The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-12-19

her, pain of loneliness struck through
her heart. The dim street below her
window, the dark houses across the
way, the vague air itself-all looked
empty, and cold and (most Of ally I'M
interesting. Something more sombre
than November dusk took the color
from them and gave them that air of
desertion.
The light Of her fire, Pickering up
behind her, showed suddenly flying
group Of tiny snowfakes nearing the
E~window-pane; and for an instant she
felt the sensation of being dragged
through snow-drift under a broken
cutter, with a boys arms about her
an arrogant, handsome, too-conquering
boy, who nevertheless did his best to
get hurt himself, keeping her from any
possible harm.
She shook the picture out Of her
eyes Indignantly, then came and sat
before her fire, and looked long and
long at the blackened mantelpiece
She did not have the mantelpiece re-
painted-and, since she did not,
might as well have kept his photo
graphs. One forgets what made the
scar upon his hand but not what made
the scar upon his wall.
!. New faces appeared at the
dances Of the winter; new faces had
been appearing everywhere, for that
matter, and familiar ones were disap-
pearing, merged in the increasing
crowd, or gone forever and missed
little and not long; for the town was
growing and changing as it never had
grown and changed before.
It was heaving up In the middle in
credibly; it was spreading incredibly;
and as 1t heaved and spread, it be-
fou!ed itself and darkened its sky.
You drove between pleasant fields and
woodland groves one spring day; and
in the autumn, passing over the same
ground, you were warned off the tracks
by an interurban trolley-car's gong
ing, and beheld, beyond cement side
walks just dry, new house-owners busy
moving in" Gasoline and electricity
were performing the miracles Eugene
had predicted.
But the great change was in the
citizenry itself. What was left Of the
patriotic old-stock generation that had
fought the Civil war, and subsequently
controlled politics, had become veneer
able and was little needed. What hap
pened to Boston and to Broadway hap
pened in degree to the Midland city;
the old stock became less and less typ
zeal, and of the grown people who
called the place home, less than q
third had been born in it.
A new spirit of citizenship had al
ready sharply defined itself. It was
idealistic, and its ideals were ex-
pressed in the new kind of young men
in business downtown. They were op-
tiinists- optimists to the point of bel
ligerence-their motto being Boost!
Don't Knock!" And they were hus-
tiers, believing in hustllng and in hon.
esty because both paid. They loved
their city and worked for 1t with a
plutOnic energy which was always ar
IDENTIFY vocal. They were viciously gov
erned, but they sometimes went so far
as to struggle for better government on
account Of the helpful effect Of good
government on the price of real estate
and "betterment" generally; the pollti-
clans could not 60 too far with them,
and knew it. The idealists planned and
strove and shouted that their city
should become better, better, and
better city-and what they meant,
when they used the word better" was
more prosperous" and the core Of
their idealism was this: 'gThe more
prosperous my beloved city, the more
prosperous beloved II"
These were bad times for Anderson
addition. This quarter, already old, lay
within mile of the center of the
town, but business moved in other
directions; and the Additions share of
Prosperity was only the smoke and
dirt, with the bank credit left out. The
owners of the original big houses sold
them, or rented them to clearinghouse
keepers, and the tenants of the multi
tude of small houses moved farther
OUT (where the smoke was thiEner)
or into apartment houses, which were
built by dozens now. Cheaper tenants
took their places, and the rents were
lower and lower. and the houses shah
bier and shabbier-for all these shabby
houses, burning soft coal, did their
best to help in the destruction of their
own value. Distances had ceased to
matter.
The five new houses, built so closely
where had been the fine lawn of the
Anderson mansion, did not look new.
When they were a year old they looked
as old as they would ever look; and
two Of them were vacant, having never
been rented, for the Majors mistake
about apartment houses had been a
disastrous one. HE guessed wrong"
George Anderson said. HE guessed
81 ~