Evening star., 1914-03-15
TAKING A FAMILY
BACK TO ThE SOIL
Being the Experiences Of a Gov
ernment Clerk Who Sets Out
to Lower the High Cost Of
Living.

Hello, Rube" was the way tho fell
lows at the office greeted mo when I got
there yesterday morning. They asked me
how 1 liked Washington. how long I ex-
pected to be in town. and warned me not
to take any bad money or grow ocnn-
Dental with strangers.
II was Just their manner of having fun,
of course: but. do you know. It seemed an
inappropriate way to treat me. Already
the city and my work at the Office ap-
pear to have taken on different coloring.
In the past the routine Of offlce, its Cos
sip and petty jealousies, had been about
all there was to engage my thought. An
injustice, mostly imaginary. would cause
Gays Of heart burning and resentment
Each passing year, with failure to pro-
cure advancement, had LETT me DOWN
hearted and discouraged. Tho awful
s2naeness Of the work, the deadly level
Of esuni- efficiency. the doing Of given
task acceptably. but without chance to
titspiay special aality, had palled on and
appalled, me-
There is nothing in my work at the Of
Zee to stir ambition and develop latent
talents. And outside of the officc hadn't
not forgetting my homo and family. l
always have been a home-loving man. de-
voted to Jane and Little. Narsery and
proud Of my two boys. But there ie a
terrible monotony even In home lie,
when the home is an apartment with in
come just barely sufficient to keep It 60
inG. II comes In time to seem to men
merely Q place where he may eat and
sleep-and work of his grouchee.
Idttle Chance tor Variety.
A nvs-room fat doesn't afford much op-
portunity for variety IN life. 1t wasn't
% bad q few years ago. when the cost
of living was less and the children were
smaller and not SO heavy a charge against
my income. Then We went to the theater
occasionally and to q good concert now
and then, and always there was vaca-
ton trip somewhere in the summer.
There were no trips the past two sum
Iners, simply because we couldn't anord
them. / have worn my suits and over
coats longer. and Jane hasn't been able
to keep looking as spruce as she did
when we were frst married. But despite
our economies. some of them amounting
TO downright stinginess, l saw the mar
gin between income and outgo grow
smaller and smaller. until finally there
was no margin at all. Naturally. this
bility and discomfort with the job ] had
made of fashioning my life. My office
work became calling and hateful. my out
look on the world grew bilious and the
the jaundice.
NY raking over these bones of the past
Is only that you may understand how
the Jokes of my fellow-clerils brought
me all of sudden to realize that my
perspective of life had changed. Though
/ had not been in the country long
enough to begin even to take root, things
had changed most marvelously The Of
10 ~ al i'm n
existence: IL WAS only an incident,
means to an end. had new interest, in
terest that seemed to me man-sized and
worth while. This may seem like a
paradox, but, now that I had found a
work that seemed more TO my liking, dis
taste for my old work had somehow
vanished. / knew that would do 1t bet |
ter because would do 1t more cheerfully.
annoyances no longer would have power
to plague me
So I returned the greetings of the boys
in kind and assured them the folks back
wondered how they were getting on in
the big and wicked city.
Turner's Get the Fever.
I thought VIII Turner seemed a little
wistfuI when he inquired all about the
place, how Jane and the children liked
Il. and especially wanted to know If 1t
was going to be very serious hardship
for me to get to and from the office. I
had feared the Turner'S would be little
resentful because Jane declined to enter
tain a proposal that they come to board
with us next summer, but know now
that / did their friendship an in1ustlce.
He and Mrs. Turner are coming out 10
see u.s. he said, just as soon as they
get word that we are ready for guests.
When they come. Will said. they want
TO look at any places that may be for
rent out our way. SO the turner's are
getting the fever, too!
was not a little surprised at the
amount Of friendly interest my under
taking has excited. Up to the time we
moved the boys looked upon It. or Pre-.
tended to look upon H. as Joke But
after their first greetings when got oack
to the office yesterday morning they
dropped their tone of banter and showed
often irascible than cordial. offered to
come out some Sunday soon and go over
the place In detail. giving me the benefit
of his years Of experience.
Even Joe Robinson forgot to scon long
enough to remark that the work and out
door life would make a new man OF me
physically He volunteered the opinion
that it would be a great thing for the
BOYS and then. with a return to cynic-
ism added that II would make them
appreciate the comforts OF city life when
they grew up and moved to town. as Of
course they would. be said. being bright
and sensible boys.
/ had SO many things to attend to in
town yesterday that / got excused from
the office early and had three more hours
charged up against my annual leave.
which now has come to appear of tre-
Ynendous value. a thing to be jealousy
conserved. It's the same with the Satur-
day half-holiday. About the only use
they have been IN past summers has
been that they enabled me to take the
children for an occasional walk In one OF
the parks Tn not have any trouble this
sear finding use for them.
Jane Issues an U1timatum.
Jane has issued an uitirnatum that
there shall be no farm work Sunday.
don't quite share her views, for things
don't stop growing Sunday and It
doesn't seem there could be any harm In
helping nature out bit by stirring up