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Show TIIE WEEKLY REFLEX, KAYSVILLE, UTAH I THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS: A MAGNIFICENT NOVEL The literary critics and book reviewers are continually asking, When shall we have the Great American Novel by the Great American Novelist? Perhaps never, in the sense in which the question is asked, for this country is too big and its people differ too greatly by localities to make the Great American Novel possible. . Nevertheless, The Magnificent Ambersons is a great American novel. Booth Tarkington is an American of sturdy native stock. He knows American life and character as only a native American with generations of American forbears can know them. Moreover he has a charm of style and a power of expression which have endeared him to the reading public. The Magnificent Ambersons is so great a novel that Booth Tarkington has been awarded the Joseph Pulitzer prize of $1,000 for the American novel published during the year which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of AmerThe judges making the award ican manners and manhood. are Robert Grant, William Morton Payne and William Lyon Phelps. CHAPTER I. Major Amherson had made a fortune In 1873, when other people were losing fortunes, and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then. Their splendor lasted all the yearthat saw their Midland town spread and darken Into a city, but reached Its topmost during the perldd when every prosperous family with children kept a Newfoundland dog. In that town In those days all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet, and when there was a new purchase of sealskin sick people were got to windows to see It go by. Everybody knew everybody elses family horse and carriage, could Identify such a silhouette half a mile down the street, and thereby was sure who was going to market or to a reception or coming home from office or store to noon dinner or evening supper. During the earlier years of this period elegance of personal appearance was believed to rest more upon the texture df garments "than upon their shaping. A silk dress needed no remodeling when It was a year or so old ; It remained distinguished by merely remaining silk. Old men and governors wore broadcloth ; "full dress was trousers; broadcloth with "doeskin and there were seen men of alt ages to whom a hat meant only that rigid, tall silk thing known to Impudence as In town and country a "stovepipe," these men would wear no other hat, they and, without went rowing in such hats. Trousers with a crease were considered plebeian; the crease preyed that the garment had lain upon a shelf, nud hence was "ready made; these betraying trousers were called in allusion to the shelf. In the early eighties,, while bangs and bustles were having their way with women, that variation of dandy known as the dude was Invented: he wore trousers as tight as stockings, dagger-pointe- d a shoes, a spoon "derby, coat cnlled a Cheser-fleld,- " with short flaring skirts, a torturing cylindrical collar, laundered to a polish and three Inches high, while his other neckgear might be a heavy, puffed cravat or a tiny bow fit for a dolls braids. With evening dress he wore a tan overcoat so short that his black coattails hung visible, five Inches below the overcoat ; but after a season or two he lengthened his overcoat till It touched his heels, and he passed out, of his tight trousers Into trousers like great bags. Then presently he was seen no more. though the word that' had been coined for him remained In the vocabularies of the Impertinent. Surely no more Ja.needed Jo j)rove that so short a time ago we were living In another age! At the beginning of the Ambersons great period most of the houses of the Midland town were of a pleasant architecture. They lacked style, but also and whatever does pretentiousness, not pretend at all has style enough. They stood In commodious yards, well shaded by leftover forest trees, elm and walnut and beech, with here and there a line of tall sycamores where the land hod been made by filling bayous from the creek. The house of prominent resident, facing Military square or National avenue or Tennessee street, was built of brick upon stone foundation, or of wood upon a brick foundation. Usually it bad" a front porch and a "back porch; often a "side porch, too. There whs a front hall there was a side ball, and sometimes a bock hall. From the "front hall opened three rooms, the parlor," the sitting room and the Tbrary and the library could show warrant to its title for seme re yen these people bought books. Commonly the family sat more In the library than In the sitting room, vklle callers, when they came were kept to the parlor," a Place of formidable polish and diseonv hand-me-down- s," single-breaste- d f foe-all- Irt The upholstery of the library nd all-da- been slightly down- damaged stairs, but not enough to justify either the expense of repair or decisive abandonment In the attic. And there