The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-11-08
A SPECIMEN OF CHEAP LIVING.
How Dio Lewis Subsisted q Week on
Fifty-fOur and Quarter Cents.

i 1t is now Saturday afternoon
and I will tell you in confdenc
a little of my personal private ex
perience during the past week
. On Sunday morning last / though
l would try for a week the expert
ment of living cheaply. Sunda,
!. breakfast, hulled Southern corn
with q little milk. My breakfas
cost three cents. / took exactly
the same thing for dinner. Foo
for the day, six cents. 1 never
take any supper. Monday break
fast, two cents worth of oatmeal
in the form of porridge, with one
cents worth of milk. For dinner
two cents worth of whole wheat
boiled, with one cents worth OF
milk. Food for Monday, six
cents. Tuesday breakfast, two
cents worth of beans, with half a
cents worth of vinegar. For din
ncr, one quart of rich bean por-
ridge, worth one cent, with four
slices of course bread, worth two
cents. Food for Tuesday, five
and a half cents. Wednesday
breakfast, homiAy made of South
ern corn (perhaps the best of all
food for laboring men in hot
weather., two cents worth, with
one cents worth of strip. For
dinner, a splendid beef stew, the
meat of which cost two cents. A
little extrayagant, you see. But,
then, you;know, ga short life and
a merry one" Perhaps you don't
believe that the meat was purchas-
ed for two cents? But it was,
though. The fact is, that from
an OK weighing 500 pounds net,
you can purchase certain parts
weighing about 100 pounds, for
three cents per pound. Two-thirds
of a pound make more
stew than 1 could eat. There was
really enough for two of us. But,
then, you know how careless and
reckless we Americans are in re-
gard to our table expenses, al
ways getting twice as much as we
need. 1 must not forget to say
that these course, cheap portions
of the animal are the best for a
stew. The very genus of waste
seems to have taken possession of
me on that fatal day. I poured
into my stew all at once, slap
dash, quarter of a cents worth
of Worcestershire sauce, and as if
to show that it never rains, but it
pours, 1 closed that gluttonous
scene by devouring cents worth
of hominy pudding. Food for
Wednesday, eight and quarter
cents. The gross excess of We'd
nesday led to a very moderate
Thursday breakfast, which con
sisted of oatmeal porridge and
milk, costing about two and a
half cents. For dinner, cracked
wheat and baked beans, two cents
worth of each, milk, one cents
worth. Food for Thursday cost
seven and a half cents. Friday
Southern hulled corn
and milk, costing three cents. /
For dinner, another of those gour-
mand surfeits which so disgraced |
the history of Wednesday. EX-
penses for the day, eight and a
quarter cents. This morning,
when 1 went to the table, said to
myself, whats the use of this
economyT And / made up my
mind that for this day at least I
would sink all moral restraints and
give up the reins to appetite. 1
have no apology or defense for
what followed. Saturday break
last, / began with one cents worth
If oatmeal porridge, with a. tea
spoonful of sugar, worth a quar-
IF a cent: then followed a cents
worth of cracked wheat, with half
| cents worth of. milk, then the
breakfast closed with two cents
worth of milk and one cents worth
If rye and Indian bread. For din
Ter, / ate half of a small lobster,
which cost three cents, and one
cents worth of course bread, and
one cents worth of hominy salad, |
md closed with two cents worth
If cracked wheat and milk. Cost
If the days food, twelve and
,hree-quarter cents. In all these
statements only the cost of mate
'ial is given. "u aitH4
Cost for the week, .dfty5ou1s and
Z quarter cents. Of course, L
lon't pretend that everybody can
i've in this luxurious way. 1t
sn't everybody who can afford it.
[ could have lived just as well, SO
ar as health and strength are con-
on half the money. Be 7
side on three days, I ate too much
and suffered from thirst 4
md dullAess. But, then, l may
plead that 1 worked very hard,
md really need a good deal more
iood than idlers. =
By the way, I weighed myself at
5he beginning of the week, and
'ound that it was just two hund-
and twelve pounds. Since dinner
,o-day 1 weighed again, and found
hat balanced two hundred and
,welve and half pounds, although
t has been a week of warm wealth
,r, and I have had unusual de-
hands for exertion of various
kinds "as SOC 49,
But let me feed a family of ten
instead of one person, and / will
give them the highest health and
upon a diet which will
cost not much more than two dol
airs for the ten persons for a week.
Let me transfer my experiment to
the far West, where wheat, corn
bats, and beef are SO cheap, and
the cost of feeding my family of
ten would be SO ridiculous that l
dare not mention it, lest you laugh
1t me. And SO far from nay fami-
" group being one of ghosts or.
skeletons, will engage that they,l
shall be plumper and stronger,
healthier and happier, with clear
er skins, brighter eyes, sweeter
breaths, whittier teeth, and, in adj
dition, that they shall live longer
than your Delmonico diners, each
of whom spends enough at a sin
gle dinner to feed my family of ten
for a week. And last, but not least,
they shall enjoy their meals more
than your Delmonico diners.
MERLE D'AUBIGNE.
Jean Henri Merle d,Aubigne, the
Swiss theologian and ec-
historian, WHO died at |
Geneva on the 2lst ult., was born |