Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-16
How an Ingenious Lady Journalist Man.
aged to Have Nice Home
of Her Own.

And wherefore
There are wherefores-many as the
varying emotions which huctuate in the
human breast and actuate humanity te
action.
Within the last fortnight two person:
knowing nothing of each other have ex.
pressed to me the same sentiment in
slightly different language.
First speaker: 81 want home" Par.
ticular stress on home
Second speaker: 81 do so want home
Special emphasis on so.
Both were single men.
A single woman may make home and
sometimes does make it.
A lady journalist having fair support,
became thoroughly tired of ballroom life.
Nothing venture, nothing have. Some
hundred dollars would furnish a fiat and
she would take in occupants, by means OF
which the burden of rent would be light
ened, and some companionship in health,
some kindly aid in sickness be obtainable.
Forty dollars per month secured mod
estly genteel suite of six rooms and bath.
One bedroom opened on the parlor, an
other on the dining-room, and there re-
mained the servants room, a small annex
to the kitchen. Here she found herself
somewhat in the condition of the man
who wanted to cross river with fox, a
chicken and some other incumbrance, only
one Of which could be taken at a trip.
The details escape, but the memory OF
perplexing situations resulting from the
fox and the chicken being left alone to-
gether, ana other like complications.
brought much disturbance to a youthful
brain. Everybody probably knows the
story and will remember that finally all
We're brought over in safety.
Our heroine wished of course to rent the
front bedroom to a gentleman whose de-
STABILITY would consist in the fact of his
absence-in other words, he would be
"gone all day" Understanding was to be
had that in case of visitors he was to en-
sconce himself in the dining-room till
their departure. But to prevent scandal,
the presence of third party was essential
and who was that party to be and where
bestowed, since if the rear bedroom was
let, then but the servant girls room re-
malned. To offer the servant girls room
to second lodger might be taken as an
insult and she scarcely cared for the kind
~ lodger who would occupy it.
Advertising brought a single gentleman
willing to comply with terms; he was to
pay s. per week and the prospective rent
fell from $40 per month to little below
$50. But the tug was to come in regard
to the rear bedroom, she having settled
on the servants room for herself Great
were the risks. a single woman might
worry her to death; married couple
equally single woman would fill the
parlor with beaux; an elderly one might
be grabbed. \ young man would hardly
come at all, and if at all, would be little
better than an untamed zebra.
Then there was the kitchen. People
who might live peaceably together for
years in parlor or sitting life, might
fall out in kitchen. One would want to fry
when the other would broil; to boil when
the other would bake; complications were
ready TO arise on every hand and the one
course left was to face them
A young couple lately landed from Eng
land and short OF cash, Were eager to OBJ
tain shelter where the wife could bv cook
cry save expenses.
The lapse Of month beheld happy
family. The lady journalist, with wonder
ful ingenuity, had bestowed herself, her
literary and personal belongings in the
little kitchen annex, which held likewise
a bed and bedding. True, the bed folded
up by day, and took up little more room
than a plank which was stood end up be-
side bureau, on which the bedding was
folded and piled neatly, while drapery
hid all from sight, leaving visible only two
chairs and a desk.
"My little writing-room," as she could
now call it.
Then had she not her parlor-her own
prettily-furnished, private, genteel parlor
where friends could be ushered, enter
tanned and made to feel how delightfully."-
she lived in her own home and castle
She had, indeed, aud the thought upheld
her amidst dangers in the future and con-
trivances in the present. Contrivances was
truly her only tribulation, since the Young
Englishwoman had proved an angel. grad
ually taking from her the small cares of
home; doing just the right thing at the
right time, never the wrong thing at anv
time. But think how easily matters might
have gone the other way Of the compli-
cations and misfoItunes that might have
arisen from so hazardous an experiment.
And think, too of the complications of
existence, where four people, utter strangers
one TO the other, settle down to an inti-
mate everyday life. Remember too, that
this idea Of taking a fiat beyond ones
means and calling in somebody to help out
expenses, hes grown with the growth OF
the fiat, 10 be special feature in city life.
Here comes in, moreover, the mans op-
portunity. What may not be tolerated
from the parsonage who changes $40 to
less than $50, not once, but twelve times a
year. The fiat becomes his small domain
wherein he NAV stride back and forth. saw
he wants this and must have that, and
doesn't like this and can't tolerate that,
and this and that are ordered to his lik-
ing. He has the home with none of its
burdens or responsibilities; he has home
care IN sickness, home entertainment when
he Is well. In bachelor apartment house
he Is insignificant among many; here he is
the one masnate of the premises. There
are men, therefore, who make a snecialtv
OF this kind OF life and they are serpents
of wisdom.
1t may hardly be necessary to add that
an avoidance Of men is a cornerstone of
belief in the tribe who, with all due re-
sPect for decorum, settle down to fiat life
Two suns cannot shine with untarnished
briliiancy at the same time; each typical
man, II may be taken for granted. feels IL
his province to enact the luminary to
feminine existence about him, and that
there are enough such luminaries in the
vortex OF the metropolis TO form special
class is an incontrovertible fact.
They are useful, too, in their way. a
take FOR example the case of the lady
journa ist wanting home. Her front
lodger became the keynote of the whole
concern, without whom and his S5 pc,
week all and each might have come tc
grief. He made three other people com.
fcrtable besides himself and that is doing
much in the world.
In proportion as advantages to mar
may be great, however, so, per contra, /,
can readily be imagined how direful may
be the woes ia case of wrong selection
A mother and daughter, two sisters, two
friends the two or three somebodies tc