The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-11-29
From the Phila. Times.
Living on the Ten Cent Plan.

VI newspaper hdStt-DuSh- |
cts are turning their attention to it
with zeal and industry that ought to
solve almost any problem except that
of perpetual motion. A few years ago
the question was not how to live on as
little as possible, but how to spend the
money everybody was making so as to
make the finest display. French
cookery was all the rage, and thous-
ands of housewives drove their hus-
bands to the verge of bankruptcy in
the endeavor to follow the directions
of Professor Blot Only few months
ago leading New York newspaper
published daily bill of fare, showing
with great satisfaction how dinner
for three persons or a dinner for six
persons might be provided at a cost of
about five dollars plate. The reac-
ton has set in. Now all the professors
of domestic economy and the culinary |
art are rushing into print to show how |
man may live on little more than
nothing and utilize the fragments in |
the next days hash. Miss Corson has
created quite sensation by demon
strating that family can dine luxu-
riously on fifteen cents, and house
keepers everywhere are trying the ex-
pertinent with the natural result of
driving the women of the household
to the cupboard between meals and
the men to their club or the nearest
free lunch counter. A concern in
Grand street, New York, however,
has gone step further and advertises
good square meal for five cents, and
meal to satisfy the most ravenous
appetite for ten cents. The bill of
fare at this place is a marvel. A
small cup of tea or coffee with sugar
and milk is sold for one cent; a cup of
the ordinary size, two cents; bread
and butter, one cent; soup, one cent;
slice of corned beef, one cent; a
baked or boiled potato, one cent; cab
bage, one cent; baked beans, one cent;
boiled or fried mush, one cent; oat'
meal, one cent; boiled rice, one cent
a quarter of a pie, three cents. One
would think that at this rate dollar
would clean out the establishment; I;
but boy tried it, and after eating
corned beef. beans, coffee, bread and
butter, cruller, fried hominy, po-
tato, slice of pie and doughnut had
to be beaten on the back to get his
throat clear and recover consciousness,
paid couple of car fares for his BAN
quet and sneaked out of the back door
with q confession of the hallowness of
earthly ambition. AT this rate the
problem of cheap living will soon in
deed be solved.
Meanwhile it is worth while to con-
slider whether a!little of the ingenuity
and perseverance that is expended in
the direction of the extremes to which
we have referred might not accomp-
lish more in the line of real economy
if otherwise applied. No man with
his wits about him, or woman either,
will expect people to believe that any
family of working adults or growing
children can subsist as they should on
such meals as these theories would
provide at infinitesimal cost. A man
may keep alive and stir about on three
crackers a day and few glasses of
water, and these ten. cent and fifteen
cent dinners may give him strength
for some such light occupation as
watching a stationary fruit-stand or
keeping the stage door of threatre,
but the average human being needs
more substantial and, of course, more
expensive provender. The economy
that thus trifles with the appetite is
dearly bought, for it involves food OF
inferior quality. if not dangerously
adulterated, and its legitimate fruit is
ill temper, disease and general misery
True economy, as applied to the table
exacts that while there shall be plenty
there shall be no waste. The family
should look forward to meals for the
satisfaction of well regulated, not
stinted appetites, with the accompani
ment of sociability and good cheer
that are entirely incompatible with {
!. carelessly spread board, slip-sho(
cookery, slovenly service and {
meagre array of eatables At presen
the tendency is to shorten the allow
ance offood and to indulge in extrava
. gance of dress, furniture and out-of
door luXuries that attract the eyes 0
the world but make no real return il
the Frightening of the fireside or tn
health, comfort and culture of tn
family. Many fond mother viii
put all her dear ones on short ration
, in order, that the girls may make
better appearance in school, in church
or at evening entertainments, or tina
the boys may have as much pocke
money and wear neckties as gorgeou
and collars as high as their fast com
rades. Many a father will dole GU
market money by the ten cent piece
and growl over dollar month eXtr
on the grocers' bill, while he give
| never thought to the dollar H.
, spends for round of drinks or to tn
: quarter he invests three times da,
l for cigars. These are the traveeties O
. economy.
We would eat to live rather thai
live to eat, but the purveyors or pro
D visions are not the tradesmen who ar