In Winesburg no attention was paid to Wash
Williams and his hatred of his fellows. Once
Mrs. White, the banker's wife, complained to the
telegraph company, saying that the office in Wines-
burg was dirty and smelled abominably, but noth-
ing came of her complaint. Here and there a
man respected the operator. Instinctively the
man felt in him a glowing resentment of some-
thing he had not the courage to resent. When
Wash walked through the streets such a one had
an instinct to pay him homage, to raise his hat or
to bow before him. The superintendent who had
supervision over the telegraph operators on the
railroad that went through Winesburg felt that
way. He had put Wash into the obscure office
at Winesburg to avoid discharging him, and he
meant to keep him there. When he received the
letter of complaint from the banker's wife, he
tore it up and laughed unpleasantly. For some
reason he thought of his own wife as he tore up
the letter.

Wash Williams once had a wife. When he was
still a young man he married a woman at Dayton,
Ohio. The woman was tall and slender and had
blue eyes and yellow hair. Wash was himself
a comely youth. He loved the woman with a love
as absorbing as the hatred he later felt for all
women.

In all of Winesburg there was but one person

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