Chapter V

They had bought their home. It was hard for them to
realize that the wonderful house was theirs to move into
whenever they chose. They spent all their time thinking
about it, and what they were going to put into it. As
their week with Aniele was up in three days, they lost no
time in getting ready. They had to make some shift to
furnish it, and every instant of their leisure was given to
discussing this.

A person who had such a task before him would not
need to look very far in Packingtown -- he had only to
walk up the avenue and read the signs, or get into a
street-car, to obtain full information as to pretty much
everything a human creature could need. It was quite
touching, the zeal of people to see that his health and
happiness were provided for. Did the person wish to
smoke? There was a little discourse about cigars, show~
ing him exactly why the Thomas Jefferson Five-cent Per~
fecto was the only cigar worthy of the name. Had he,
on the other hand, smoked too much? Here was a remedy
for the smoking habit, twenty-five doses for a quarter, and
a cure absolutely guaranteed in ten doses. In innumerable
ways such as this, the traveller found that somebody had
been busied to make smooth his paths through the world,
and to let him know what had been done for him. In
Packingtown the advertisements had a style all of their
own, adapted to the peculiar population. One would be
tenderly solicitous. "Is your wife pale?" it would in~
quire. "Is she discouraged, does she drag herself about
the house and find fault with everything? Why do you
not tell her to try Dr. Lanahan's Life Preservers?"
Another would be jocular in tone, slapping you on the

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v?