The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-06
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 Major Anderson had made a for tune" In 1873, when other people were losing fortunes, and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then. Their spleriiOr lasted all the years that saw afhefr Midland town spread and darken into city, but reached its tOpmost during the period, when every prosper ous family with children kept New foundland dog.
 In that town in those days all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet. and when there was new. purchase of sealskin sick people were got to windows to see 1t go by. Every body knew everybody else's family horse af4tlecarriage, could identify such l a silhouette half n mile down the street, and thereby was sure who was , going to market or to a reception or . coming home from office or store to noon dinner or evening supper.
 s During the earlier years of this pc .riod elegance of personal appearance was believed to rest more upon the texture of garments than upon their shaping. silk dress needed no re modelling when 1t was q year or so old; It remained distinguished by merely remaining silk. Old men and gover- nors wore broadcloth; "full dress" was broadcloth with 'edoeskin" trousers; and there were seen men of all ages to whom a hat meant only that rigid. tall silk thing known to impudence as a "stovepipe." In town and country these men would wear no other hat, and. without lf-consciousness. they went rowing in such hats.
 Trousers with crease were consid- cred plebeian; the crease proved that the garment had lain upon shelf. and hence was ready made - these be Uraying trousers were called hand ne-downs," in alIusion to the shelf. In the early eighties. while bangs and bustles, were, having their way with women. that variation of dandy known as the dude" was invented: he wore trousers as tight as stockings. dagger pointed shoes, spoon "derby,r single-breasted coat called Chester field" with short haring skirts, tor turing cylindrical collar, laundered to a polish and three inches high, while his other neckgear might be heavy, puffed cravat or tiny bow fit for dolls braids. With evening dress he wore tan overcOat so short that his black couttails hung visible, five inches below the oTercOat; but after season or two he heightened his overcOat till it touched his heels, and he passed out of his tight trousers into trousers like r great bags. Then presently, he was seen no more, though the word that had been coined for him remained in the vocabularieS of the impertfnent.
 Surely no more Is needed to prove that so short time ago we were liv- ing in another agei
 At the beginning of the Ambersons' great period most of the houses of the Midland town were of a pleasant ar chitecture. They lacked style but also DretentiOusnesS, and whatever does not pretend at all has style enough. They stood in commodious yards, we'll shaded by leftover forest trees, elm and walnut and beech, with here and there line of tall sycamores where the land had been made by filling bayous froTus the creek. The house of a prominent resident" facing Milf tary square or National avenue or Ten nessee street, was built of brick upon a stone foundation, or of wood upon a brick foundation. Usually it had .a front porch" and "back porch ;" often a "side porch" too. There was q front hall ;" there was "side hall," and sometimes a back hall" From ! the 'front hall' opened three rooms, the 'parlor," the sitting room" and E the library" and the library could show warrant to its title-for some reason these people bought books. . Commonly the family sat more in the library than in the 'sitting room,", while callers, when they came for mally, were kept to the ''parlor," a place of formidable polish and discom- fort. The upholstery of the library furniture was little shabby, but the j hostile chairs and sofa of the "parlor' always looked new. For all the wear and tear they got they should have lasted a thousand years.
 Upstairs were the bedrooms moth CT and fathers room the largest: a. smaller room for one or two sons, another for one or two daughters each of these rooms containing a double bed, ''washstand," bureau" a wardrobe, little table, a rocking chair, and often a chair or two that had been slightly damaged down statra but not enough to justify either tne expense of repair or decisive