was always a spare room, for visitors (where the Hewing machine usually was kept), and during the seventies there developed an appreciation of the necessity for a bathroom. At the rear of the house, upstairs, was a bleak little chamber, called the glrla room," and In the stable there was another bedroom, adjoining the hayloft, and called "the hired mans room. Jloase and stable cost seven or eight thousand 'dollars to build, and people with that much money to Invest In such comforts were classified as the Rich. They paid the Inhabitant of the girls room" two dollars a week, and. In the latter part of this period, two dollars and a Tialf, and finally three dollars a week. She was Irish ordinarily, or German, or It might he Scandinavian, hut never native to the land unless she happened to be a person of color. The man or youth who lived In the stable bad like wages, and sometimes, too, was lately n steerage voyager, but much oftener he was colored. After sunrise on pleasunt mornings the alleys behind the stables were gay t laughter and shouting went up and down their dusty lengths, with a lively accompaniment of currycombs knocking against back fences and stable wnlls, for the darkles loved to curry their horses In the alleys. .Darkles always, prefer to gossip In shouts Instead of whispers, and they feel that profanity, unless It be vociferous, Is Horrible phrases almost worthless. were canght by early rising children and carried to older people for definition, sometimes at Inopportune moments; while less Investigative children would often merely repeat the phrases in some subsequent flurry of agitation, and yet bring about consequences so emphatic as to be recalled with ease In middle life. " They have passed, those darky hired men of the ' Midland town. The stables have been transformed Into ot&MIkenesses, or sweptaway, like thexjrveo&sheds where were kept the stovewood ahd kindling that the girl and the "hired manual ways quarreled over: who should fetch It So with other vanlshings. There were the little bunty street cars on the long, single track that went Its troubled way among the cobblestones. At the rear door of the car there was no platform, but a step where passengers dung In wet clumps when the weather was bad and the car crowded. The patrons If not too put their fares Into a slot; and no conductor paced the heaving floor, but the driver would rap remlndingly with h!s elbow upon the glass of the door to his little open platform If the nickels and the passengers did not appear to coincide in number. A lone mule drew the car, and sometimes drew it off the track, when the passengers would get out and push It on7 again. They really owed It courtesies like this, for the car was genially accommodating: a lady could whistle to It from an upstairs window, and the ear would halt at once and wait for her while she shut the window, put on her hat and cloak, went downstairs, found an umbrella, told the "girl" what to have for dinner, and came forth from the house. They even bad time to dance s square dances," quadrilles and they also danced the absent-minde- - thrifty. They were thrifty because they were the sons or grandsons of the "early settlers," who had opened the wilderness and had reached It from the East and the South with wagons and axes and guns, but with no money at all. The pioneers were thrifty .or they would have perished: they had to store away food for the winter, or goods to trade for food, and, they often feared they had not stored enough they left traces of that fear In their sons and grandsons.. Ia the minds of most of these, indeed, 'their thrift was next to their religion: to save, even for the sake of saving,' was their earliest lesson and discipline. No matter how prosperous they were they could not spend money either upon art," or upon mere luxury and entertainment, without a sense of sin! Agnlnsr so homespun a background the magnificence of the Ambersons was ns conspicuous ns a brass bund at a funeral. Major Amherson bought two hundred acres of land at the end of National avenue; and through tills tract he built broad streets and cross'd reets ; paved them with cedar block, and curbed them with stone. He set up fountains, here and there, where the streets Intersected, and at symmetrical Intervals placed statues, painted white, with their titles clear upon the pedestals; Minerva, Mercury, Hercules, Venus. Gladiator, Emperor Augustus, Fisher Hoy, Mastiff, Greyhound. Dawn, Antelope, Wounded Doe and Wounded Lion. Most of the forest trees hud been left toflourlsh still, and, at some distance, or by moonlight, the place was In truth beautiful; but the ardent cast-iro- n Stag-houn- rae-quett- and polkas. e oughfare, nn oblique continuation of National avenue, wns called Amber son boulevard, and here, at the June Jure of the new boulevard and the avenue. Major Anitwrson reserved, four acres for himself nud built bis new hoiiM' the Amherson mansion, of course. This house was the pride of the town. Faced with stone as far b.iel us