The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family's Progress

by Gertrude Stein

  Some have sense for living from having realisation in them that each thing they are knowing is such a thing as it is to them and really knowing this in them. Some are knowing in them that each thing they are knowing in living is the thing that thing really is living.

  Some have in them completely the emotion of knowing something is something without feeling in them that any thing is anything. This certainly can be in men and women. There are many ways of having sense for living, sense of being living in them in men and in women. Some have completely the emotion of something being what they are needing for being one going on being living and some of such of them have not at all in them any feeling of any one thing having it as being the thing they are needing to be having it be to have them be ones going on being in living, being in living, being living. Some have some of such feeling and not any such thing, not any such feeling has any value for them.

  I am knowing one who knew Young some and Flint a little and heard of Moore and came once to dine with Alfred and Minnie Hersland and this one was one being certain that he was one loving with intensity a powerful thing and this one was one loving with intensity the emotion of feeling a thing being a powerful thing and so this one was always hoping but really never being one doing anything that gave to him satisfaction. And this is very common. I am not just now liking every one, not at all, each one is too completely herself, himself inside her, inside him and repeating sometimes with some changing, sometimes with more emphasizing, sometimes with a weakening feeling, sometimes more loudly, sometimes more faintly the being in that one, and I certainly do just now not want to be certain of this thing and I am completely certain of this thing and I know now certainly there are very many, most every one not wanting to be certain inside them that each one is repeating always all the being in them being themselves inside them. I can see just now in me that for very many living this is not at all a romantic thing this knowing that each one always is repeating. I know that mostly every one will not ever be really certain of this thing. I, I am always certain of this thing, I mostly am all solid in this thing, that is full up, that is satisfied, that is comfortable, that is interested, that is noticing, that is stirred by this thing, I will not just now be mentioning again this thing.

  Minnie Mason married Alfred Hersland when he was loving again in his living and they were succeeding well enough in being in married living. They went on being in married living. It interested them enough, it interested some others in the beginning, mostly it was not so very interesting their being in married living, their succeeding well enough in married living, Alfred Hersland succeeding well enough in living, mostly every one they were knowing succeeding well enough in living. I am interested in this thing.

  Minnie Mason certainly did love very much and very often. She certainly did very much of this thing. She came to loving one and being loved by that one and to marrying that one and marrying then was almost then a successful thing for the two of them. It was not then a successful thing. She had had come then to almost marrying another one instead of the one she married then and that would have been almost a successful thing in having married living. She came later as I was saying to marrying Alfred Hersland, that was quite a successful thing in having married living. As I was saying she was one certainly loving very often, she was one as I was saying certainly loving very much and as I was saying she certainly did this thing very often. In a way she went on knowing the one she had been married to, in a way she went on knowing every one. She knew James Flint and he knew Patrick Moore and Patrick Moore knew Alfred Hersland and Minnie Mason married Alfred Hersland. She was as I was saying in a way knowing every one, she, as I was saying, in a way went on knowing each one she ever had been knowing. In a way she went on knowing the one she had been married to, the one she almost had been marrying, she was then successfully marrying and being in married living with Alfred Hersland. She was then going on knowing James Flint and Moore and even Young then as I was saying.

  Pat Moore thought it certainly a very good thing that Alfred Hersland married Minnie Mason. He said to every one he thought it a very good thing. He did think it to be a very good thing that Minnie Mason married Alfred Hersland. He knew Minnie and he knew Alfred and he always went on knowing them and he very often took dinner with them. Flint did not see any of them very often, he sometimes saw them. He saw Moore, and he saw Hersland and Minnie Hersland when he came to see them, Young did not see any of them often. He did sometimes see them, he did sometimes see Mr. and Mrs. Hersland and he did once in a while see Moore and once in a while he saw James Flint. They all thought it was a very good thing that Hersland and Minnie were married and living contentedly in married living and were then succeeding quite well in living. Moore was quite certain that it was a good thing that Hersland and Minnie were marrying.

