"
With this mysterious admonition and a tender farewell, Arletta left me
in the depth of meditation as to what strange occurrence nature's
storehouse might still contain for me, and a few minutes later I was
notified that the carriage was in waiting.
CHAPTER XXVII
It would be almost impossible to record my impressions of the different
things that came to my notice for the first time in twenty-one years, as
I was driven from the hospital to the hotel.
While great progress had taken place in many lines during that time,
still after having had such a realistic mental picture of the wonders of
Sage-land stamped upon my mind, the new inventions, such as trolley
cars, automobiles, etc., which I had never seen before, seemed crude and
insignificant.
As I passed from street to street I could not fail to observe the great
disorder that prevailed everywhere, in the foremost city of the world.
In the first place, I was struck by the inharmonious and ragged
appearance of the buildings. Here was a tall skyscraper of nice white
marble thirty stories high, towering up into the clouds like a great
beanpole, while on one side of it was a squatty little two-story red
brick structure, and on the other side a six-story brown stone building,
the whole forming a most irregular and distracting appearance to the
eye. In other places, right in the heart of the city, and adjoining
well-designed buildings, were vacant lots inclosed by high ugly board
fences, on which were painted fantastic and ridiculous advertisements.
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