tin diningroom windows, It vvus n house of arches and turrets and gfr tiling stone (torches ; it bad the tlrsi porte coehero seen In that town Tin re was u central front hall" with t a great stairway, nnd open to u green glass skylight called the dome," three stories uhove the ground floor. A ballroom occupied most of, the third story, and at one end of It was curvet a walnut gallery for the musicians. Citizens told strangers that the cost of nil this black walnut nnd wood caning was dollars. Sixty thousand dollars for the woodwork alone! Yes, sir, nnd hardwood floors all over the house! Turkish rugs and no carpels at all, except a Itrussels carpet in the from parlor 1 hear they call li the reception room. Hot nnd cold water upstairs and down, and stationary washstamls In every bedroom In the place! Their sideboard's built right into the bouse and goes nil the way across one end of the (lining room It isnt walnut. Its solid mahogany! Not veneering solid mahoganv Well, sir, presume the president of tin I'uiKd States would Jo tickled, to swap the White House for the new Amherson mansion, If tin Majord give him the chance hut by the Almighty Dollar, you hot your aweet life the Major wouldnt! The visitor to the town was certain k receive further enlightenment, for there was one form of entertulnment lower omitted: he whs always patri. otlenlly taken for u little drive round our city," even If his host had to hire n hack, and the climax of the display was the Amherson mansion. Look at that greenhouse theyve put up there In the aide yurd," the escort would continue. "And look at that brick stable Most folks would think that stable plenty big enough and good enough to live In; Its got running water and, our rooms upstairs for two hired men and one of ema family to lire In. They keep one hired man loafin In the house, and they got a married hired man out lu the stable, and his wife doea the washing. This town never did see bo much style ns Ambersons are putting on these days ; and I guess lta going to be expensive, because a lot of other folksll try to keep up with em. The Major's wife and the daughter's been to Europe, nnd my wife tells me alnee they got back they make ten there every nfter-nooabout five oclock and drink It. Seems to me It would go against a persons stomach, Just before supper like that, and anyway tea Isnt fit for much not unless you're sick or something. Looks to me like some people in this clty'd be willing to go crazy If they thought that would help 'em to ns Ambersons. Old la as Aleck Minafer lies about the closest old codger we got lie come In my office the other day, and he pretty nonr had n stroke tollin me ulmut his daughter Fanny. Seems Mls Isabel Amliersons got some kind of a dog they call It a St. Bernard nnd Fanny was bound to bnve one, too. Well, old Aleck told her lie didn't like dogs except rat terriers, because a rat terrier cleans up the mice, but she kept on at him, and finally he su'd all right she could have one. Then, by George ! she says Amberson's bought their dog, and you don't get one without paying for It: they cost from fifty to a hundred dollars up I Old Aleck wanted to know tf I ever beard of black-walnu- sixty-thousan- ! 1 1 n high-tone- d anybodys bnytn' a dog- - before;- - - be- cause, even a Newfoundland or a Better, you can usually get somebody to give you one. He says' be saw some sense tn payin a nigger a dime, or even a quarter, to drown a dog for you, but to pay out fifty dollars and maybe more well, sir, be like to choked himself to death, right there d law-cer- and echotUscbe y - furniture was a little shabby, but the hostile chairs and sofa of the parlor always looked new. For nil the wear and tear they got they should have lasted u thousand years. Upstairs were the bedrooms; mother and father's room" the largest ; n smaller room for one or two sons, another for one or two daughters; each of these rooms containing n double bed, a washstand," a bureau," a wardrobe, a little table, a rocking chair, and often a chair or two that hail and such whims as the Portland fancy." They pushed hack the sibling doors between the parlor and the sitting room. tacked down crash over the carpets, hired a few palms In green tubs, stationed three or four Italian musicians under the stairway in the front hall--ehad great nights! "Keeping open house," was a merry custom; It has gone, like the picnic In the woods, and like that prettiest of all vanished customs, the serenade. When a lively girl visited the town she did not long go unserennded, though a visitor was not Indeed needed to excuse a serenade. Of a summer night young men would bring an orchestra under a pretty girls windowor, It might be, her fathers, or that of nn idling maiden aunt and (lute, harp, cello, cornet and bass viol would pleasantly release to the dulcet Stars such melodies as sing through Tonll I Dreamt That I Remember Me," Dwelt In Marble Halls: Silver Threads Among the Gold," "Kathleen Muvoumeen," or The Soldiers Farewell." Croquet and the