The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1920-01-02
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
greater contentment than she had
known for a long time
On Sunday mornings Fanny went to
church and George look long walks.
He explored the new city, and found
1t 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 a sour pilgrimage.
1t was a misty morning of belated
snow slush, and suited him TO q 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 70
the old ANDERSON block" but this was
only q shadow. The old structure had
not been replaced, but a cavernous en-
tryway for trucks had been torn in its
front. and upon the cornice, where the
old separate metal letters had spelt
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 jor's i'll
fated five new" houses had stood for
these were down. too, to make room
for the great tenement already shaped
t:s 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 q 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"
had RI b,rt CaCrCa
stood unheeding. staring at the little
sign. Cd 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 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 q 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 1t
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, az it always was
on Sunday mornings. and the fiamboy-
| ant volume was still upon the table
! evidently fixture as q sort of local
! Alm>nach 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