Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/188

 years one hundred sixty-two dollars and fifty cents a month. This amount we were able to meet from the rent, and the income from the house notes took care of the taxes, improvements, and repairs. It is true that we sometimes ran pretty close to shore but whenever my bank account ran down near the five hundred dollar mark, I began to retrench or to put the pressure upon the delinquent brothers. I was forced to resort to all sorts of tactics to get the notes paid, but we were always able to pay the bills when they were presented. I do not believe the fellows out in the world and far away from college have realized in any sense what a responsibility it meant to carry the house. They have argued that it would be all right if they paid when it was convenient; they have been angry often when they have been "dunned"; they have thought me at times sarcastic and insistent, but they did not consider that there was the regular monthly assessment to be met, and the regular bills to be paid, and behind it all only the rent and the promises which they had made. The fact that I always kept in the bank this surplus of five hundred dollars has more than once saved the corporation from disaster.

Later we decided that it would be best again to refund the loan which had now, through our regular payments, been reduced to something less than