The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1894-01-27
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.

The Prevailing Fault Among Americana
of All Grades Is Extravaganza
II the question were asked what one
quality in a woman most conduces to a
happy home / should say frugality and
economy, and If what quality in man
most conduces to home happiness | should
repeat-economy and frugality. The great
American crime is want OF rational econ
omy The woman wastes in the parlor
and kitchen. The man wastes everywhere.
There is no class that is careful of outgoes.
No one man or woman in one hundred
keeps an account Of personal expenses. II
our schools, instead Of the rule Of three,
would teach the children the simplest ele-
ments Of plain bookkeeping, mathematics
would be OF some value. The farmer who
once puts down in figures his expenditures
and his income and honestly writes down
his losses by bad management-careless
ness-will be on the road to amendment
| Every housekeeper should have slate
hanging in the kitchen, on which TO jot
/ down daily expenses, and pocket account
| book to see how quickly 500 slips away.
When statistics prove that average life
| Is provided with far more comforts than
| fifty years ago, and l look about at the
amount now expended in a year compared
with what was formerly needed, | wonder
how much il will take to satisfy the wants
| OF a family fifty years hence. There is not
a question but half Of our boys and girls
are harmed by too free use Of money and
the other half by being jealous and dissat-
isfied.
Where will be the end OF indulgence,
| The antidote il twofold. We must educate
them to restrain their desires and very
early to earn in proportion to their expen-
ditures. Every child should be brought
up to feel responsibility for the house
hold | see girls daily that are surely pre-
pairing for misery. Heaven help man
who is inveigled into marrying such a wo-
man She has and can have no idea OF
earning or saving She only considers a
husband as a purveyor and provider. He
in turn loses his highest aim in life. Home
is a hopeless idea never to be gratified
His ideals drop down. He becomes "a club
man if rich, a soured man II poor. This
one thought ought to be uppermost in
training-to make our young people help
full and the girls to comprehend the duty
Of being helpmates.
But about necessity II is true that mosi
OF those who are supposed TO be above the
necessity of kitchen work really are so?
know the inside truth about many fami
lies and the slave, in the majority o.
cases is the husband. He has no leisur'
in life from money making We someI
are creating a detestable class OF men,
money makers. On a moderate income
they know that their family is not consti
tuted to be happy. The outgoes are from
one-fourth to three-fourths for things tina
could be spared without suffering.
Their is nothing SO honorable as toll, an'
this every one without exception should b
made TO feel The work of the worl'
should be evenly distributed as privileg
] and joy. As for mental work. it is gener
- ally such by inference; it is that whicl
z shows skill Why should so many thou
| sands OF our women consider cooking an
cleaning as out of their provincei
woman that does not need TO sweep foo
should nevertheless DO il, and do il we'll
Into Vassar and into our common school
must 90 the incubation Of "A nobler spirit
1t makes very little difference whether
be in a rich home or a poor one, but a con
n planning spirit and a wasteful one spoil
= all comfort. Some one has said that ont
o half OF the production of the United Stat,
q gets wasted He laid special stress on Oh
=, bad habits Of those who cultivate the so
= and handle crops. My special trouble
- with those Of us who waste in the hous
hold am not urging penuriousness, bt
e economy there is no escape from. Oh
h Young couples should be trained formal
to a study OF ways and means. IL is II
il sanity to start out in life ahead Of incom
n or even flush with IL. l wish all youn
married couples were compelled by law
20 to a school Of domestic economy for OF
- year after marriage.-St. Louis Glob
- Democrat.