  Some are very happy loving some one, some are very happy then loving another one. Some one is very happy in loving one, some one is very happy in loving and then is very happy in loving another one. Minnie Mason was such a one. It is quite common to be quite happy sometime in being loving. It is quite common to be happy in loving one and to be happy in loving another one. This is quite common. Minnie was quite happy in loving one and she married that one and she was quite happy in loving another one and she did not marry that one and she was quite happy in marrying another one and she did marry that one. Certainly it was quite right, Moore was certain of this thing, that any one with the name of Minnie Mason should be happy in loving some one. Minnie was happy in loving one and she was happy in loving that one. She married that one, she was almost then succeeding in married living with that one. She did not keep on being married to that one, she in a way always was knowing that one, she in a way always knew it as quite a happy thing in her living that this one certainly would be doing something when she asked him to be doing something. She was very happy just then when she was marrying this one in loving another one and she was never going to be marrying and she never married that one and she certainly would have been certainly almost succeeding in married living with that one. She was in a way all her living knowing this one, she was in a way certain that this one would be doing anything she would ask him if she ever would come to asking him to do something. She was then later as I was saying happy in loving Hersland. She married him, she was succeeding then in married living, he was succeeding then in living. She was of the resisting kind of them but resisting was in her constantly trickling out of her as steadily trickling attacking, very often she was doing very much lying as I was saying. She had really sense for living as I was saying. Resisting being came trickling out of her, there was a great deal always trickling out of her, it was as attacking being to mostly every one knowing her, as I was saying she had sense for living, as I am saying she and Alfred Hersland successfully went on living in married living until they came one and then the other of them to be old ones and then dead ones.

  Minnie Hersland had had and in a way had not at all had sense for being in living. She was not in a way continuing in being living but in a way she was by not stopping being living. She was then in a way all her living continuing being living, in a way she was not ever to herself inside her in being being, continuing being living. Going on being living in men and women in all of them is an interesting thing. Each one has that in them the way their kind in men and women can have it to have it in them.

  Minnie then all her living was in a way continuing being living, in a way she was not ever in her being continuing being living. As I was saying she was loving very much and very often, as I was saying in a way she had sense really for living, as I was saying she was in a way always going on knowing any one she ever had been knowing.

  These are all now living these I have been, these I am now describing. They were then, Alfred Hersland and Julia Hersland and each one of them knew some who were then doing living.

  Some have sense for living by the, emotion in them, some have sense for living by being certain that each thing is existing. Some have
not any sense for living by emotion, by being certain that each thing that everything is existing, some of such have it in them that they are certainly going to be going on living. As I was saying Julia Dehning was one almost not having any sense for living, she was one certainly going to be going on being living, what I here was in her of sense for living was sense of living by emotion being in her.

  She did certainly in a way have a little a very little sense of living from emotion in her, she did certainly have it in her to be one going to be going on living, this was courage in her to her and to every one ever knowing her. She did as I was saying have sweetness of a little having sense for being living by having really emotion in a way in her, not emotion as loving, emotion as being in living. She had in a way this really in her.

  As I could be saying there are some living to be ones being good for living, there are some living to be ones making themselves and others good for living, there are some living because they are certain that there is some good to some one in their being living, there are some living certain that each one has some good in living, there are some living needing to be certain that sometime some one will be a good one, there are some living hoping sometime to be certain that some will be good ones in living, there are some living who are certain that not any one not being a good one is really being in living, there are some living that are not certain by their thinking that any way is a good one but they have it in them to be only able to be living by considering living in the way of something to be done to be a good one to make some one be a good one to have it that in living there are there will be good ones, there are some in living that are certain that they must be one being a good one, there are all these and then there are as one might say schools of each one of these ways of being of many being these things with not much feeling in them of such a thing to make them be doing much living. I will now tell about Julia Dehning and a whole lot more of men and women.

