Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1908 — DIARY OF AH APARTMENT DWELLER [ARTICLE]

DIARY OF AH APARTMENT DWELLER

Monday.—Met Miss Neubaurn In the hall to-day. Somebody had told her what I had heard about her, and she stopped to tell me there wasn't a word of truth in It, and that she had always behaved herself enough sight better than those who tried to run her down just because they were jealous, and that she wasn’t gofyg around talking about somebody else all the time. She said Mrs. Sitifklps was only a biscuit shooter in a cheap restaurant before she met him and that Mrs. Wright used to clerk In a toy store. It seems as though folks who got their start that way would be more careful what they said about others. Tuesday.—Spent the evening with Mrs. Holcomb and Mrs. Burton. Mrs. Holcomb shewed us some fancy work she Is doing—going to give It away. She’s awfully stuck on her work, and claims to have taken lessons, but as I told Mrs. Burton I’d be ashamed to have Buch a looking thing around the house, much less give It away. Wednesday.—Went to the matinee with Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Burton. Mrs. Holcomb was going, but when Mrs. Roberts asked me if I was going and I said yes, Mrs. Holcomb remembered she had another dajte she had forgotten all about Don’t see what made her act so to-day. She was awfully disagreeable. We went up in the gallery, just for fun, as Mrs. Burton said.' The play was about a Frenchwoman who got awfully mad one time and kicked her slippers off and talked perfectly awful. I didn’t hear mueh of it but that, for ,we were so busy talking. Mra. Roberts and Mrs. Burton semed to know almost every woman in the house, and I learned a lot of things about them. Miss Browning sat downstairs with a gentleman. Mrs. Burton said It was funny a girl who claimed to be working for a living could get off to go to a matinee, and with a man, at that. Mrs. McCuen was there, and she had the loudeßt looking friend with her. Saw lots of people I never expected to find there.

Thursday.—Well, I am mad clear through. Here I invited Mrs. Burton and Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Stevens to play cards to-night, and planned a chafing dish luncheon and just as It was going nicely and I had the coffee In my new percolator the manager slipped a note under the door saying there was no cooking allowed. Didn’t have the nerve to tell me to my face, I suppose. I Was out of sight All we had to eat was ice water and wafers. 1 wish all the rules and the manager would go hang, and that apartment, hotfses had never been discovered. Friday. The laundress never showed up this week, and it was up to me to wash out a few pieces In the washbowl. Such a time. I got along all right with the handkerchiefs, but when it came tc the flannels I was stuck. I put them to soak in the bathtub, and then found I had no place to dry them. Put them over the radiators and turned on the steam. They dried, all right,, but If Charley doesn’t have to use a whoe horn to get into his underwear I miss my guess. This apartment house life Is great maybe. Saturday. —Mrs. Watson told me they were out to the theater last night and got home about 12, and that some young woman In' the building had had a fellow and he was just leaving when they came in. She didn’t know who the girl was, for she didn’t see her, but she knew It was so, for the fellow got out of the elevator just as they got in. I don’t see what they are thinking of here In the house, having men hanging around until that hour, even If the women know no better.

Sunday.—Had a good joke on Mrs. Watson. She waß telling Mrs. Waltermlre about Beelng that man who ! had been calling on that girl, and ' what she thought about It. When she' described him Mrs. Wkit'ermrre iattghed' and said that was her brother, that he brought her up to the house, going as far as her door. Mrs. Watson felt awful cheap. You can’t be too careful what you say In a place like this, and jumping at conclusions is wrong anyway.