Even on a bleak, late-winter day, the little town of Clay Center, Kans., exudes all the homeyness and warmth of a Norman Rockwell painting. Tidy, freshly painted houses cover the small knoll that rises north of the town square. The homes of the middle class cost about $20,000; those of the poor are timeworn but neat. One of the tallest buildings in town is a barnlike structure built by a woman who gives baton-twirling lessons.
Serious crime almost never happens here; crack and heroin come to town only on TV news shows. Boasts the mayor, Thelma Bisenius: "This is a place...
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