Part 8 (1/2)

Constructive criticis conditions may be successfully embodied in the form of a confession article that describes the evils as they have been experienced by one individual If the article is to be entirely effective and just, the experience of the one person described must be fairly typical of that of others in the same situation In order to show that these experiences are characteristic, the writer ures tending to prove that his own case is not an isolated example In the confession article mentioned above, ”The Pressure on the Professor,” the assistant professor who makes the confession, in order to demonstrate that his own case is typical, cites statistics collected by a colleague at Stanford University giving the financial status of 112 assistant professors in various American universities

Confessions that sho faults and personal difficulties have been overco under siain, what is related should be typical rather than exceptional

EXAMPLES OF THE CONFESSION STORY That an inti couple as told by the wife,story butto others, is shown in the confession story below Signed ”FB,” and illustrated with a pen and ink sketch of the couple at work over their accounts, it was printed in _Every Week_, a popular illustrated periodical for Company, New York

THE THINGS WE LEARNED TO DO WITHOUT

We were married within a month of our co Middle West university Looking back, it seee life of ours holly pagan All about us was the free-handed atmosphere of ”easy ood time was one of the primary necessities of life Such were our ideas e married on a salary of one hundred dollars a month We took letters of introduction to soo, and they proved so delightfully cordial that we settled down a to consider the discrepancies between their ways and our income We were put up at a sh, co--that demanded six weeks' salary in initial dues and much more in actual subsequent expense ”Everybody” went out for Saturday golf and stayed for dinner and dancing

By fall there was in working operation a dinner club of the ”younger married set,” as our local colue club; and a sht for dinner and a show Costly little a people of our opportunities and tastes I think that was our attitude, although we did not admit it In September we rented a ”smart” little apartenerous checks which were faifts What we did was to buy the furniture on the instal to pay twenty dollars a month till the bill was settled, and we put the furnitureof a custo us, Max's mother would slip a bill into ; or old piece into one And there were always checks for birthdays

Everything went into running expenses; yet, in spite of it, our expenses ran quite away Max said I was ”too valuable a woood-hurocery andout, were enorhted in silk socks and tailored shi+rts, and he ordered his arettes by the thousand My own taste ran to expensive little hats

It is hardly necessary to recount the details We had our first tremendous quarrel at the end of six months, when, in spite of our furniture money and our birthday checks, we found ourselves two hundred and fifty dollars in debt But as we cooled we decided that there was nothing we could do without; we could only be ”more careful”

Everywe could do without At the end of the year on a 1200 salary ere 700 behind; eight months later, after our first baby came, ere over a thousand--and by that tied

I actually was carrying out a threat of separation and stripping the apart, when Max came back from town and sat down to discuss matters withfroe was a failure and our love was dead, to the ement days But its central point was Max's detached insistence that we e over into a purely utilitarian affair

”Man needs the decencies of a hoood with a fire his affairs And my firm is the kind of firm I want to work for This next year is ih a nasty divorce business, knowing that everybody knows, I'll be about thirty per cent efficient I'e--even a frost like ours--is useful Will you?”

I had to My choice rested between going ho the baby so out forout his pencil, ”that if two reasonably clever people can put their best brain power and eight hours a day into a ho resolves itself into a choice between the things we can do without and the things we can't We'll list them We can't do without three ”

”You can certainly give up silk socks and cigarettes,” I said; and, surprisingly, on this old sore point between us Max agreed

”You can give up silk stockings, then,” he said, and put thes! Out of all possible econos that we could think of Finally--

”We could et out to the club till very late--after dinner--and stay just for the dancing

And we could get out of the dinner club and the theater bunch Only, we ought to have soo to ently We'll say we can't leave the kid nights--”

”We can buy h if we do that, and people won't knoe haven't been Put down: 'Magazines for plays'”

He did it quite seriously Do we see to you? So anxious lest we should betray our economies--so iht think! It is funny enough toback; but it was bitter business then

I settime before it became the sweetest of realities

I cried the first tia spring afternoons when I pushed his carriage conspicuously up and down the avenue while the other wo walks were the best thing that ever happened to ained splendid health, losing the superfluous flesh I was beginning to carry, and the headaches that usually ca

I fell into the habit, too, of going around by thethe day's supplies The first month of that habit my bills showed a decrease of 1647 I shall always reest I have ever seen I began to ask the prices of things; and I a which tofactors in housekeeping