The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1915-03-26
chAprER !.

Make No Effort to Defend MyssIf. .
- AN quite sure 1t was my Uncle
Rilas who said that l was a fool.
II memory serves me well he re-
lieved himself Of that conviction
IN the presence OF my mother whose
brother, he was-at a time when ! was
least competent to acknowledge his
wisdom and most arrogant In assert
ing my own | was u freshman In
college, 4 factor condition perhaps
which should serve as An excuse for
both Of 10. | possessed another uncle.
incidentally, aud while l I'm now con.
vinced that he must have felt as Uncle
RIlas did about it, be was one OF those
who suffer in silence.
assume. therefore, that it was Uucle
Rilas who orally convicted me. an as.
sumption justified to some extent by
putting two and two together, after
the poor old gentleman was laid away
for his lon. sleep. lie had been very
emphatic In his belief thar a fool aud
his money are soon parted. Up to the
time Of his death | had been in no
way qualified to dispute this ancient
theory. In theory, 10 doubt. ] was
the kind OF fool he referred to, but in
practice | VAS quite an untried novice.
1t IL very hard for ever a fool to part
With something he hasn't got. Not
until Uncle Rilas died and left me all
Of his money was | able to demon.
strale that dead men aud. fools part
With It.
10 any event Uncle Rilas did not
leave me bis money until my freshmen
days were far behind me. wherein
lies the soIace that be may have out.
grown an opinion while / was going
through the same process. At twenty,
three ! confessed that all freshmen
were insufferabie and immedia tely aft.
erward took my degree and went out
into the world to convince 1t that sen
1Ors are BY no means adOlescent
Ny uncle's original estimate Of lie
a. q freshman, Of course--was uttered
when ! ut the age Of eighteen picked
out my walk in life. so to speak. After
considering everything | decided to be
. literary mana novelist or a play
wright. | hadn't much Of a choice be
tween the two. or perhaps a journalist
Being q journalist. OF course. was pre-.
lhminary. a sort Ut m%akeshift. At any
rate ! was going to be a writer, My
Uncle Rilas, a hard headed customer.
who bad read Scott rs a boy and the
Wall Street News as a man without
knninu n,fc1AA hv Altman xrnc coOrDf,,1
He said that | would outgrow it: there
was some consolation in that. He even
admitted that when he was seventeen
he wanted to be an actor. There You
are! said he.
argued that novelists make a great
for that matter. He said In reply that
IN ordinarily vigorous washerwoman
could make more money than the aver
age novelist. and she always had a
stocking without a hole to keep it In.
which was more to the point.
Now that | come to think of It, it
was Uncle Rilas who %oracularly pre-
Judged me and not Uncle John. who
was by way Of being Il sort o. literary
chap himself and therefore lamentably
unqualified to guide me in any course
whatsoever. especially as he had all he
could do to keep his own wolf ut bay
without encouraging mine and who be.
sides teaching good English loved 1t
wisely and too well.
My mother felt in her heart that |
ought to be a doctor or q preacher. but
she wasn't mean. She was positive !
could succeed as a writer II | set my
smind to It. She was also sur that !
could I've president Of the United States
or perhaps even n bishop. We were
Ep!scOpaiians.
When ! was tw~enty-seven my f3rst
short story appeared In a magazine Of
considerable weight. due to its adver-
Rising pages. bnt my Uncle Rllas didn't
-vead II until l had convinced him that
AZ I