[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Should help the missus hire help and keep the ranch going for the rest of the season.”“Isn’t that a great idea?” the reverend asked.“A community fund-raiser.”The suggestion was met with approving voices, and it was suggested that George and the reverend find the sponsors and deposit the entry fees.The amount of the entry fee was decided quickly.A few church members left after that discussion, and the children were still occupied in a game outdoors.The mayor came forward and brought up the subject of the new livery.He adjusted his tie, appearing uncomfortable with his position in moderating the discussion.He opened the floor, and the members of the Women’s Temperance Prayer League stood at the front of the room.“We must show our opposition to this newest form of rebellion,” Meriel Reed announced.“The saloon owners cannot get away with harming our respectable businesses.”“That’s right,” Blythe agreed.“If they get no support or customers, they can’t continue this practice.”The butcher, an unmarried German immigrant, stood.“With due respect, ma’am—and ma’am—seems to me they wouldn’t have been forced to start their own livery if the one already here hadn’t turned ’em away.What’s a person to do to get their supplies?”“That’s the idea, Mr.Hulbert.” Meriel straightened.“By forcing them out of business, we will make them discontinue their sordid occupations.”“This is America,” he replied.“They have just as much of a right to their occupations as any of us do.”“And where do you think the tax money for that new school building and the schoolteacher’s salary came from?” a rancher asked, standing to speak his piece.“The saloons’ve been supportin’ this town for years.”“We don’t need their kind of money,” Beatrice Gibbs said.Nate exchanged a look with the mayor.“We can raise money on our own,” she went on.“We’ve already built the Temperance Hall from our box socials and quilt sales.”“Lady, that ain’t a drop in a bucket compared to what the saloons bring in,” another man said.“Do you know how much they pay in taxes a year? How much their fines add up to? Besides that, when miners come in to the saloon, they board their horses, they get a bath and a shave, they eat at Clive’s place.”Clive and Suzanna Callahan nodded their agreement.“And if they have some dust to sell, they do so and buy supplies from Howard.” He looked at the mercantile owner.“How many miners outfitted themselves because of that Jenkins fella shoutin’ about a strike?”Blythe stood at that.“I don’t have a problem selling to the miners.It’s the women from the dens of iniquity we should turn away and discourage.”At that, Howard Shaw stepped up beside his wife and faced her.“Don’t you understand? If the miners didn’t have a saloon to come into Thunder Canyon for, they would go somewhere else!” he said emphatically.“We wouldn’t have any of their business.”Shirley Staub spoke up then.“I haven’t taken sides in this issue.I don’t want to.But I run a place in town, too, and it seems to me that Wade is going to be hurt by his decision to turn away the saloon owners.” She looked directly at Meriel.“Once their livery is running, people will have a choice, and that cuts into your living.If Clive turned them away, what’s to say they wouldn’t start their own restaurant? The Shady Lady already serves meals two evenings a week.”“Don’t speak that name in the house of the Lord!” Meriel cried.At that point Nate understood exactly what Lily had meant about these women being unreachable in their own narrow-minded little world.Several people spoke at once, and chaos broke out.After a few minutes of being unable to understand anyone over the commotion, Nate got up and walked to the front of the church.CHAPTER NINE“ENOUGH!” NATE BELLOWED.Silence ensued.One by one, every person looked at him.The rafters creaked.Reverend Bacon smiled.“I know this is my first time to church and all, but damn! Don’t you people know freedom and tolerance are what your fathers fought to the death for? Speaking your mind and having an opinion are fine.Fine! But trying to force people into your way of thinkin’ and believin’ is wrong.”“You were hired to do a job, Sheriff, not to tell us how to run our town,” Meriel said.He took an angry step forward and directed his words to her.“Any time the city council doesn’t like the way I’m doin’ my job, they can let me know.The men who hired me can have my resignation.My job is to keep the peace in this town.Hell, the most disturbance I see comes from right here.” He pointed to the floor, indicating the whole of the gathering.He glanced from face to face and zeroed in on Wade.“Mr.Reed, do you realize what you’ve done? This is revenue we’re talkin’ about! If your livery business suffers, what will the effect be on you and your household?”“Well…things would be real tight.”“There wouldn’t be much money to spend, would there?”“I reckon not.Not if none was comin’ in.”“And expenses like dresses and shoes and frippery for the house would have to be forgotten, do you suppose?”Wade glanced from Nate to his wife, understanding dawning on his face.“Yep.A cut in what we sell means a cut in what we spend.That’s a fact.”Meriel’s face drew into a pinch.Howard Shaw spoke up then.“If Miss Lily stopped ordering from the catalogs and buying her supplies from me, my profits would drop considerably.She’s one of my biggest customers.Zeke and Bernie, too.”Blythe’s angry expression scorched her husband and blistered every man in the room.“Is money more important than morals? Are we going to condone the practices of sin and evil by supporting them?”The Thorndike man who worked at the bank spoke up for the first time.“Seems to me some of us have let our wives’ perceptions of what is right and wrong dictate our better judgment
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tematy
IndexCidney Swanson [Saving Mars Saving Mars (epub)
Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Clair Delaney [Coral 01] Coral (epub)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christine Flynn [The Hunt for Once Upon a Christmas Eve (epub
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 1 (epub)
PS57 Pan Samochodzik i Złoty Bafomet Niemirski Arkadiusz