Evening star., 1921-06-05
HIS is mystery story-the
mystery of Prof. Gannett and
the five hundred dollars. 1t

explains more than that. 1t
really answers the question that has
been asked so many times about the
Gannetts. The question is: How do
they do it?" 1t refers, of course, to
the way the Gannetts live.
Many people would see nothing
queer in the way the Gannstts live.
But faculty people know precisely
what an assistant professors salary
comes to, and what it will buy and
all. The faculty wives agree that
Mrs. Gannett is too we'll dressed.
Mrs. Bender, whose husband is
lawyer and who lives next door to
the Gannetts. told Mrs. Stewart.
whose husband is assistant professor of
agronomy in the college of agriculture,
that she knew for fact that Dorothy
Gannett made all her own clothes.
''They don't look it," Mrs Stewart
said.
81 have seen her making them.' Mrs.
Bender said firmly.
Mrs. Bender likes the Gannetts. and
always defends them. People take il
for granted that Mrs. Bender could il
illuminate the problem if she would. Mrs.
Bender cannot Mrs. Bender doesn't
know any more about it than anybody
else. And her line of argument has
gradually come to be that the Gannetts
haven't any more money than other
assistant professors have. that the Can
retts simulate prosperity by the most
skillful management. But she does not
wholly succeed in convincing herself.
She knows that Dorothy Gannett has
half-time maid. a middle-aged woman
who comes in at O'Clock every morn
ing. except Sunday, and does the dishes
nd al h,a hadS and luncheon
a woman who charges 80 cents an hour.
and even~Mrs. Bender admits that this
PERSONS wages must come 10 nearly IS
4. week
Besides" Mrs Stewart continued, do
You know what one of the Gannett
twins told my little girl just before they
went away for the summer"
81 don't know which one Mrs. Stew
art said. II never can tell those boys
apart. But | heard him say to Alicia:
My father is going to buy second
hand car this summer An not any
Children do talk Mrs. Bender
couhtered.
yes" Mrs Stewart admitted. land
sometimes they say things.
Mrs: Bender sighed. Dorothy Can
nett is very clever" she said.
"I don't believe she's so clever. And
any way I'm tired OF hearing it, Mrs.
Stewart spoke with the acidity of one to
whom Dorothy Gannett had been held
up as d modef once too often
II think she continued, that there's
some simple explanation. ! think some
body died and left them money. You
can't deny that they didn't use to seem
so prosperous. 1t can't be that she's
why they'd have lived the way they do
now all the time. But l remember
year ago this commencement, when
Dorothy Gannett came to the presi-
Il in ho
she'd worn to every presidents recep-
ton she ever went to. And this year.
Mrs. Stewart raised her eyebrows ani
shook her head by way of describing the
dress Dorothy had worn.
Its come since a year ago this last
commencement. l can remember.
X X x
MRS, STEWARDS faith in her
-'I memory is entirely justified.
Dorothy Gannett did wear the same
dress to six annual presidents re-
ceptions, a dress of pale-green crepe
de chine that was part of her trous-
seau. But the seventh year she ap-
peared in a daringly simple frock of
midnight blue velvet trimmed with
silver. a dress that she had made her
self, but nevertheless a dress that
amply justified Mrs. Stewart's sus-
picion that she hadnt-a dreS that
was distinctly handsomer than any
other dress there.
For six years Dorothy Gannett did
all her housekeeping with her own
hands. except for a woman. who came
in one day week to do the washing
and scrub the kitchen floor, and not
always that. This last year Dorothy
has paid quite IS week for the part
time maid, who does them out. as they
say in Chelsea. And there have been
other extravagances that nobody
knows about Nobody except the Gam
netts knows. for instance. that Trum-
bull Gannett has recently subscribed
to three expensive technical journals
Obviously Mrs. Stewards suspicious
are not without reason. Clever as
Dorothy Gannett is. she is not clever
enough to achieve all this on the
salary of an assistant professor in
the state university of Monroe.
Not with the price of twins what it
Is today.
Which brings US to the five hun
dred dollars
The idea of the FIVE hundred dollars
mind on a Saturday afternoon in
June. the very Saturday of the
Presidents reception. at which Doro-
thy Gannett wore the crepe de chine
dress for the sixth time.
The Gannetts lived in a small old
twins came. the spare bedroom that
Trumbull Gannett had used for a
study became nursery. he made the
loft his own with bookshelves, "a
kitchen chair. a pine table. and an
oil student lamp. The place was
too warm in midsummer, being di-
rectly under the roof. and too cold in
nidwinter. being heated only by a
drum on the pipe of the baseburner.
But a professor who has twins must
have some place of refuge in which
to prepare his lectures. and mark his
Quiz papers, and read up on his sub
ject.
II is popularity supposed that twins
ere less trouble than single children
The error is probably due to the fact
so few people have actual experience
with twins. Twins are often as much
trouble as half dozen children and
they are always at least as expensive
as two and they invariably make
more noise and cause more destruc-
fion than any three children separated
bv age. Twins really ought not 10
happen in professors family unless
his wife has money of her own, ana
statistics show that they seldom do.
But thetwins did not happen to the
Gannetts. They happened while
Trumbull Gannett was still an IN
structor They were a year old when
he was advanced to an assistant pro-
fssorship They are four years old
now. And they will be nine years old
hat least before he is a full professor.
These details of academic rank may
seem trivial But they are not. In
the state university at Monroe the
fesor and fnn professor is fully
;1,500 a year.