Lost Pueblo (1992) Read Online Free PDF Page A

no religion. They wear indecent clothes, or I might say very few clothes at all. They dance all night, drown themselves in booze, pet and neck indiscriminately, and most of them go the limit."
    "Mr. Endicott!" expostulated Randolph, somewhat taken aback by the elder man's outburst.
    "Phil, I'm telling you straight. This is not my theory. I know. I've got this young crowd figured that far, at least. I have no patience at all with the fatuous mamas and papas who claim the young people are all right. They are not all right. They are a fast crowd and the nation that depends on them and can't change them is slated for hell. These wise-acres who say there is no flagrant immorality are far off the track. Those who claim young women of today are no different from yesterday are simply blind. They are different, and I don't mean wholly the emancipation of women since the war. I was always for woman suffrage... Well, I'm not concerned with the causes, as whether or not we parents are to blame. I've done my damnedest for Janey and it hurts to think maybe I've failed. I'm honest in believing I've not been a bad example for my child. But sometimes Janey makes me crawl into a dark corner and hide... I'm concerned with the facts of what I'm telling you. I want to see Janey married to a good and straight and industrious young man. Janey says he doesn't exist... Her mother was like Janey, though not so beautiful. She was willful, intelligent, bewildering. But she had no vices... Now I take it Janey is about as fascinating as a young woman could be. Perhaps she is all the more so because of this complexity of modern times. She knows it. I wouldn't call Janey conceited. She's not really vain. She's rather a merciless gay modern young woman who takes pleasure in wading through a mob of men. If she heard her friends speak of a man who was not likely to fall for her, as they call it, Janey would yell, 'Lead me to him!' Despite all this I feel and hope Janey can be saved. Lord, fancy her hearing me say that! To my mind if she drifts with her crowd she'll never amount to anything. She would probably divorce one husband after another. I don't like the idea. Janey's mother left her something which she will have control of in another year. And then of course she'll get all I possess, which isn't inconsiderable. Her prospects then, and her beauty, make her a mark for the men she comes in contact with, and their name is legion. I have tried to keep her away from the worst of them. But it's impossible."
    "Why impossible?" broke in Phillip, tersely.
    "I gave up because when I'd tell Janey a certain young fellow was no fit acquaintance for her I would only stimulate interest. She'd say, 'Dad, you think you know a lot, but I'll have to see for myself'--and you bet she would."
    "Then Janey wouldn't obey you?" asked Randolph.
    "Obey!" echoed Endicott, in surprise. "Most certainly she would not."
    "Then indeed you are to blame for what she is."
    "Ha! I'd like to see you or anybody else make Janey obey."
    "I could and I would," declared Randolph.
    "My dear young Arizona archaeologist! May I ask how?" returned Endicott, not without sarcasm and amusement.
    "I'd take that young lady across my knee and spank her soundly."
    "Good Lord! You don't know what you're saying... Why, if I subjected Janey to such indignity she'd--she'd--well, what wouldn't she do? Wrecking the place where it happened would be the least... Yet, oh--how I have wanted to do that same little thing!"
    "Mr. Endicott, your daughter is a spoiled child," asserted Randolph, in a tone that made Janey want to shriek.
    "Spoiled--yes--and everything else," agreed Endicott, helplessly. "But with it all she is adorable. Have you noticed that, Phil?"
    "Why, come to think of it I believe I have," he answered, with dry humor.
    "Well, we are agreed on a few things, anyway. We can dismiss her demerits by acknowledging that, and her intelligence, truthfulness, and other cardinal virtues which she has in common with