The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1919-08-23

much exerliOn: middle age played
euchre. There was theater, next
door to the Anderson hotel, and when
Edwin Booth came for a night every
body who could afford to buy ticket
was there, and all the 'hacks" in town
were hired. THE Black Crook also
filed the theater, but the audience
then was almost entirely of men, VINO
looked uneasy as they left for home
when the final curtain fell upon the
shocking girls dressed as fairies. But
the theater did not often do so well
the people of the town were still too
thrifty.
They were thrifty because they were
the sons or grandsons Of the "early
settlers" who had opened the wilder
ness and had reached ii 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 persisted: they had TO
store away food for the winter, or
goods 10 trade for food, and they
often feared they had not stored
enOugh-they left traces of that fear
in their sons and grandSons. In 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 enter
| tainment, without a sense of sin.
Against so hOmespun a background
the magnificence of the Ambersons was
as conspicuous as brass band at a
! funeral. Major Anderson bought two
| hundred acres of land at the end OF
National avenue; and through this
tract he built broad streets and cross
streets; paved them with cedar block.
and curbed them with stone. He set up
fountains, here and there, where the
streets intersected. and at symmetri-
cal intervals placed cast-irOn statues.
painted white. with their titles clear
upon the pedestals; Minerva, Mer-
curry, Hercules, Venus, Gladiator, EN-
peror Augustus, Fisher Boy, Stag
hound, Mastiff. Greyhound. Fawn,
Antelope, Wounded Doe and Wounded
Lion. Most of the forest trees had
been left to flourish still, and. at some
distance, or by moonlight, the place
was in truth beautiful; but the ardent
citizen. loving to see his city grow
wanted neither distance nor moon
light. He had not seen Versailles
but, standing before the fountain OF
Neptune in Anderson addition. al
bright noon, and quoting the favorite
comparison of the local newspaper:
he declared Versailles Outdone. Al
this Art showed a profit from thu
start, for the lots sold well and there
was something like a rush to buil'
in the new Addition. Its main thor
oughfare. an oblique continuation o
National avenue, was called Amber
son boulevard, and here, at the juno
ture of the new boulevard and thu
avenue, Major Anderson reserved
four acres for himself and built hi
new house-the Anderson mansion, o
. course.
This house was the pride of tn
, town. Faced with stone as far bac
as the dining-room windows, it was
house of arches and turrets and gin
ding stone porches: it had the frs
porte cochere seen in that tow
There was a central front hall" wit
a great black-walnut stairway, an
), open to a green glass skylight calle
the dome" three stories above tn
ground floor. A ballroom Occupie
most of the third story, and at on
e end of 1t was carved walnut CALLER
e for the musicians. Citizens told straI
S gers that the cost of all this blac
;. walnut and wood carving was sixt
s thousand dollars. "SiXty thousan
l. dollars for the woodwork alone! YET
e sir, and hardwood floors all over tn
]. house! Turkish rugs and no carpet
O at all, except a Brussels carpet In tn
o front parlor-I hear they call 1t tn
II reception room Hot and cold waite
n upstairs and down, and stationar