The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-13
EVENING STORY
..Why 1 Have Never Married. -
Copyright, 1918, by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate-)

tie bundle of manuscript notes con-
venientIy at the left of her typewriter,
placed a dish of cookies at her right,
pinned up the sleeves of her kimono,
settled down comfortably in her chair
and prepared to make a night OF it.
1t was o'clock and if she worked
till 2 in the mornings she had
planned-there would be seven hours
PAPERS. Theresa had purposeiy
planned to leave this important work
till the last minute, knowing that she
always worked under pressure best.
Besides in her solitary life there was
an unusual joy to be gained from the
feeling that she really had to accom-
plish something important in haste.
She first began her paper for her
class in household architecture"
Having found herself at 35 the pos
SCISSOR of a small patrimony, alone in
the world and without any special
training. Theresa had, six months be-
fore, sold out her small holdings in
the country, put her moneyin city
bank and settled herself in tiny
apartment near the university of her
choice, where she devoted her time to
the study of house-planning. Per-
haps the reason she chose this course
was because, next to having little
home of her own, Theresa thought the
incest thing in life would be to plan
homes for other people. She had
worked hard in all her courses, bu.
in none did she gain more satisfac-
ton, and into none did she put more
devotion than in Professor Morgans
course in household architecture. In
part this was due to the fact that the
course was known to be extremely
stiff and Professor Morgan took it
for granted that students in his class
were as entirely devoted to the prac-
tice of hard and sustained mental
work as he was himself. In part it
was due to the undeniable fact that
Professor Morgan's personality stood
out more wildly in Theresa's con-
seriousness than did that of any of the
other professors. 1t is not only silly
little school girls who fall under the
fascination of favorite teacher
Sometimes demure little spinster grad
uate students like Theresa conceive
what in younger girls would be termed
crush" for the favorite instructor
Theresa had already worked hard
and many hours on this paper Her
notes were thoro and complete She
had merely left till the last the final
assembling and putting into typewrit-
ing OF this paper on which her term
grading was to be based. For a half
hour the clicks of the typewriter keys
was spasmodic, slow and cautious,
then the keys began to hum out a
steady succession of clicks, and be-
fore she had worked a full hour she
had forgotteI her little sugar cook
les mad forgotten her lonely exist
ence in her wee apartment and
thought only of the subject upon
which she was writing. The subject
that had been assigned was this:
Planning the five thousand dollar
cottage" In order to write the pa
per Theresa had drawn many plans
SO thoro end workmanly that they
would have done credit to any profess
many hours of day dreams thinking
about this modest little cottage that
she had almost come to think of it
as really existing.
I When the clock struck 10 the paper
was completed. The first draft
had been carefully copied and it had
been tucked in an envelope to be
posted to Professor Morgan. Theresa
read the paper over. She was salts
fled and yet she had a vague mis-
giving. She knew it was more COM
p1ete and showed more originality
than would the papers of any of the
other students in the class. Her
only fault, she told herself, was that
she mad put too much personality in
the paper, had perhaps shown a little
of her own desire for proprietorship
in the ideal cottage. Moreover she
had written the paper not as stu
dents papers are usually written. full
of long words and technical phrasing.
but in simple, almost conversational
English, just she might have talk
IL
they been discussing it informally.
But in the main she was satisfied,
and so she sealed the envelope
Then she wrote the other paper. Tt
was entitled: why I Have Never
Married" and subheading for this
main title Theresa typed out the
words: Because no one has ever
proposed to me-" This was to be her
contribution to a contest that was just
closing in one of the leading women's
magazines. There was to be a prize
of fifty dollars for the best paper and
smaller rewards for less worthy con-
tributions. Theresa hoped to get one
of these, and she hoped to use it to
make her own wee apartment more
homelike by the purchase of hangings,
and other little home touches. In this
pa per she wrote her actual experience,
that her identity might never be
guessed. She told of her solitary life
with her aunt and uncle on the farm.
of the uncongenial, thoughtless young
men who had always looked upon her
as a prig because she possessed
natural shyness and timidity. AS she
finished at the stroke of two, she was
too sleepy to read over the first copy.
She knew if it took one of the prizes
it would be because ii came straight
from her heart. She was glad to have
written it anyway, whether she drew
one of the prizes or not because il
was the first opportunity she had ever
had to pour out the story of her lone
illness to anyone. She gave her name
and address. confident, of course. that
it would go further than the edi-
torial Office to which it was addressed.
Then she posted the two long enve1-
opes in the mail chute in the apart
ment house hall, and went to sleep
with the blessed undercurrent of con-
viction that she had done something
worth while.
Theresa was sleepy when she ad
dressed the two envelopes, but it never
dawned upon her that she might have
got the addresses confused and that
the magazine editor the next morning
received the plans and account of a
fiye-thousand dollar cottage and that