Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-12-26
CHAPTER xxi.

They found the job. 1t needed an
apprenticeship of only six weeks, dur
ing which period George was to re-
ceive fifteen dollars a week; after
that he would get twenty eight. This
settled the apartment question, and
Fanny was presently established in a
greater contentment than she had
known for long time.
On Sunday mornings Fanny went to
church and George took long walks.
He explored the new city, and found
it hideous, especially in the early
spring, before the leaves of the shade
trees were out.
One of his Sunday walks, that
spring, he made into sour pilgrimage.
1t was misty morning of belated
snow slush, and suited him to per-
lection of miserableness, as he stood
before the great dripping department
store which now occupied the big plot
of ground where once had stood both
the Anderson hotel and the ANDERSON
opera house. From there he drifted to
the old Anderson block" but this was
only a shadow. The old structure had
not been replaced, but cavernous en-
tryway for trucks had been torn in it's
front, and upon the cornice, where the
old separate metal letters had spelt
ANDERSON block there was long
bill board sign: s'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 i'll
fated five new" houses had stood for
these were down. too, to make room
for the great tenement already shaped
in unending 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 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 it hard. Then he
walked quickly along the boulevard to
the next corner and looked at the little
sign there. tenth street.
It had begun to rain, but George
stood unheeding, staring at the little
sign. ID them p 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 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 centertableShe 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 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 famboy
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