Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1882-07-08
Heroi.n in Poverty.

In the Woman's Journal ct. W. H."
relates the story of q New Hampshire
woman, who. by the sudden loss Of her
little invested property, had remaining
only an old farmhouse end some land.
"The sufferer was wholly alone in the
world, had paralyzed arm and was
threatened with blindness The only
work which her enfeebled condition
permitted was in the way of knitting
and making artificial flowers. By these
two arts she could earn $l5 annually"
Hor whole available income was $40.
She appropriated one-fourth of it for
reading. In her own very interesting
account of her life she says:
SIN very cold spells took a warm
freestone and crawled into bed. I was
too ill to work. and thus to do saved
frewood. 1 would put mittens on my
hands and read awhile, and when
the room became too cold for
this, cover all up and think over
what l had read. This saved me in a
degree from enervating myself still
further by fruitless porting over poverty
and privations." As for food "One-
fourth pound of meal, one cent one
fourth pound of dried beans, one and
half cents; two cents worth of salt
pork-four and. half cents in all
would support me day and half very
we'll. This was my usual fare three
days out of seven. Three cents worth
of barley, boiled with two cents worth
of butchers trimmings and three cents
worth of potatoes, would make whole
some, nourishing food for two days and
go long way toward supporting exist
ence. 80 I made considerable
use of rice and baked fish. In cool
weather a pound of oatmeal cooked
Monday wonld serve as dessert through
the week. Sometimes l had gift of
milk, and then Ifeasted like an epicure.
Now and then had some kind of
vegetable, as beet or turnip, and
from time to time bought few cents
worth of butchers scraps, more to seas
on food than to be food. Once a
month INDUCED in a baking ofdough-
nuts, or get pound of lard and fried.
an eating of doughnuts, about
six, one at time, in tin cup
over my oil-stove." The contrivances
for clothing were curious. The writer
says: "There could be no reductions
beyond hers, for she literally bought
nothing in the way Of clothing whatever.
30 she lived, so to speak, on the past
on the wrecks of her own clothing and
other peoples. She made whole suit
out of straw-bed ticking, combined with
the fragments Of pair of the drilling
overalls that some workmen had left on
the premises; these she cut into strips
and made, she declares, . very stylish
trimming. She unraveled old, worn
cut homespun undergarments, and
made yarn which she knit into stock
ings. She had fifteen notices in the
house made on white muslin and cotton
flannel; these she boiled clean and had
q supply Of material for undergarments,
being the first person, probably, who
discovered the real use for notices
She found behind closet door an old
overcoat OF her fathers, out Of whose
quilted lining of black lasting she made
for herself q cloak that looked like
quilted satin. The question Of hats or
bonnets was easily settled; she wore none
for three years. As for shoes, the mex
haustible lining Of the fathers overcoat
provided her with slippers which wore
better than leather"