« OU shall not marry : | any young wofne 3 an in this city, The time has come when the Scriptures are too opén- ly violated by your sisters, your sweethearts and the sisters and sweethearts of your friends. No girl ia this town is worthy of mar- riage to any young man within my congregation. You must, if necéssary, go to England, France, Bel- gium or even Germany for wives that are worthy of you. T ask you all to sign a pledge that you will ob- serve my command, and I warn you that I will not perform the marriage cere- mony for any of the young women in this community." One may well imagine what consternation was caused in the church when the pastor spoke these words in the course of his Sunday morning sermon. The min- ister was the Rev. Floya Burnett. His church is the principal one in the thriving little city of Mosquero, in New Mexico. In his congregation that moraing were all the young ladies of the town and also all the young men of the city, together with many of their elders, y The Rev. Mr. Burnett had Just finished a stirring sermon directeq generally against modern fashions and, in particular, againsc what he described as the unwholesomeness of the young women who were seated in the church pews in front of him. He quoted liberally from the Bible in his de- nunciations of such things as roiled stock- lugs, short skirts, peekaboo waists 'and bobbed hair, and ended these Quotations by reading from Apostle Paul: "Let your Women dress as becoming women." The little city of Mosquero is ina countr;' where every man carries a gun and where nearly all young women frequently enjoy themselves by shooting at a target. It is safe to say, even though there was no census taken at the time, that every young &irl in the church was the sweetheart of Some young man In some nearby pew, and that this young man carried, either in his belt or in a pocket, a thoroughly reliable and quickly reached pistol or revolver. It is also safe to say that each gun was a large one and had been much practiced with. So it may be said that the Rev. Mr. Bur. nett carried his life in his hands when he stoad before the assembled population of the city, knowing that there were almost a8 many guns in front of him as there Were young men, and told all the swains there assembled that their sweethearts were not fit for love and marriage. And almost any one would have assured the young minister that his death warrant most certainly would be executed should F -- You Must Not Mar Amazing Edict of the Daring "Sky Pilot" Robs All the Young Women of Whole City of Their Fiances; It Dooms the To left--Miss Lulu Davis, the Belle of Mosquero, the power behind the young women's organized defiance of the ban pupon them. Bachelors Re 20 30 tar as to use in connection with his other denynciations the forbidden term "maverick." And yet with only the thin boards of his lectern between him and the "i bullets in the audience he plainly and with inister's shoul- calm punctuations declared: Spr Mis ind oh Te mints "1 say to all you girls who are hearing . ro me this morning that you are 'mavericks,' aa. lave desided you ve maverick fla y ' ih may Aon Bes, be hives ing by a And thus was born what certainly is one of the most interesting and, withal, amas- 1s spoken, for I mean It, every word." a ing societies in the entire United States. Certainly the older men and women in that congregation were sure that there With the city's most prominent attorney as its president, a wealthy ofl land owner would be a fusillade of shots to greet the young sky pliot when he would emerge as its secretary. and the publisher of a local newspaper as its treasurer, the that morning from the church door, But there was not--for trange thing ha ras § aps Young Men's Mutual Protective Assocla- tion was that morning organized. In the pened. minister's study bylaws and a constitution Pastor Burnett is a little man who strongly reminds those of his parishioners were drawn up. 'With the nelp of the min- ister a pledge was also worded This Who have read Sir James Barrle of the pledge binds its signers to not propose latter's "Little Minister." He is a man who most any ysungster in Mosquero could floor with a single blow. Yet Lis Idulidra wera square, his chin was uy, marriage, to pay attention to or consider d there were brave fires in his eyes when oi a he walked boldly out the church door and he ia Ar iad purpons apy : young womar who shall weer her stock- confronted the young men of the coagi e- : Eaticn w'.ose sweethéarts he had just so 1n#® rolled down from the tep, who hall bitterly desouniced. There were two ways Wear her skirts amy higher than fine fcr Pastor Burnett to turn--one, down the inches from the ground, or who shall wear path that led away from town, which was & gown or shirtwaist witn the nec eit deserted and along which he hardly would lower than meets the approval of Parson have met another man. The other way Burnett, or who shall bob her hair. Ths was along the road minister himself, who until this Sunday snd this would lea had been constdéred the foremost matri- monial catch in seven counties, was the first to attach his signatire to this ro- markable document. = It needs but one photograph to make evident that this extraordinary pletige and rémoves from local Tats prospect every young woman v hone is in Mosausro. This photograph is ( ain! | - Sn Covsriil, 1022, bs The New York : =| Ji filet nL Te SE HH \ = 7777 N= rin EAS to Capture of | Above--These are what Bakers' Dozen" --admittedly women; to left--Blanche Hall, and Aurelia Trujillo, the ex-editress, Women's Association, published on this page, and includes every &irl who is unmarried in the entire city. On the other hand, every young man of marriageable cond!tion <f the city joiaad tle Little Minister's society, Each one of them states openly that he is in tke mar- ket for a wife. Bach one admits that he either had an exclusive interest in one of the young ladies of the town or was & rival for the favor of some one of them. Until Pastor Buruett preached his startling ser mon all of them admit they thought the young women of Mosquero were the most pleasing, the most beautiful, the most charming and the most modest young women in the world. The rolled down stockings, they declared, especially ir punctuated 6 well dimpled knees, were especially attractive. Bobbed hair, they had thought, was the mark of proper observe ance of the most admirable Eastern fash- fons. Open necks and short skirts, they all agreed, were decidedly to be encour- aged. The picture of immodesty presented them by the minister that Sunday morning completely persuaded them otherwise on all these points,'and now they are unani- mous in declaring that they will import their wives even it trey hae to raid the reighbering cities 1a order to obtain an adequate supply. 