The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1851-10-30
Grlelte0.
CAN'T GET ALONG.
BY T. S. ARTHUR.

|
& don't know how it is said Felix Hall,
that some people can get along so COM
fortably on thousand dollars year. We
can't do it,
I'm sure try to economizc all can,
returned Mrs. Hall, sadly, for she felt that
her husbands remark was more than half
intended as a reflection upon her. l only
keep one girl, and do nearly all my own
sowng.'
sI don't blame you, Harriet said Mr..
Hall. I'm sure | don't. [ know you
work hard-too hard | often wish it were
easier for you But what can do? My
salary is only a thousand dollars. And
vet that is all Hawkins receives, and he
seems to get along so smoothly, and even
lays by, he tells me, hundred dollars a
year.
Il don't know how they do it, replied
Mrs. Hall. 'I know that Mrs. Hawkins
doesn't work half as hard as | do, though
her house always looks in better order than
mine. They have better furniture than
we have, and l am sure Mrs. Hawkins
clothes cost double what mine do. l don't
think it's my fault
Il don't say it is, Harriet. 1 believe
you do your part the best you know how.
Other people can live very well on thou
sand dollars, while we are always owing
bills to this, that, and the other one.
Here is the quarters bill for groceries,
amounting to sixty-five dollars, and | owe
seventy to my tailor besides. Then there
is an unsettled bill at the provision store,
Of fifteen or twenty dollars, besides the
rent, bread bill, the milk bill, and don't
know how many other bills.
& wish these bills were not allowed to
run on remarked Mrs. Hall I'm sure it
would be great deal better to pay for
everything as we 90 along
so it would, but we havn't the money
to do it with 1t takes nearly my whole
quarters salary, regularly, to pay Oft the
bills of three months and then there is no
way to live but to 90 on trust for almost
everything for three months longer. It's
bad system, [ know, but there appears
to be no help for it just now.'
And in the full conviction that there
was no help for it, Mr.. Hall drew his quar-
ter's salary of two hundred and fifty dollars,
and went and paid off bills, and borrowed
monoy-dabts, amounting to two hundred
dollars. Then giving his wife ten dollars
to cet little things with, he started, under
feeling Of discouragement, on a new
quarter, with but forty dollars in his pocket.
Although he had paid two hundred dollars
of debts, there was almost an equal amount
still hanging over him.
Mr.. Hall was a clerk in bank, where
he was engaged regularly, from eight
O'Clock in the morning until about four
O'Clock, and sometimes five in the after
noon. He lived in house for which he
paid two hundred dollars year, and paid
his tailor from hundred to hundred and
fifty dollars annually. He carried gold
lever watch that had cost eighty dollars,
and wore a chain for which he had paid
forty. He also indulged in one or two ex-
pcnsive breastpins, and before his family
had become as large as at present, had
spent a good deal of money on jewelry for
his wife. But the dropping in of one child
after another, until the number grew to
five, interfered with these little indulgences
very materially, and called so loudly for
self denial, that the appeal could not be
entirely disregarded. But the self-denial
was practised more by Mrs. Hall-much
more than by her husband. She denied
herself, almost everything, even sufficient
rest for her over-wearied body, while he
went on, in most things, about the same as
he did when he and his wife paid eight
dollars week for their boarding, and had
Just the same income he had at present.
But let us look more closely into his way
of doing things, and see if it is not possible
to discover what appeared so great mys-
! tory to him.