News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-05-20
A MANS INCOME.
What He Can Live on and what He Can.
NOT,


IL AO4A NAlS SAIlStIah
The standards that people make de-
eide the question of whether their in
come is sufficient or not for their sup
port. If the family compelled to live on
thousand dollars year makes an
eleven hundred dollar standard of living,
they are always 500 behind; if they
make nine hundred dollars year the
standard, they are always 800 ahead.
1t is possible for family to live on
81 day and pay all expenses, but it
takes intelligence to do it.
The writer, about three years ago,
visited among some tenement-house in
mates in New York. Among the number
was the family of day laborer who
scarcely averaged a dollar day. There
were five little children-the title "baby"
would ihave been given to any of them
if they had been in homes OF luxury.
The wife was comedy, happy, the chill
dren specimens of healthy, happy child
hood, the home as clean and orderly as
could be desired-a direct contrast, with
its inmates, to the other family rooms
visited. Why was it different? Because
the wife and mother knew how to get
the most out of a dollar: because she
knew how to use time and make it save
money. If it were not for her intelli-
gence and practical knowledge she
would have lived as did her neighboIs,
in dirt, disorder, and unhappiness.
If wife whose husband earns but So
per day insists on raw silk and plush
suit of furniture for her parlor, because,
according to her standard, that is the
proper thing to have, irrespective of
what her husband earns or his prospects,
she adopts scale of living that involves
expenses that need double their income
to support.
If a girl earning her own living makes
it her highest ambition to dress with the
nearest appearance to wealth, she simply
ties a stone to true happiness, and
browns it in the pool of her own foolish
vanity. Her foolishness is always ap-
parent. Recently a large, rather coarse
looking girl was noticed among num-
Der of girls who met weekly; she dress
ed in the most elaborate manner, entirely
out of keeping with her looks and po-
sitlon. The girl was missed for couple
of evenings; on enquiring, it was learn
ed that she was i'll. When visited, she
was found lying on mattress in a room
that was at once parlor, sleeping room,
and kitchen. She was without suitable
clothing for sickness, and was glad to
accept financial assistance. Her stand
ards of living were a silk dress and an
opportunity to wear it. No amount Of
income within the reach of labor would
save that girl from suffering.
A young man who tries to look like a
capitalist on a clerks salary will always
suffer, not because his salary is so small,
but because his wants are SO large.
A women comes to you telling pitt
full tale of woe; she must have work or
starve. You rack Your brains think
finally of something that she may do,
propose it, are met with an expression
of mingled indignation, injured dignity,
and conscious superiority. The work
proposed will yield an income that will
enable her to support herself honestly
and BEAUTIFULLY, but she demands in
come that would promise to support her
in accordance with her ideas And these
are apt to be widely apart from all pos
sible earnings Result-unhappiness,
unrest, indifference TO work, discharge,
weeks of a9onizing suspense, but prob
ably no lesson learned from experience.
Such girl marries, and carries into her
double life the weakness that crippled
her single life, and two or more must
suffer.
The standards, the ambitions, of the
family or the individual decide alto
gether the question of the chow to live"
If there must be Brussels carpet where
ingram is most suitable to pocketbook
and position; if there must be plush
sack and silk dress where there should
be plain cloth suit; if there must be a
Prince Albert coat, with corresponding
trous rs and vest, ETC., where there
should be serviceable business suit,
necessarily there is suffering for lack of
real essentials for body, mind, and spirit.
Put tl.as rlcssS5se = vi IA
greatest desires of those most con
cerned.