Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/187

 is not to let one forget or lose his hold upon the old life.

At the end of two years we saw that we should have to raise the rent to two thousand dollars a year if we were to meet our payments, for repairs became necessary almost at once, taxes and insurance were high and growing higher, and we had no sooner built than the city authorities passed ordinances to pave on four sides of our block. The improvement increased the value of our property, it is true, but it also increased the drain upon our exchequer. All this increase of expenditure made it the more necessary that the chapter roll be kept large. It was again in my mind an argument in support of the statement that we had built rather too generously.

It was in 1910, I believe, that we decided to increase the rent paid by the chapter. Our indebtedness had by this time been reduced to fifteen thousand dollars, all the loose bills and personal debts having been taken care of. At the same time, it seemed best to those who had looked most carefully into our financial affairs that if possible we should pay off our two mortgages and take out one loan of fifteen thousand dollars from a Building and Loan Association. After some negotiations we were able to do this, and our monthly payments in this association were for the next five