interested in the theory that the
railroads and the money loaners are responsible
for the low prices that he becomes
a roaring populist, runs for the
legislature and has no time to check the
mental and spiritual starvation of his wife.
The second year the hot winds destroy the
corn, her baby dies for want of care while
she is slaving around the house and the
barnyard and Jim is balked in his political
ambitions. the tale closes with a separation,
the wife returning to her mother and
the husband spending his last dollar for a
ticket to Omaha, where in a short time he
is registered as a "plain drunk." at the city
jail.

The publication of such a dismal tale
with the scene laid in Nebraska will cause
keen regret among the people who have at
heart the welfare of the state. The cleverness
of the story and the skill and finish
with which it is told only adds to the damage
that will be done by its general circulation.
It does not describe a typical case
by any means, but it will be considered
typical where the state is not known, and
the tale is just strong enough, just vivid
enough to make an impression upon the
average mind that cannot be wiped out in
years. Mrs. Peattie had a perfect right to
prepare and publish the story. Her efforts
are produced by legitimate means. Cases
like Jim's have been occurring on the frontier
ever since the earliest settler began to
beat the frontier back from the ocean. It
is really a tribute to Mrs. Peattie's strength
as a writer to say that the selection of Nebraska
as the seat of her tragedy will really
injure the state among people who are
ready to believe anything that they read
about the great west. One can't scold her
for writing it, but a good many folks will
wish down in the bottom of their hearts
that a thing of this kind may never happen
again.