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An editor's wife has a special cross, compounded of too many husbands.
WE
n g
ME
by RICHARD E. GLENDINNING
IN the days before Harry Johnson became a member of the Enter' prise s editorial staff, he had been a normal newspaperman with no more than his share of the usual city room inhibitions. But when he began to write editorials, an insidious change crept over him, as it does to all those who exercise the Editorial We.
He was not content to influence readers alone with the plural pro' noun. Each night, after locking all unfinished business in his desk, he took the Editorial We home with him, forcing his wife, Gretchen, and Lucy, their husky cook, to contend with it. Actually, the trouble started there, because the pair was never able to discover just where the We had come from.
Lucy was really the first to come to grips with the pronoun on an otherwise inauspicious Sunday morn' ing shortly after Harry became privi' leged to write in the first person. He wandered into Lucy's kitchen and ran his left finger around the edge of the mixing bowl. Licking chocolate icing from the probing digit, he re marked, "Lucy, we like this."
Lucy was scrubbing a pan at the sink. She turned and, seeing no one
at the mixing bowl but her employer, asked, ''Who's that with you, Mr. Johnson?"
''No one but us, Lucy."
"Meaning you and me?"
"Thats all."
"Then who besides you is at the mixing bowl? Tm over here."
"Fm the only one. I said we liked it."
Lucy's large eyes rolled owlishly. "Yes, sir, Mr. Johnson, I guess we sure do." She sidled toward the kitchen door, ready to make a hasty exit. Later, when Harry repeated his antics, Lucy got a short length of lead pipe from the basement, which she kept within easy reach at all times.
Trying as Lucy's experience might have been, it was Gretchen Johnson who suffered most from Harry's edi' torial prerogative. She found the plural pronoun to be particularly un' nerving when there was company. One night, for example, the O'Briens came over for bridge and were paired against Gretchen and Harry.
Mrs. O'Brien mentioned a spade.
"We bid two hearts," said Harry.
"I'll speak for myself, dear," Gretchen murmured.