mildest archery ever known were the sports of people still young and active enough for so much exertion; middle age ployed euchre. There was a theater, next door to the Amherson hotel, and when Edwin Rooth came for a night everybody who could afford to buy a ticket was there, and nil the hacks" In town were hired. The TUnck Crook also filled the theater, hut the audience then Was almost entirely of men,. who looked uneasy as they left for home when the flnul curtain fell upon the shocking girls dressed as fairies. Hut the theater did not often do so well ; the people of the town were still too Sixty Thousand Dollars for ths work Alone." Wood- citizen, loving to see his city grow, wanted neither distance nor mooFie had not seen Versailles, nlight but standing before the fountain of Neptune In "Amherson addition," a! bright noon, and quoting the favorite comparison of the local newspapers he declared Versailles outdone. AH this Art showed a profit from the start for the lots sold well and there was something like a rush to build la the new Addition Ra main thor nimiitv for boih tin il.illv new spa pers thus described Mr loiter When vhi founded the Women's Tennyson club; ami her word, upon nrt. tellers and tin drama was accepted more im law than as opinion Natural!) when tinsel Kirhe" finally readied town, afer Its tong triumph In larger many people waited to hear vvlint Mrs. Henry Franklin Foster thought of It before they felt warranted In e pressing ntiv estimate of tin pliiv In fact, some of them waited In the lohbv of the theater ns they came out and formed tin Inquiring group about lur. she In"1 didn't see the play, formed them. "What ' Why, we saw you, right In the middle of the fourth row !" "Yes," she said, smiling, "but I was sitting just behind Isabel Amherson I couldn't look at anything except her wavy brown hair and the wonderful back of her neck." The Ineligible young men of the town (they were all Ineligible) were tumble to content themselves with the vbw that had so charmed Mrs. Henry Franklin Foster; they spent their time struggling to keep Miss Anthemin' face timed toward them. She turned hl, toward it most often, observers two; one excelling In tin general straggle by bis sparkle, and the other by that winning If not winsome old trait, peralsleuee. The sparkling gen tlemnn led gerimuis" with her, nnd sent sonnets to her with his bon quels Ronnets lacking neither music not wit. Ib was generous; poor, well dressed, and his amazing persuasiveness was one reusoit why he was always In debt. No one doubted that he would be abb to persuade Isabel, but he unfortunately Joined too merry n party one night, and during a moonlight serenade upon the lawn before the Aiuberaon mansion, was easily Identified from the windows ns the person who Btepped through the bass viol nnd had to be aasltded to a wait Ing carriage. One of Miss Ambersona brothers was among the serenaders, and when the party had dispersed remained propped agu'nst the front door In a state of helpless liveliness; the Major going dowu lu a dressing gown aud slippers to hrlug him lu, and scolding mildly, while imperfectly concealing strong Impulses to laughter. Miss Amherson also laughed at this brother the next dny, hut for the suitor It was a different matter: she refused to nee him when he culled to You seem to care a great apologize. deal about bass viols I" he wjote her. I promise never to break another. Mho made no response to the note, unless it was an answer, two weeks later, when her engagement wns announced. She took the persistent one, Wilbur Minafer, no breaker of lmss viols or of hearts, no serenuder at all. A few people, who always foresaw everything, clalmetHhnt they were not r surprised, because though Wilbur might not be nn Apollo, as It were," lie was "n sternly young business num and a good church goer,"1 and Isabel Anderson was pretty sensible for such a showy girl." F.ut the engagement astounded the young people, nnd most of their fathers nnd mothers too; nnd a ft topic It supplanted literature ut the next meeting of the Womens Tennyson club," "Wilbur Minafer! n member cried, her Inflection seeming to Imply that Wlburs crime wns explained by bis surname. Wilbur Minafer! Its the queerest thing I ever heard! To think of her taking Wilbur Minafer, Just been use u man any woman would like a thousand times better wns a little wild one night at a serenade! "No, that wasnt hpr reason, suld wise Mrs. Henry Franklin Foster. If men only knew It and Its a good thing they dont a woman doesn't really care much about whether a mans wild or hot, If It doesnt affect herself, nnd Isabel Amherson doesnt plm-e-.- , tin- Major. midnight the bride wns still bein champagne, (hough she toasted ing bad departed upon her wedding Journey at ten. Four days later the pair had returned to town, which promptness see m M fairly to demonstrate that Wilbur had Indeed taken Isabel upon the carefulest little trip he could manage. According to every riqmrt she was from the start "u good wife to him." but here In :i final detail the prophecy proved Inaccurate. Wilbur nnd lsnhel did not have children; they bud ouly one. Only one," Mrs. Henry Franklin Rut I'd like to Foster admitted. At I Mln-afe- care, aJhing !! Mrs. Foster "No, she doesnt.