r tr -
"THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS:" A MAGNIFICENT NOVEL
; The Hiterary critics and book reviewers: are continually
asking, "When shall we have the 'Great American Novel' by
the 'Great American Novelist?' " Perhaps never, in the sense
in which the question is asked, for this country is too big and
its people differ too greatly by localities to make the "Great
American Novel" possible.
Nevertheless, "The Magnificent Ambersons" is a great
American novel. Booth Tarkington is an American of sturdy
native stock. He knows American life and character as only
a native American with generations of American forbears can
know them. Moreover he has a charm of style and a power
of expression which have endeared him to the reading public.
'The Magnificent Ambersons" is so great a novel that
Booth Tarkington has been awarded the Joseph Pulitzer prize
of $1,000 "for the American novel published during the year
which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of Ameri
can manners and manhood." The judges making the award
are Robert Grant, William Morton Payne and William Lyon
Phelps. ' ;
- CHAPTER I.
Major Amberson had "made a for
tune" in 1873, when other people were
losing fortunes, and the magnificence
of the Ambersons began then. Their
splendor lasted all the years that saw
their Midland town spread and darken
into a city, but reached ; its topmost
during the period when every prosper
ous family with children kept a 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 a new
purchase of sealskin sick people were
got to windows to see it go by. Every
body knew everybody else's family
horse and carriage, could Identify such
a silhouette half a 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.
During the earlier years of this pe
riod elegance of personal appearance
was believed to rest more upon the
torture of garments than upon their
shaping. A silk dress needed no re
modeling when it was a year or so old ;
at remained distinguished by merely
remaining silk. Old men and gover
nors wore broadcloth ; "full dress" was
broadcloth with "doeskin" trousers ;
and there were seen men of all ages
to whom a hat meant only that rigid,
tail silk thing known to impudence as
a "stovepipe." In town and country
these men would wear no other hat,
and, without self -consciousness, they
went rowing in such hats.
Trousers with a crease were consid
ered plebeian; the crease proved that
the garment had lain upon a shelf, and
hence was "ready made these be
traying trousers were called "hand-me-downs,"
In allusion 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, a spoon "derby," a
single-breasted coat called a "Chester
field," with short flaring skirts, a tor
turing cylindrical collar, laundered to
a polish and three Inches high, while
his other neckgear might be a heavy,
puffed cravat or a tiny bow fit for a
doll's braids. With evening dress he
wore a tan overcoat so short that his
black coattalls hung visible, five inches
below the overcoat ; but after a season
or two he lengthened his overcoat till
It touched his heels, and he passed out
. . . A . J A " t(1 I
or nis tignt trousers mio trousers use
great bags. ; Then presently he was
seen no more, though the word that
had been coined for him remained in
the vocabularies of the' Impertinent.
Surely no more is needed to prove
that so short a time ago we were liv
ing In another pge I
At the beginning of the Ambersons
great period most of the houses of the j
Midland town "were . of a pleasant ar-j
chltecture. They lacked style, but also !
pretentiousness, and whatever doe3
not pretend at all has style enough.
They stood in commodious yards, well
shaded by leftover forest trees, elm
and walnut and beech, with here and
there a line of tall sycamores where
the land had been made by filling
"bayous from the creek. The house of
-a "prominent resident," facing Mili
tary square or National avenue or Ten-
fi esse e street, was built of brick upon
stor e foundation, or of wood upon a
mncK Foundation, usually it had a
front porch' and a "back porch
often a "side porch," too. There was
a "front hall i" there was a "side hall,'
and sometimes a "back hall.' From
the "front hall" opened three rooms,
the "parlor,' the "sitting room" ' and
the 'library;" and the library coula
show warrant to Its H tie 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, f kept to the "parlor," a
place of jLormidable polish and discom
rt. The upholstery of the library
furniture was a little shabby, but the
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
er and father's 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, a "washstand," a "bureau,"
a wardrobe, a little table, a rocking
chair, and often a chair or two that
had been slightly damaged down
stairs, but not enough to justify either
the expense of repair or decisive
abandonment in the attic. And there
was always' a "spare room," for visi
tors (where the .sewing machine usu
ally was kept), and during the seven
ties there developed an appreciation
of the necessity for a bathroom.
