Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-10-25
THE
/ SPENDERS|
A Tale of the Third Generation
# 4
By HARRY LEON WILSON
2 -
coDyright. by Lo.hrop Publishing Company.
CHAPTER XIX.-coNrINuED.

MATTER ALA. --CONTINUED.
II think that's it. He's getting old,
and he's come along into his second
childhood. A couple of more months
at this rate, and I'm afraid I'll have
to ring up one OF those nice shiny
black wagons to take him off to the
foolish house."
Cant you talk to him, and tell him
betters'
Il could. I know 1t all by heart
all the things to say to man on the
downward path. Heaven knows I've
heard them often enough, but I'd feel
ashamed to talk that way to Uncle
Peter. II he were my son, now, I'd
cut on his allowance and send him
back to make something Of himself,
like Sile Higbee with little Hennery;
but I'm afraid all can do is to watch
him and see that he doesn't marry one
of those little pink-silk chorus girls,
or lick policeman, or anything"
You're carryin' on the same way
yourself" ventured his mother.
that's different" replied her per-
spicacious son.
Uncle Peter had refused to live at
the Hightower after three days in that
splendid and populous caravansary.
at suits me well enough" he ex-
planned to Percival, "but have to look
after Billy Brue, and this amt any
place for Billy. You see Billy amt
city broke yet. Look at him now over
kbara tba NOV ne oooo around huttin o.
into strangers. He does that way be-
cause he's all the time looking down
at his new patent leather shoes-frst
pair he ever had. He'll be plumb
stoop-shouldered IL he don't hurry up
and get the new kicked off of 'em. I'll
have to get him nice warm box-stall
In some place that amt so much on
the band-wagon as this one. The cell
lngs here are too high fur Billy. And
[ found him shootin' craps with the
bell boy this mornin'. The boy thinks
Billy, bein' from the west, is a stage
robber, or somethin' like he reads
about in the Cap Collier libr'ries, and
follows him around every chance he
gets. And Billy laps up too many Of
them little striped drinks; and them
Freneh-cooked dishes amt so good fur
him, either. He caught on to the bill
Of fare right away. Now he won't Or
der anything but them allas-them
dishes that has "a la something or
other after 'em," he explained, when
Percival looked puzzled. "He knows
they'll always be something all fused
up with red, white and blue gravy, and
q little paper bouquet stuck into 'em.
never knew Billy was such fancy
eater before"
So Uncle Peter and his charge had
established themselves in an old-fash-
Ioned but very comfortable hotel down
on one Of the squares, dingy monu-
ment to the time when life had been
less hurried. Uncle Peter had stayed
there 80 years before, and he found the
place unchanged. The carpets and
hangings were bit faded, but the
rooms were generously broad, the
chairs, as the old man remarked, were
smade to sit in" and the cuisine was
held, by few knowing old epicures
who still frequented the place, to be
superior even to that of the more pre-
tentious Hightower. The service, it is
true, was apt to be slow. Strangers
who CHANGED in to order meal not
lnfrequently became enraged, and left
before their food came, trailing plain
short words of extreme dissatisfaction
behind them as they went. But, the
alecf know that these DELAYS hetOkened
the presence of an artistic conscience