The Imagery of Williams’ House
John Berendt writes, “We were sitting in the living room of his Victorian house. IT was a mansion, really with fifteen-foot ceilings and large, well-proportioned rooms. A graceful spiral stairway rose from the center hall toward a domed skylight. There was a ballroom on the second floor. It was Mercer House, one of the last of Savannah’s great houses still in private hands. Together with the walled garden and the carriage house in back, it occupied an entire city block. ..Architectural Digest had devoted six pages to it.” Manifestly, the house is absolutely classic, outstanding and conspicuous. The design and furnishings demonstrates Williams’ penchant for an Aristocratic-like lifestyle. The Architectural Digest validates the house’s classiness. Moreover, the house is a confirmation of Williams' affluence and his architectural partiality.
“Old Money” versus “New Money”
Williams recounts, “Years ago I was showing a group of visitors through the house and I noticed one man giving his wife the high sign. I was him mouth the words ‘ old money.’…I took him (David Howard) aside afterward and said, ``My money- what there is of it - is about eleven years old.” Williams’ house bids the impression of “Old money” .David and his wife assume that Williams inherited his affluence from his family. However, Williams’ assertion regarding his eleven-year –old money (New money) confirms that he is purely self-made.
The Imagery of Poison
John Berendt expounds, “ It was rumoured that Luther had in his possession a bottle of poison five hundred times more deadly than arsenic, a poison so lethal that if he ever dumped it into the city’s water supply it would kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah. Years back, a delegation of nervous citizens had informed the police and the police searched Luther’s house without finding anything. That satisfied no one, of course, and the rumours persisted.” The poison elicits the citizens’ dread for death which I ascribed to Luther’s job (“at the government insectary”) and profound familiarity with poisons. The citizens depict a macro-level form of paranoia which is unfounded.