At the rear of the house, upstairs,
was a bleak little chamber, called "the
girl's room,"' and in the stable there
was another bedroom, adjoining the
hayloft, and called "the hired man's
room." House and stable cost seven
or eight thousand dollars' to build, and
people with that much money to invest
in such comforts were classified as the
Rich. They paid the inhabitant of
"the girl's room" two dollars a week,
and, in the latter part of this period,
two dollars and a half, and finally
three dollars a week. She was Irish
ordinarily, or German, or it might be
Scandinavian, but never native to the
land unless she happened to be a per
son of color. The man or youth who
lived in, the stable had like wages, and
sometimes, too, was lately a steerage
voyager, but much oftener he was col
ored. After sunrise on pleasant mornings
the alleys behind the stables were gay;
laughter and shouting went up and
down their dusty lengths, with a lively
accompaniment of currycombs knock
ing against back fences and stable
walls, for the darkies loved to curry
their horses in the alleys. Darkies
always prefer to gossip In shouts in
stead of whispers, and they feel that
profanity, unless It be vociferous, is
almost worthless. Horrible phrases
were caught by early rising children
and carried to older people for defini
tion, sometimes at inopportune mo
ments; while less investigative chil
dren would often merely repeat the
phrases in some subsequent, flurry of
agitation, and yet bring about conse
quences so emphatic as to be recalled
with ease in middle life.
They have passed, those darky hired
men
of the Midland town.
The
stables have been transformed Into
other likenesses, or swept away, like
the woodsheds where were kept the
stovewood and kindling that the. "girl"
and the "hired man" always quarreled
over: who should fetch it.
So with other vanishings. There
were the little bunty street cars on the
long, single track that went its
troubled way among the cobblestones,
At the rear door of the car there Was
no platform, but a step where nassen-
gers clung In wet clumps when the
weather was bad and the car crowded.
The patrons if not, too absent-minded
put their fares into a slot; and no
conductor paced the heaving floor, but
the driver would rap remindingly with
his elbow upon the. glass of the door
to his1 little open platform if the nick
els and the passengers did not appear
to coincide in number. A. lone mule
j drewthe car, and sometimes drew it
off the track,; when the passengers
I would get out and push, it on aeain.
j They really owed- it courtesies like
this, for the car was genially accom
modating : a lady could whistle to it
from an upstairs window, and the car
would halt at once and wait for her
while she shut the window, put on her
hat and cloak, went downstairs, found
an umbrella, ' told the "girHi what to
have for dinner, and came forth from
the house. ;- , ;
They j even . had time to . , dance
"square dances," quadrilles and "lan
cers ;" they also danced the, .'rac-
, quette" and echottisches and polkas.
and such whims .as the "Portland
ancy." They pushed back the sliding
doors between the "parlor" and the
sitting room," . tacked z down - crash
over the carpets, hired a - few palms
n green tubs, stationed three or four
Italian musicians under the . stairway
n the "front f hall"- and ', had great
nights! :;-:Avr;;-vr:::" -'
"Keeping open house,' was a merry
custom ; It has gone, like- the all-day
picnic in the woods, and like that pret
tiest of all vanished customs, the sere
nade. When a. lively girl visited the
town she did not long go uhserenaded,
though a visitor was not indeed needed
to excuse a serenade. Of a summer
night young men would bring an or
chestra under a pretty girl's window
or, It might be, her father's, or that
of an ailing maiden ; aunt and . flute,
harp, 'cello, cornet and bass viol would
pleasantly release to the dulcet stars
such melodies as sing through "You'll
Remember Me," "I Dreamt That I
Dwelt in Marble Halls," ' "Silver
Threads Among , the Gold," 'Kathleen
Mavourneen," or "The Soldier's Fare
well." ; - - "" -V' '
Croquet and the mildest archery
ever known were the sports of people
still young and active enough for so
much exertion; middle age played
euchre. '.. There was a theater, next
door to the Amberson hotel, and when
Edwin Booth came for a night every
body who could afford to buy a ticket
was there, and all the "hacks" in town
were hired. "The Black Crook" also
filled the theater, but the audience
then was almost entirely of men, who
ooked uneasy as they left for home
when the final curtain fell upon the
shocking girls dressed as fairies. But
he theater did not often do so well;
the people of the town were still too
thrifty. ,
They were thrifty because they were
the sons or grandsons of the "early
settlers," who had opened the wilder
ness and had reached it from the East
and the South with wagons and axes
and guns, but with no money at all.