- What she minds Is his making a clown of himself lu her front yard It made her think be didnt care much about her. She's probably mistaken, but thats what In my office I Of course everybody she thinks, and Its too late for her realizes that Major Amherson la a fine to think anything else now, because business man, but what with th rowin she's going to be married right away money around for dogs, and every the Invitations will be out next which and what, some think all this week. Itll be a big Ambcrson-styl- e style's bound to break him up, If his thing, raw oyster floating In scooped-ou- t family dont quit I blocks of Ice and a band from out One citizen, having thus discoursed of town charqpogne, showy presents; to a visitor, came to a thoughtful a colossal present from the Major. pause, and then added, Does seem Then Wilbur will take Isabel on the pretty much like squandering, yet carefulest little wedding trip he can when yon see that dog out walking manage, and shell be a good wife to with this Miss Isabel, be seems worth him, but theyll have the worst spoiled lot" of children this town will ever the money." What's she look like?" see." now on earth do yon make that Well, sir," said the citizen, shes not more than Just about eighteen or out, Mrs. Foster?" She couldnt love Wilbur, could maybe nineteen years old, end I dont know as I know Just how to put it she? Mrs. Foster demanded, with no but shes kind of a delightful lookin challengers. Well, It will all go to her children, and shell ruin era !" young lady The prophetess proved to be misCHAPTER II. taken in a single detail merely: except for that her foresight was accurate. Another citizen said an eloquent The wedding wns of Ambersonlan thing about Miss Isabel Ambersons magnificence, even to the floating oylooks. This was Mrs. Henry Franklin sters; and the Major's - colossal presFoster, the foremost literary authority ent was a set of Architects designs and Intellectual leader of the com- - for a Louse almost aa elaborate and r linprm.'dv c as the Mansion, the house to be built la Amherson' addition by r - 1 You Think You Own Thla Town I know if he Isnt spoiled enough fof a whole carload 1" Again she found none to challenge her. f At the age of nine George Amber-so- n Minafer, the Major' one grand) child, wns princely terror, dreaded not only In Amherson addition but la many other quarters through which he galloped on Ids white pony. By golly, I guess you think you own this town ! an embittered laborer complained one day, as Georgia rode the pony straight through a pile of sand 1 will when the man was sieving. I grow up," the undisturbed child reI guess my grandpa owns it plied. now, you bet !" And the baffled workman, having no moans to controvert a mere exaggeration of the facts,' could only mutter, Oh, pull down your vest P Dou't haf to! Doctor says It aint. the boy returned promptly. healthy Rut I tell you what Ill do: I'll puU down my vent If youll, wipe off your ' whut-seeme- d 1 chin!" . Thin wns slock and stencil: the accustomed argot of street badinage of the period ; and in such matters Geor gie wns an expert. He had no vest to pull down; the Incongruous fact was that a fringed sash girdled the Juncture of bis velvet ' blouse anti breeches, for the Fuuntleroy period had set In, and Georgia's mother bad bo poor an eye for appropriate things, where Georgia was concerned, that she dressed him according to the doctrine of that school In boy decoration. Except upon the surface (which was not bis own work but bis mothers) Georgle bore no vivid resemblance to the fabulous little Cedric, The boys famous Lean on me, grandfather, would hare to Imagine upon the llpa of Georgle. A month after bis ninth birthday annl-- . versury, when the Major gave him his pony, lie had already become acquainted with the toughest boys In various distant parts of the town, and had convinced them that the toughness of a rich little boy with long curls might be considered in many respects superior to their own. He fought them, learning how to go baresark, at a certain point In a fight, bursting Into tears of anger, reaching for rocks, uttering walled threats of murder, and attempting to fulfill them. Fights often led to Intimacies, and he acquired the nrt of saying things more sto-.rle- d been-difficu- lt exciting than Dont haf to! and Doctor says It ain't healthy Thus on a summer afternoon estrange boy, sitting bored upon the gatepost of the r Rev. Malloch Smith, beheld Ccorge Amherson Minafer rapidly approach- Ing en his white pony and was Impelled by bitterness to about: Shoot the ole Jackass I Look at the glrly curls! Say, bnb, where'd you steal your mothers ole sash! -- George Amherson Minafer begins to grow up and meets the beautiful Miss Lucy (TO BE CONTINUED,) |