Poor Little Rich Town

"Poor Little Rich Town" is a short story first published in Collier's on October 25, 1952 and reprinted in the collections Bagombo Snuff Box in 1999 and Complete Stories in 2017.

Plot Summary

Newell Cady, an efficiency expert known for saving failing companies by reducing wasteful costs and staff while increasing productivity, has recently been hired as vice president of the Federal Apparatus Corporation and sent to Ilium, New York to oversee the construction of the new company headquarters. Cady has rented, with the option to buy, one of fifteen mansions built in nearby Spruce Falls during a 1920s housing boom. Nine more in disrepair are owned by locals and the town hopes Cady's arrival will spark a desire by other Federal Apparatus executives to live there. Fire Chief Stanley Atkins proposes that Cady be made a member of the volunteer fire department, waiving the usual three year residency requirement, as well as head judge at the annual Hobby Show to begin integrating him into the community. Upton Beaton, the wealthy, Harvard educated final descendant of Spruce Falls' first family for four generations, objects that bestowing such honors to newcomers cheapens them for those local citizens who have earned them. He warns the town against becoming obsessed with money. Despite this, Atkins' proposal passes without opposition. At that moment, Cady arrives at the post office next door and beings instructing Mrs. Dickie, the postmistress for twenty-five years since her husband died, on the proper way to hold and sort mail and suggests she moves her beloved plants which block easy access to the mailboxes. Atkins informs Cady of his new membership in the volunteer fire department and begins bragging about the new fire engine they plan to purchase. Cady quickly declares the current fire engine perfectly adequate and that the job of the fire department should simply be to put out fires as economically as possible without unnecessary show.

Three weeks later, Hal Brayton the grocer has decluttered his story layout and bought an adding machine instead of hand tabulating bills. Mrs. Dickie has moved her plants and raised the mailbox to eye level. The fire department voted down new uniforms for itself. At a school meeting, it's shown that it would be cheaper to bus all the grade school students to the centralized school in Ilium rather than maintain a separate one in Spruce Falls. Much of the population has begun moving at a faster pace, pushed by Cady with Beaton as his local advisor. The two of them along with Chief Atkins, are the judges at the annual Hobby Show with a large box of blue ribbons, since there are many classes of entries. Beaton bestows a ribbon on a four foot ball of string, which Ted Batsford has entered every year, while Atkins places one on Mrs. Dickie's haphazard flower arrangement. Cady is appalled to learn that there's virtually no competition in any class and everyone gets a blue ribbon, regardless of the "junk" they submit. Atkins timidly attempts to object but Cady tells him that he's standing in the way of progress and awards to only ribbon to a petit point replica of a women's magazine, whose creator is too embarrassed to take it.

Although bitter, news from the real estate agent that several executives are considering buying Spruce Falls mansions quickly dominates the increasingly money-focused town. Cady enters the post office and finds Mrs. Dickie unable to retrain herself in the new, efficient methods he's suggested. He casually mentions to Beaton and Atkins, who are trying to rush him out, that the town can in fact get rid of its own post office since Ilium can provide free rural delivery. Outside, Beaton chastises him, saying every resident knows they can get free delivery, but Mrs. Dickie's husband died in a fire, saving many people in the town. At a second meeting of the volunteer fire department in a month, Beaton makes a motion passed by all the membership save one, who is absent. Cady arrives at the post office, noticing Mrs. Dickie has returned her plants to their previous home, while Chief Atkins loudly declares from the other room that Beaton has been chosen to inform Cady that his membership violates the three year residency requirement of the bylaws. Beaton says he will explain to Cady that a town is not like a factory to be judged at a glance, but requires years to learn how to live together. Later the real estate agent from Ilium arrives to find the whole town out with their new fire engine except Beaton, who is minding the grocery store. He explains to the agent that no one wants to the sell their homes until they see how Cady settles in, although they're hopeful that in time he'll become part of the town.