The pioneers were thrifty or they
would have perished : they had ; to
store away food for the winter, or
goods to trade for food, and they
often feared they had not stored
enoughthey left , traces of that fear
n their sons and grandsons. In the
minds of most of these, indeed, their
thrift. was next to their religion: to
save, even for the sake of saving, was
their earliest lesson and discipline. No
matter how prosperous they were they
could not spend money either upon
art," or upon mere luxury and enter
tainment, without a. sense of sin.
v Against so homespun a background
he magnificence of the Ambersons was
as conspicuous as a' brass band at a
funeral. Major Amberson bought two
hundred acres of land at the end of
National avenue; and through this
tract he built broad streets and cross-
streets; paved them wTith cedar block,
and curbed them with stone. He set up
fountains, here and there, where the
streets intersected, and at symmetri
cal intervals placed cast-iron statues.
painted white, with their titles clear
upon the pedestals ; Minerva, Mer
cury, Hercules, Venus, Gladiator, Em
peror Augustus, Fisher Boy, Stag-
hound, Mastiff, Greyhound, Fawn,
Antelope, Wounded Doe and Wounded
Lion. Most of the forest trees had
been left to flourish still, and,, at some
distance, or by moonlight, the place
was In truth beautiful ; "but the ardent
"Sixty Thousand Dollars for the Wood
work Alone."
citizen, loving to see his city grow,
wanted neither distance nor moon
light. V He had not seen, Versailles!
but, standing before the fountain "of
Neptune in Amberson addition, at
bright noon, and quoting the favorite
comparison of the . local newspapers
he declared Versailles . outdone. All
this Art showed a profit from the
start, for the lots sold .well and there
was something - like a rush to . build
in the new Addition. Its main , thor
oughfare, an : oblique, continuation v of
National avenue, was called Amber
son boulevard; and here, atthe junc
ture of the ) new-boulevard and the
avenue, Major Amberson reserved
four, acres for himself " and built his
new house-the Amberson mansion, of
course.1 .! ;'Vhf:'T:h: ?
This house was the pride of the
town. Faced- with - stone as far back
as the dining-room windows, it was a
house of arches and ' turrets andgir
dllng stone : porches : it had theHotst
porte cochere seen in ,j that town.
There was a central "front hall", with
a great black-walnut . stairway, and
open to a green glass skylight' called
the "dome," three stories aboye the
ground floor, i A ballroom occupied
most of the third story, and' at one
end of It was carved a walnut gallery
for the musicians. Citizens told stran
gers that the cost of : all this black
walnut and wood carving was ' sixty
thousand dollars. "Sixty thousand
dollars for the woodwork alone! Yes,
sir, . and hardwood floors ail over the
house ! Turkish rugs and no carpets
at all, .except a Brussels carpet In the
front parlor I hear, they call It the
'reception room. Hot and cold water
upstairs and down, and stationary
washstands in every bedroom in the
place ! Their sideboard's built right
into the house and goes all the way
across one end of the dining room. It
isn't walnut, jt's solid mahogany !
Not veneering solid mahogany 1 Well,
sir, I presume the president of the
United States would be tickled to
swap the White House for the new
Amberson mansion, if the Major'd
give him the chance hut by the Al
mighty Dollar, . you bet your sweet
life the Major wouldn't!" '
The visitor to the town was certain
to receive further enlightenment, for
there was one form of entertainment
never omitted : he was always patri
otlcally taken for "a little drive round
our city," even if his host had to hire
a hack, and the climax of the display
was the Amberson mansion. "Look
at that greenhouse they've put up
there in the side yard," the escort
would continue. "And look at that
brick stable! Most folks would think
that stable plenty big enough and
good enough to live in; it's got run-,
ning water and four , rooms upstairs
for two hired men and one of 'em's
family to live in. They keep one hired
man loafin' in the house, and they got
a married hired man out in the stable,
and his wife does the washing. This
town never did see so much style as
Ambersons are putting on these days;
and I guess It's going to be expensive,
because a lot of other folks'U try to
keep up with 'em. The Major's wife-
and the daughter's , been to Europe,
and my wife tells me since they got
back they make tea there every after
noon about five o'clock and drink It.
Seems to me it would go against a
person's stomach, just before supper
like that, and anyway tea Isn't fit for
much not unless you're sick or some
thing. Looks to me like some people
In this pity'd be willing to go crazy
If they thought that would help 'em to
be as high-toned as Ambersons. Old
Aleck Minaf er-1 he's about the closest
old codger we got he come in my of
fice the other day, and he pretty near
had a stroke tclllnV me about his
daughter Fanny. . Seems Miss Isabel
Amberson's got some kind of a dog-
they call It a St. Bernard and Fanny
was bound to have one, too. Well,
old Aleck told her he didn't like dogs
except rat terriers, because a rat ter
rier cleans up the mice, but she kept
on at him," and finally he said all right
she could have one. Then, by George!