  Some men are certainly sometime loving a woman. Some women are certainly sometime loving some man. Some men are sometime certainly loving some woman. Very many men are thinking the woman they are loving a very wonderful thing. Very many men are sometime loving, each one of them, some one. Some of these are not really thinking the one they are loving to be such a wonderful one. Many women are sometimes in their living loved by some man, some are needing this for being one to themselves being living, some are liking such a thing very well for keeping on being living, some are excited in this thing, some are certain that they are going on living having this thing, some are always thinking they are not going on in living having this thing, and then they are very many the women who are as it were schools following in the feeling of some one having a feeling in them of having, having had, going to be having some man loving them. There are some women, quite some of them who have it as being that they are completely feeling one thing when they are feeling that thing, these then are wonderful ones to any one loving them, they are eternal things having it in them to be completely one thing, these may be ones having any kind of thing in feeling but each time feeling is in them they are feeling that thing with the whole of them and these can then give to any one loving them the feeling that being one is a thing not having any beginning or any ending and so then many being in the state of having loving for them, by some one of such of them many have it in them then that infinite and eternal has really meaning. A thing not beginning and not ending is certainly continuing, one completely feeling something is one not having begun to feel anything because to have a beginning means that there will be accumulation and then gradually dying away as ending and this cannot be where a thing is a complete thing. So then many women give to the men loving them the awe-inspired feeling of realising an eternal thing. And that is very satisfying and so very many men are very much liking having this kind of loving given to them. Now I am saying this is in some women, not only in loving but in living, they are completely feeling something. There are a very great many woman living not at all completely feeling anything and they are sometimes loving some one and they are sometimes being loved by some one. Loving is a very nice thing to very many doing that thing, it is not at all a nice thing to very many doing that thing. Now as I am saying Julia Hersland, who had been Julia Dehning came to know a good many men and women in her living. In her younger living she had not known any one not in Dehning family living or visiting. Now she was coming now when she was no longer succeeding in married living she was coming to know some men and women. She came to know David Hersland brother of her husband Alfred Hersland. She came to know James Cranach and his wife Miriam. She came to know Theodore Summers and to know very well then William Beckling, and she came to know pretty well not so very well because Helen really did not like Julia Hersland in her daily living, she came to know Helen Cooke. Julia came to know Rachel Sherman although Rachel was certain that Helen was right about her feeling about living being in Julia Dehning as some called her then, and then later Rachel married Adolph Herman and then with not any changing in her feeling she was a very dear friend in her feeling and in Julia Hersland's feeling. And Julia had known and then was not any longer knowing Charles Kohler, and then there was Arthur Keller whom in a way every one was quite certain would come to be sometime a brother-in-law to her and then there was one she was certainly needing to be one certainly to be existing as being one certainly teaching some one something, Linder Heme, and then there was the whole family that were relations to her, and then there was Florentine Cranach who was a cousin of James Cranach and then there was Hilda Breslau who might come later to be a sister-in-law to her but who really later married another, Ernest Brakes who was a painter, and then there was Selma Dehning who had married into the Dehning family and then had not any love for any one who was not a Dehning and then there was Ella and Fred and their little baby, Robert Housman who came very often to stay with them the Dehnings and with Mrs. Hersland, and then there was Mrs. Conkling the aunt of Selma Dehning and then there was a cousin of Mrs. Conkling and she had five children and they were all girls and all in a way earning their living and very nice girls in home living and Julia liked going out with them. And then there was a doctor who did not do any practicing Dr. Florence Arden who was quite an entirely magnificent woman and Julia liked meeting her when she met her at any concert or at any meeting and then there was a very rich man Mr. James Curson and his wife Mrs. Bertha Curson who were extremely delighted to know Mrs. Hersland and Julia Hersland was completely happy in spending some time in the country with them. That's all just now.

  There are some women, there are some men who are all their living certain that they are not liking it that every one is living the way each one is living, that they are not liking it that they are living the way they are living, that they are not living another way in living. Some are certain that they are needing that every one should be in a way trying to be a good one, some are all their living certain of this thing, some are all their living in the living of being certain of this thing, some could be certain of this thing, some can and are, some are certain of this thing that each one should be one trying to be a good one they are completely certain of this thing and they are then of the school of this thing and they are that all their living certainly one certain of this thing that each one should be one in a way trying to be a good one.

  Julia knew Mr. and Mrs. James Miriam Cranach and she knew Theodore Summers and she knew William Beckling and she knew very many other men and women, this is certain. All of these were in some way certain that each one in living should in a way be doing something so that everything would be a good thing for some one. So then to give a little description of Theodore Summers and Miriam Cranach and James Cranach and William Beckling. And then to give some description of Julia Hersland knowing each one of them. Theodore Summers was one certainly quarrelling so as to make some kinds of men do something so that some should be certain that they were having for living what they were needing. Theodore Summers certainly was hotly quarrelling sometimes for this
thing.

  In a way Julia liked very much understanding Summers being one quarrelling to win something, in a way she wanted to follow after him, in a way she certainly did not follow after him. Later she did not at all follow him.

  Summers was certainly in a way to Julia for a time complete in important living of being one certainly giving it to her to have for living certainly learning something, but he did not give it to her that Dehning living was certainly completely honest living because he was not ever feeling anything about anything like any such thing and so then he was not really important to her. He had completely energy in living, he was not one certainly going on being living as Julia Hersland certainly was going to be going on doing and so in a way Summers was not to Julia really completely in her living, I will tell a little more a little later about him.

  Miriam Cranach was really a friend to Julia Hersland and that was an important thing and that was in a way not at all an important thing. Miriam was a resisting one really being living in a religion, a religion that in a way was completely certain to be leading any one to be certain that not any one would be a good enough one to help themselves or any one and it did not lead Miriam to this thing and it did lead Miriam to be certain of this thing. Julia Hersland was certain that Miriam was completely an honest one for daily living but she was not needing Miriam for this thing, she was not needing Miriam for the religion in Miriam, she was not really needing Miriam, she and Miriam were completely faithful friends in living and this was not important to any one as being inside in any one and both of them were certainly in a way living inside in them, and this is certain, and in a way it is a little a strange thing and I will tell sometime some more about this thing.