FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



were fine. A very fair six-room house could be rented for twenty- 

 five dollars a month, and I never heard any of my married 

 friends in the departments complain seriously about financial 

 difficulties. 



All salaries under the government were small. My friends 

 were mainly among the young fellows recently graduated from 

 college, and most of them were connected with the more or less 

 scientific branches, such as the Smithsonian, the National Mu- 

 seum, the Geological and Topographical Surveys, the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, or the Topographic Division of the Post Office 

 Department. Some of them were in the Patent Office and the 

 Land Office. Then, too, there were some who were studying law 

 or medicine, who held temporarily any clerkships they could get. 

 It was a simple, happy life. 



When a man married he needed a little more money, and so 

 he began to reach out and do different things. Among others I 

 felt this necessity. When I married in 1886 my salary was raised 

 to eighteen hundred dollars, which was not bad when you con- 

 sider that the Chief of the Service got only twenty-five hundred 

 dollars. But opportunities for making outside sums began to 

 open up. Professor Riley, although his salary was so small, had 

 married into a family of means and had no financial worries. 

 He was, however, in many ways the foremost light of his kind 

 in the country, and was occasionally asked to write articles for 

 journals of one kind or another. 



I remember for example that the Youths' Companion asked 

 him to do a series of illustrated articles on household insects. 

 He got me to write them for him, signed them and sent them in. 

 They were published, and he gave me half the money, which I 

 was very glad to get. This seemed all right to me at the time, 

 since his prominent name was surely worth that much to the 

 journal. 



[76] 



