Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-12-16

D Pill OF
front, and upon the cornfce. where the
old separate metal letters had speit
Anderson block" there was a long
bill board sign: 'Doogan Storage"
To spare himself, he went out Ma
tional avenue and saw the piles OF
slush-covered wreckage where the
Mansion and his mothers house
had been, and where the Majors III
fated five new" houses had stood; for
these were down, too, to make room
for the great tenement already shaped
In amending lines of foundation.
He turned away from the devastated
site, thinking bitterly that the only
Anderson mark still left upon the
town was the name of the boulevard
Anderson boulevard. But he had reck-
oned without the city council of the
new order, and by an unpleasant coin
cidence, while the thought was still
in his mind, his eyes fell upon a metal
oblong sign upon the lamp-post at the
corner. There were two of these little
signs upon the lamp-post, at an obtuse
angle to each other, one to give pass
ersby the name of National avenue,
the other to acquaint them with Am
berson boulevard. But the one upon
which should have been stenciled
Anderson boulevard" exhibited the
words "Tenth street."
George stared at 1t hard. Then he
walked quickly along the boulevard to
the next corner and looked at the little
sign there. tenth street"
1t had begun to rain, but George
stood unheeding, staring at the little
sign. ID them !" he said finally, and
turning up his coat collar, plodded
back through the soggy streets toward
"home."
The utilitarian impudence of the city
authorities put a thought into his mind.
A week earlier he had happened to
stroll into the large parlor of the
apartment house, finding it empty, and
on the comfortable he noticed large.
red-bound, gilt-edged book, newly
printed, bearing the title: "a Civic
History" and beneath the title, the
rubric. Biographies of the 500 Most
Prominent Citizens and Families in
the History Of the City," He had
glanced at it absently, merely noticing
the title and subtitle, and wandered
out of the room, thinking of other
things and feeling no curiosity about
the book. But he had thought Of it
several times since with a faint, vague
/ uneasiness; and now when he entered
the lobby he walked directly into the
parlor where he had seen the book.
The room was empty, as it always was
on Sunday mornings, and the flamboy-
ant volume was still upon the table
evidently a fixture as sort of local
Almanach de Gotha, or Burke, for the
| enlightenment of tenants and boarders.
He turned to the index where the
names of the five hundred Most Promi-
| nent Citizens and Families in the His
tory of the City were arranged in al
| phabetical order, and ran his finger
down the column of AS: Albeit, Alb
Akers. Albertsmeyer, Alexander, Allen,
Ambrose, Ambuhl, Anderson, Andrews,
Appenbasch, Archer, Arszman, Ash
craft, Austin, Alvey.
Georges eyes remained for some
time fixed on the thin space between
| the names ALLEN" and Ambrose"
Then he closed the book quietly, and
went up to his own room, agreeing
with the elevator boy, on the way,
that it was getting to be a mighty
nasty wet and windy day outside.
The elevator boy noticed nothing I'M
usual about him and neither did Fanny,
when she came In from church with
her hat ruined, an hour later. And yet
something had happened-a thing
which, years ago, had been the eager
est hope of many, many good citizens
Of the town. They had thought of 1t,
longed for it, hoping acutely that they
might live to see the day when 1t would
come to pass. And now it had hap
/ pened at last: George Minafer had
got his come-upance.
He had got it three times filled and
running over. The city had rolled over
his heart, burying it under, as it rolled
over the Majors and buried it under.
The city had rolled over the Amber
sons and buried them under to the last
vestige; and it mattered little that
George guessed easily enough that
most of the five hundred Most Promf-
nent had paid something substantial
Ito defray the cost of steel engraving,
etc."-the Five Hundred had heaved
the final shovelful of SCOT upon that
heap of obscurity wherein the Amber
sons were lost forever from sight and
history. Quicksilver in a nest of
| cracks !"
George Minafer had got his come
upance, but the people who had so
longed for it were not there to see 1t,
and they never knew It. Those who
were still living had forgotten all
about 1t and all about him.
George had seen Eugene only once
since tneir calamitous encounter. They
had passed on opposite sides of the
street, downtown; each had been
aware that the other was aware of
him. and yet each kept his eyes
@ M \ |