she says Amberson's bought their
dog, and you don't get one without
paying for ; It: they cost from fifty to
a hundred dollars up I ;'" Old Aleck
wanted to know if I ever heard of
anybody's buyln a . dog before, be
cause, even a Newfoundland or a set
ter, you can usually get somebody to
give you one. He says he saw some
sense in paylnV a nigger a dime, or
even a quarter, to drown a dog for
you,Jtut to pay out fifty dollars and
maybe, more well, sir, he like to
choked himself to death, right there
in my office ! Of, course everybody
realizes that Major Amberson Is a fine
business man, but what with throwin'
money" around for dogs, and ' every
which and what, some think all this
style's bound to break him up, if his
family don't quit !" v
. One citizen, having thus discoursed
to a visitor, came to a thoughtful
pause, and then added,1 "Does seem
pretty much like squandering, yet
when you see that dog out walking
with this Miss Isabel, he seems worth
the money." .
.What's she look like?" v
"Well, sir," said the citizen, "she's
not more than just about eighteen or
maybe nineteen years old, and I don't
know as I know just how to put it -but
she's kind of a delightful lookln
young lady!"
CHAPTER II.
Another citizen said . an . eloquent
thing-, about Miss Isabel .Ambersptfs
looks. This was Mrs. Henry Franklin
Foster, the foremost literary' authority
i and intellectual leader of the com
munity for 4 both , the daily - newspa
pers thus described Mrs. Foster "when
she founded the Women's Tennyson
club ; and her word upon art, ; letters
and the drama was accepted more as
law than as. opinion. Naturally when
"Hazel Klrke" finally reached town,
after Its long triumph In larger places,
many, . people i waited to hear what
Mrs. Henry : Franklin Foster thought
of it before they felt warranted in ex
pressing, any estimate of the play. In
fact', some of them waited in the lobby
of . the ; theater as they came out and
formed an inquiring group about her.
"I didn't see the play," she In
formed them.
"What! Why, we saw you, right in
the middle of the fourth row !"
"Yes," she said, smiling, "but I was
sitting just behind. Isabel Amberson,
I couldn't look at anything except hen
wavy brown hair and j the wonderful
back of her neck." "
; The Ineligible young men of ' the
town (they were all ineligible) were
unable to content themselves with the
view that had so charmed Mrs. Henry
Franklin Foster ; they spent their time
struggling to keep Miss Amberson's
face turned toward them. She turned
it most often, observers said, toward
two : one excelling in the , general
struggle by his sparkle, "and the other,
by that winning if not winsome old
trait, jpersistence. The sparkling gen
tleman "led germans" with her, and
sent sonnets to her -with , his bou
quets sonnets lacking neither music -j
nor wif. He was generous," poor,-well-dressed,
and his amazing persuasive
ness was one reason why he was al
ways In debt No one doubted that
he would be able to persuade Isabel,
but he unfortunately joined too merry
a party one night, and during a moon
light serenade upon the lawn before
the Amberson mansion,' was easily
identified from ' the windows as the
person who stepped through the bass
viol and had to be assisted to a wait
ing carriage. One of Miss Amberson's
brothers was among the serenaders,
and when the party had dispersed re
mained propped against the front
door in a state of helpless liveliness;
the Major going down in a dressing
gown and slippers to bring him In, and
scolding mildly, while imperfectly con
cealing strong impulses tof laughter.
Miss Amberson also laughed at this
brother the next day, but for the
suitor It was a different matter : she
refused to see him when he called to
apologize. -"You seem to care a great
deal about bass viols!" he wrote her.
Ml promise never to break another."
She made no response to the note, un
less it1 was an answer, two weeks
later, when her engagement was ' an
nounced. She took the persistent one,
Wilbur MInafer, no breaker of bass
viols or of hearts, no serenader at all.
A few people, who always foresaw
everything; claimed that they were not
surprised, because though Wilbur Min
af er "might riot be an Apollo, as it
were,"' he was "a steady young busi
ness man and a good church oer,"
and Isabel Anderson was "pretty sen
siblefor such - a showy girl." But
the engagement astounded the yoUng
people, and most of their fathers and
mothers- too ; and as a topic itx sup
planted literature at the next meet
ing of the "Women's Tennyson club."
"Wilbur MInafer !" a member cried,
her inflection seeming to Imply that
Wlbur's crime was explained by his
surname. "Wilbur MInafer ! It's the
queerest thing I ever heard ! To think
of her taking Wilbur Minaf er, Just
because a man any woman would like
a thousand times better was a little
wild one night at a'serenade!" -
"No, that wasn't her reason," said
wise Mrs. Henry Franklin Foster. "If
men only knew it and it's a good
thing they don't a woman doesn't
really care much about whether a
man's wild or not, If It doesn't affect
herself, and Isabel Amberson doesn't
care a thing !"