03s weald suppose that in the face of such unanimous condemnation and with their immediate prospects of marriage ecemingly suddenly threatened, they would without hec'tation resort to the expe- diency of lowering their skirts, pulling up their stockings, binding their Lair and tattoning up their shirtwaists. But tYere zeems to be no such inclination on the part of these attractive young West- ern girls. They, too, held a meeting that same Sunday evening to receive and dis- cuss the extraordinary pledge which by that time all their sweethearts hai signed. There was no statsment of contrition agreed upon. Inetead, each girl votel "yes" to the propositim that each young man should 'Le indisidusliy toll that, with the full eonscut cf the fiminine iexibers of tha commanhy, the sali Yoully" then might 26 to Denver, With tha ra-eipt of this message from the girls the boys declared a war was on, and the girls lizewise declared that the war was over, for tLe simple reason that they would never accept defeal. They would not, they said, become old fashioned Just ia order to acquire an old tashionad husband. Therefore, the young women of Mosquer> no longer ge to church on Sunday, but say thelr prayers st homas. If thé7 Lave Jt2es 2 7 I'l Sede THN ¥ Tka "Little Minister," the Rev. Floyd Burnett, who has 'published the ban against weddings. Wives from Armed Camps in Neighboring Towns TR igo Mosquero calls its "Prize the pick of the city's young treasurer of the Young | made any. alterations at all in their cos- tumes, it is that they have rather short- ened their skirts and rolled their stock- ings down an inch or two further. Novelists have built many romances around the keen and dramatic rivalries of Western cities in the matter of civic ac- complishmerits. J Alfred Henry Lewis, Bret Harte, and even Mark Twain, have enter- tained themselves and their public with thrilling stories of how the cowboys of one section, backing the claims of their own village, frequently rode at night time into the village favored by the boys of a neighboring ranch, there to shoot up the heels of the local Chinese, to kidoap the pretty postmistress and to shave one side of the "ice of the rival village's Mayor, Certainly, however, no weaver of fiction ever has had for his imagination to dwell upon tke situation which now exists among the neighboring cities of Mosquero. How ail is changed. Awtomatic tolts and other brands of de pendable revolver are being oiled and cleaned. In some of the neighboring cities prep- arations are being made for the erection of barricades at the Mosquero end of the main streets. la fact, it would seem as if old Sabine times are about to be revived, The entire masculine citizenry of the neighboring towns are prepared for the raid expected from the Mosqueroites, who Lave so openly announced that they intend to go forth in search of brides from other tribes. The Rev. Burnett, it seems, visited many nearby communities to make a study of femininity as it comported itself in the Other cities, and reported back to his newly formed protective society that the girls of the other cities were not so for- ward, bold and generally ultra-fashion- able as those at home. Only a few, how- ever, he said, could be looked upon with favor as prospective wives. It is for these féw that the young men of Mosquero are threatsning to raid the outlying territory, leaving to others the necessity of going far abroad, perhaps to' Englan glum, for the sort of demure young wife which the newly organize society declares to be the only acceptable ideal. On the othér hand. the young men of Mosquero are these days keeping them- selves well armed and their handy. ~ who has a most words, they state most emphatically that not only will they themselves not marry any of the local young women but will not permit any strangers to come and marry them. | The protective organization was form only a week ago. So far no armed en- gagements have resulted. The volcano which is expected soon to break forth ré mains quiescent, much in the fashion of 8 can of dynamite. The outstanding fact re mains, however, that the young men have no intention. of remaining bachelors, they have no intention of marrying any of their former sweethearts until the latter revise their fashion in dress and deportment, and they have no intention of allowing any one else to marry these blacklisted "young ladies. Such a situation, in the West, and in that part of the West where the best man still is measured according to his quickness on the draw, is indeed akin to dynamite. And now what of the young women themselves? At the head of their organiza. tion is Miss Aurelia Trujillo, who, until recently, was the editress of the'local news paper, the Mosquere Sun. Miss Aurelia, by the way, is such a stickler for principles that when she die covered that her paper, by order of {tg owner and editor, W. G. Root, would eds torially support the decision of the younp men, she promptly handed in her resigns tion as editress and took the stump ay organizer of the Youag Ladies' Deflance Association, Backed by Miss Shirley Nutter, who rep resents a great insurance corporation, and forceful and at the same time charming personality, Migs Aurelia gathered all the women of the city around her and persuaded them to Jointly assert the inalienable right of woman to she pleases, to act ag she pleases, fresh as she pleases and to marry whom Miss Aurelia, as the editress, that the Defiance Society should issue 3 dig- nified, sedate announcement, properly drawn up and attested by the local no- tary, setting forth in Hterary phraseology, the exact position of the young women. Miss Shirley, however, proposed a brief summing up of the entire situation from the viewpoint of the young ladies in lan. guage more expressive and ornamental, Miss Shirley won, acd so the young women . merely signed a document which set that besides having permission Denver, the young men of have their feet in the mud, and the young women are well keep them there, Among the membership of the giris' so- clely there dare several who backed their Cetermination with flashing black eyes in which there is considerable evidence of Spanish blood and Spanish grit. There are others whose blonde Bair reveals the quiet determination of the nortblands, And hers who, neither blonde nor Spanish, nevertheless are of the sort that the plains provide and who may wel} ba expected to not be tremendously upset by & filting from any sweetheart who does not approve of her theory as to the proper latitude for a stocking top. To quote from the editor of a rival paper: published in one of the cities, the ertire sitaation is such as to Justity the prospect that "a good time ia expected by sll" ! preferred