The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-07
UNREASONABLE Discomfort.

Confessions" Of professional men are be-
coming feature of periodical literature. A
year or so ago the Forum published the
confessions of a literary hack, in which
the writer who chose to call himself by
that somewhat opprobr1ous title, COM
planned of the small rewards of his labor
compared with those received by doctors,
lawyers, preachers and other men engaged
in professional pursuits. AS result Of
some years effort he had arrived at a point
where he could command an income of S., 900
a year from his contributions to newspapers
and magazines, and this amount, which he
could probably not increase, he considered
inadequate compensation for the labor in
volved and also insufficient to maintain a
family upon in or near New York, which
was presumably his home. There is no
doubt that a man who receives $1,000 for
miscellaneous contributions to periodicals
must work hard, and doubtless earns his
money but the point of view has much to
do with the matter, and these "confes-
sions," so far from being received with
sympathy, were greeted with ridicule by
other writer's, mainly newspaper men who
worked just as hard for less money and
lived in New York with their families, at
that. They did not acknowledge that they
received enough, but that the hack who
got $1,000 was we'll paid and had no reason
to grumble. A similar. though wider, diff
ference in the point of view is illustrated in
Robert Grants Confessions of . Married
1o& ~
thetically observed, not being classed here
as a professional-when he shows the diff
Guilty of making ends meet on $4,000 year
and expresses wonder and compassion over
the case of the bookkeeper who is obliged
to subsist on $500.
The latest chapter of confessions is from
a college professor-ths time in Scribner-
who feels that his life is a comparative
failure. He is a professor in a small col
lege which he entered fifteen years ago by
way of beginning what he and his friends
thought a career which should end in a
university, where he would have high rank
and a salary to correspond. He received
81, 800 when he began; he gets but $1,000 now,
because the college is poor and cannot af-
ford more. He has been called to other
institutions. one of them a university
which offered him $4,000. He declined the
once coveted fortune for the reason that in
the changed conditions of city life the sal
airy offered would not enable him to live as
a professor and his family should live
or in the style of his associates. most Of
whom had private incomes. In addition to
the salary received from the college he
earns $500 or $500 yearly by contributions to
| periodicals, book reviewing and lecturing,
and also receives $3.50 as the annual pro-
ceeds of a textbook published some years
| ago. These amounts bring his income close
to $1,000 year. He gives his expenses for
rent, clothing, life insurance, etc., in de-
tall says he has never been able TO save
over $500 in any one year, and adds that he
| has never quite understood how they have
managed to get along on so little. His life
| in the little town is agreeable on the whole,
though it has its limitations He buys books
occasionally, but has never been able to
! furnish his house in any but the pIainest
possible way; he and his family eat plain
food and dress plainly, and in summer they
all go to "a little place he has bought
among the hills" He has pleasant intel
lectual companionship with his colleagues
| in the college faculty. and in nearly every
| respect, he says, his life is a comfo-s BILE
one. Rut the remarkable thing, the one
that will attract most attention in this ar
ticle, is the statement, made In a casual
way, as If 1t were hardly worth mentioning.
that he teaches eleven hours week. and.
being thoroughly familiar with the subject
matter OF his college courses. finds It neOss-