"Mrs. (Foster!"
"No, she doesn't. What she minds
is his making a clown of himself In
her front yard ! It made her- think he
didn't care much about her. She's
probably mistaken, but that's what
she thinks, and it's too late for her
to think anything - else now, because
she's going to ; be married right away
the ' Invitations will be out ? next
week. It'll be a big Amberson-style
thing, raw oysters floating in scooped
out blocks of Ice and a band from out
of town champagne, showy presents ;
a colossal present from the Major.
Then Wilbur will take Isabel on the
carefulest little wedding trip he can
manage, and she'll be a good wife to
him, but they'll have the worst spoiled
lot of children this town ' will ever
see." ' J . 1 ' -
"How on earth do you make that
out, Mrs. Foster?" x
"She couldn't love Wilbur, could
she?" Mrs. Foster demanded, with no
challengers. r Well, t -will all go to
her children, and she'll ruin 'em I" '
. The Prophetess proved to be mis
taken in a single detail merely: except
for. that her foresight'
1 he wedding was of v Ambersonlan !
".asmucence, even; to the floating by-1
sters ; and the Major's colossal pres-'j
ent .was a set of architect's designs j
for a house almost a whorkte and
ImDressivp n
to be built in Amberson s'
the Major. mim b,
At midnicrht tho i,.-.,.
Jng toasted in chamnne m b
ic , '".'-Kile, thou? ,
xiuu ueimrrpn nnrn 1
uiwu IH'I
ney at ten. Four days
vicjjaiteu upon
ney at ten. Four (lav
had returned to uie Pair
n. w
jueaa seexueu iairly to
Til J
upon the carefulest mi 1V.. . Isal)el
manage. According to ,,v!, CUld
she was from the star V eport
to him," bu here ina'
prophecy proved inaccurate w,i
and Isabel did not have children 5UP
had only one. uren. they
- "Only one,'" Mrs. Henry Frani-r
Foster admitted. "But Fd Se J
"You Think You Own This Town!"
know if he isn't spoiled enough for
a whole carload!"
Again she found none to challenge
her. ..
At : i the age of nine George Amber
son MInafer; the Major's one grand
child, was a princely terror, dreaded
not only In Amberson addition but in
many other quarters through which
he galloped on his white pony. "By
golly, I guess you think you own this
town !' an embittered laborer com
plained one day, as Georgie rode the
pony straight through a pile of sand
the man was sieving. "I will when
I grow up," the undisturbed child re
plied. "I guess my grandpa owns it
now, you bet!" And the baffled work
man, having no means to controvert
fv'hat seemed a mere exaggeration of
the" facts, could only mutter, "Oh, pull
down your vest !" !
; "Don't haf to ! Doctor says it ain't
healthy !" the boy returned promptly.
"But I tell you what I'll do: I'll pull
down my vest if you'll wipe off your
chin!"
This was stoek and stencil: the ac
customed argot t of street badinage of
the period; and in such matters Geor
gie was an expert. He had no vest
to pull down ; the incongruous fact
was that a fringed sash girdled the
juncture of his velvet blouse and
breeches, for. the5- Fauntleroy period
had set in, and Georgie's mother had
so poor an eye for appropriate things,
where Georgie was concerned, that
she dressed him according to the doc
trine of that school in boy decoration.
Except upon the surface (which was
not his own work but his mother's)
Georgie bore no vivid resemblance to
the -fabulous little Cedric. The sto
ried boy's famous "Lean on me, grand
father," would have been difficult to
Imagine upon the lips of Georgie. A
month after his ninth birthday anni
versary, when the Major gave him his
pony, he had already become acquaint
ed with the toughest boys in various
distant parts of the town, and nj
convinced them that the toughness oi
a rich little boy with long curls might
be considered in many respects su
perior, to their Own. He fought them,
learning how to go baresark at a ce
tain' point in a fight, bursting inw
tears of . anger, reaching for rocks, n
terlng wailed threats of murde fJJ
attempting to fulfill them. lgn
Often ? led to intimacies, and he a
quired the art of saying things fflorj
exciting than "Don't naf to!
"Doctor says it ain't healthy!
on a summer afternoon a strange
sitting bored upon the gatepost or u
Rev. Malloch Smith, beheld Oeon,
Amberson Minaf er rapidly approacn
ing on his white pony and was
pelled by bitterness to shout : a
the. ole Jackass! Look at the k
curls! Say. bub, where'd you
your mother's ole sfsh !"
honmo nmhprson Minafer
begins to grow up andmeeis
the beautiful Miss Lucy Mor-
'. "
j gan.
r (TO BE CONTINUED )