Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-08
Chapters i'm the Growth
of a l2.Year.Old Who
Is Preparing to Enter
College This Fall.
Romance of Two Fresh
men in College Whose
Campus Life Led to
Early Marriage.

raising a child. and we had no money,
and we had agreed to go on to school.
But / stubbornly insisted on having
my baby. Why should having a baby
interfere with going to college?
l wish that l, at 80, still had the
blind courage and optimism that were
mine at II. To the 17-year.old wife
there was no heroism at all in work
ing and keeping house and going to
college and preparing for a baby--all
at the same time.
was doing exactly what | wanted
to do, and there was no heroiSm in
that 1t never even occurred to me to
resent the hard drudgery that was the
most necessary part of the program.
had come of working people; l had
always worked for what | got; work
ing for living was the most natural
thing in the world.
Money Question Bothers.
So we lived in tiny two-room
apartment the first months-a place
that seemed like palace to me be
cause 1t was the domicile over which
Mrs. Charles Alden Benson was
mistress. Charles worked long, hard
hours in the print shop, studied other
long, hard hours: ! graded innumer-
able themes, did endless pages of typ
ing as Baylor's only public stenog-
rapher," cooked quick, cheap meals
on the little two-burner gas plate.
studied until ! or o'clock in the
morning, and went to bed tired out,
to dream about the baby.
I had finished my sophomore year
and was even allowed the whole Sum
mer following to prepare for her
birth. Elizabeth was born September
81. 1918.
AS the time grew near. the money
question became vitality urgent.
Rather foolishly, because we so want
ed real home of our own. Charles
and | had mortgaGed our very souls
to build little fourroom bungalow
on q lot that my grandfather had
given me. The payments were to be
lust like rent-you know how alluring
it always sounds. But if you haven't
money enough for rent.
We used to dread hearing a step on
the porch. for fear it meant the APP
pearance of the movie villain type Of
mortgage fOrecloser. And the furni
ture inStallment man never missed q
Monday. The SO he demanded every
Monday morning always looked as big
a. me as an installment of the national
debt
Saved on Food.
And | was sick--so isck that pre-
CiouS dollars had to go to the doctor.
who ordered such delicacies as port
wine and oranges. If you haven't
money enough for bread and potatoes,
doctors prescription of port wine
and oranges seems highly humorous.
And then there was a layette to be got
ready, and the Doctors charges-25
whole dOll2rS-had to be saved up and
waiting for him.
We scraped together $40 for the lay
cite by living on corn bread, boiled
rice, turnip green's and buttermilk--10
cents a gallon in this day-for more
weeks than my stomach cares to re-
member. No wonder Charles had not
wanted a baby! No boy ever worked
harder than he did that blistering. hot
Summer, when we were trying so
to get ready for Elizabeths
In my condition / could not go out
and hunt for work, but three weeks
before sthe baby was born ! had a
OF luck. A college professor
had finished a book and wanted it
typed In a hurry. I was so i'll by that
time that I could not walk-had to do
all my housework in a rocking chair
dragged from room to room by my
neighbors who dropped in. But there
was nothing to prevent my tipping.
My charge for the completed manu-
script was $24.60. | could have wept
that it was not $25 even-the doctors
fee. Charles managed by overtime
work at the print shop to get together
$50 above cur ridiculouSly low living
expenses. and when the big moment
was upon me there was a practical
nurse on hand to take charge. A hos
pital was out Of the question. Only
the rich went to hospitals to have
babies.
And so Elizabeth was born. I felt
very much grown up because I had
passed my eighteenth birthday one
week before, and I was the mother of
the most beautiful, the most perfect
girl baby in the world. Her father,
just as proud now that she had ac-
tually come. had reached the mature
age of 20 years and 2 months.
Two children-and our baby, and
college was opening again.
Continued in tomorrow's Star)