United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
The advent of musical culture was signified by this: "At least thirty
girls in this town can play the first part of 'Narcissus' pretty well.
But when they come to the second part they mangle the keys for a minute
and then say, 'I don't care much for that second part--do you?' Why
don't some of them learn it and give us a chance to judge?"
The _Argus_ had acquired a "Woman's Department," conducted by Mrs.
Aurelia Potts Denney, wife of the editor,--a public-spirited woman,
prominent in club circles, and said to be of great assistance to her
husband in his editorial duties. The town was proud of her, and sent her
as delegate to the Federation of Woman's Clubs; her name, indeed, has
been printed in full more than once, even by Chicago newspapers. Some
say that wisely she might give more attention to her twin sons, Hayes
and Wheeler Denney; but this likely is ill-natured carping, for Hayes
and Wheeler seem not more lawless than other twins of eight. And
carpers, to a certainty, do exist in Little Arcady.
One Westley Keyts, for example, lounging in the doorway of his
meat-shop, renewed acquaintance with the wanderer, who remembered him as
a glum-faced but not bad-hearted chap. Names recalled and hands shaken,
Mr. Keyts began to lament the simple ways of an elder day, glancing
meanwhile with honest disapproval at a newly installed competitor across
the street. The shop itself was something of an affront, its gilt name
more--"The Bon Ton Market." Mr. Keyts pronounced "Bon Ton" in his own
fashion, but his contempt was ably and amply expressed.
"Sounds like one of them fancy names for a corset or a patent lamp," he
complained. "It's this here summer business that done it. They swarm in
here with their private hacks and their hired help all togged out till
you'd think they was generals in the army, and they play that game of
sissy-shinny (drop-the-handkerchief for mine, if _I_ got to play any
such game), and they're such great hands to kite around nights when
folks had ought to be in their beds. I tell you, my friend, it ain't
doing this town one bit of good. The idea of a passel of strong, husky
young men settin' around on porches in their white pants and calling it
'passing the summer.' _I_ ain't never found time to pass any summers."
The wanderer expressed a proper regret for this decadence. Mr. Keyts
reverted bitterly to the Bon Ton market:--
"Good name for a tooth powder, or a patent necktie, or an egg-beater.
But a butcher-shop!--why, it's a _hell_ of a name for a
butcher-shop!"
The wanderer expressed perfect sympathy with this view of the shop
legend, and remarked, "By the way, whose big house is that with the
columns in front, up where the Prouse and old Blake houses used to be?"
The face of Mr. Keyts became pleasanter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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