Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-29

+ 81
i .vxTIL she said that she would marry
= him John Paul lived in an extraor-
''.ev chaos of elation and dependency.
Tag despondency he wrote gloomy,
s. seal childish tales that nobody would
y. but In elatior he made elated, plot
!. icve stories that found a ready mar
q - His young people were always so
s ..<.relv and ecstRtically in love with
s ..ss other and so cleanly, and vet with
"a fervent, honest animal passion that
...s.rs of magazines were amused and
i Ia the editors of those magazines for
g - Of the same. They got more OF the
- enough indeed for John Paul and
s I. sweetheart to make q beginning of
q .s,red life upon The which they did,
"a loye making more divinely riotous
- foollsh than any which John Paul
y aver managed to invent for any of
4 & Imaginary lovers.
q N the love stories which he had sold
!. became heartily ashamed. They fell
# !. far short of the truth. And OF those
Il .heh he set himself presently to write
i = was still more ashamed. For these
E IA 10 be deliberately false. Having
s.rned at last the truth about love. and
8 lss sacred it must be to the two who
s,se taught and are teaching it to each
E ,ssr he knew that he must lock his
X t.ovjedRe in his breast and, for his pub
Il n invent base limitations.
i II himself he excused himself: saying
All as vet the matter didn't matter, and
) All he was still after nothing but man
.,r ways and means of telling, and
El,ri.sought words. But in his heart he
iHfw better. Love in the abstract may
] : had for the asking, but in the concrete,
I xhIch is marriage II must be paid for
| 4 legal tender John Paul was no longer
.dtjnR to learn how. He had learned
| low after a fashion that was at least
. N own, and he was writing for revenue.
| they made foolish beginning of mar
Ired life. Damn man." thought John
Epanl, "who haggles on his honeymoon. ="
| And as for her (and he blessed her for
. .m, she didn't know one side of n coin
| fom the other. People in certain sta
i Ion Of life required certain things. One
4 tAose them and ones husband paid for
3hsm. For gentle folk there Is no COM
/hrtable happy medium of parsimony. A
I hdy may ride In a carriage, or she may
I rslk, but she must not be submitted to
8hs smells and insolence of subways and
rleet cars. 1t is not necessary to follow
jchn Paul and his wife step by step into
/ the hole, at the bottom of which they
rssently found themselves. 1t wasn't
o very deep. Standing on tiptoe you
ulid see over the edge. In moments of
nhlarated hopefulness you could scram-
4 Ne halfway out, only to be tumbled back
IlhlIged, unwilling. to extemporize.
The hole which they dug for themselves
md In which they lived thereafter, was
d this kind. They were never in posi-
4 ton to pay for what they were getting
1 hut for what they had had. John Paul
vas like a man who runs n long race
from scratch against big field. His
!nmpettors were bills, all rushing ahead
1 ipf dear life. And it was really pretty
b see him chase manfully after them,
md overhaul them one by one: but with
Ia leaders. the long handicap bills, he
trah never quite catch up Again and
sEan 1t looked as IL he was going to,
hgt always the unforeseen happened. and
h stumbled and fell or was tripped and
hDwn
Babies happened, adorable, eXtravagant
hbies, and sickness came, unlimited,
D be welcomed by the most expensive
loetors and nurses in the land, and all
as while John Paul ran furiously after
hs old bills and the new, and poured
/ hrh his stream of love stories. and
/ rev slcker and sicker of the writing of