Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-20


have to go at the end
of this month, I'll be as bad off as any of
the Coxeyites WERE
"Of course you couldn't save anything on
$50 a month";" responded the treasury girl
Il can't make both ends meet after five
years of trying On SIS, and I'm sure 1 don't
see what you poor things could be expect
ed to do If you lived like white folks"
''Oh, but don't you know, some of the
girls have actually saved money! cried
Miss Census. There is that Madge Lemar.
Why, she actually has 500 saved out of her
years salary of $500. Think of it, will
your"
''She never done it, Never-' said the
treasury girl in indignant surprise Sur
prised people are seldom grammatical
Indeed she has, though" was the quick
reply. I've seen her bank book. Say, we
will have to fly, or We will be late" and
away they went
My friend. Margaret Lemar, chose to
keep the honored name of her dead father
honorable and gave up everything and
then faced the world, a gently bred, high
ambitioned orphan, with not an idea of
how to make living, with no special gift
| In any direction, and bereft of most of her
fair weather friends One good woman
who knew her necessity, got her a place in
the census office. L met her shortly after
ward, just when she had decided that her
housekeeping experiment would be sue
cess. An experiment that came after three
months vicissitudes in trying to suit board
ing houses to her salary and her tastes
Il couldn't endure it another day." she
said, when l commented on her strike for
liberty. 1T was perfectly dreadful I
started out with a determination to accept
the world as / found it, but boarding houses
were too much for me. The best room
could afford cost me s. a month. and if
had callers L had to sit On the bed and give
them the two stiff-backed chairs my room
afforded 1t is understood that ''roomers'
are not to use the "parlor' in the average
boarding house. 1 paid 81 week for my
board, and 80 cents a week for my washing
Car fare cost me ~ cents a week, at the
least calculation. There was nearly $50
of my salary gone, and had very little to
show for it My poorly ventilated room and
boarding house fare We're not at all to my
liking, so 1 changed, once, and again, and
grew desperate. l was spending for doctor
bills the greater part of what was left of
my salary, which was most discouraging.
l made up my mind that matters could not
be worsted much, so when l found that L
would run behind in another month, unless
there was change. took the decisive
step, and set up home of my own, and
well, you can judge for yourself whether
have acted for the best"
How II Was Done.
back at the smiling, healthy young face,
and concluded that my young hostess had
not had much to regret, though 1 knew
that she had to exercise the most rigid
economy in every expenditure, in order to
lay up 1 knew she did, $25 a month
Tell me about it, | said. Il am always
| interested in learning how girls manage
when thrown entirely upon their own re-
Sources
Il don't think did any managing" she
returned, brightly. Il guess all the ideas
just sprouted, and all did was to work
| them as they put themselves forth. had
a time of 1t finding rooms. They all cost
| too much, were too far out, or SO close in
| as to be noisy and dirty. l had made up
my mind to take an unfurnished room, a
pleasant walking distance from office, and
| furnish it myself, 1 could, and to do
| most of my own cooking. At last l found
| these rooms. The lady of whom 1 rent
| them had never put them to any use, ex-
cept for lumber rooms, and to store trunks
| in. l got the bit of hall bedroom and
| this room with the big closet for 81, heat
and light thrown in. l saw its possibilities
! at once. 1t opens to the east, and has so
many nice big windows Bit by bit as
could furnished it, and now it has grown
very dear to me, for it is home" and that
Is what the average boarding house can
never be-"
The room that she got at such ba rgain
had a low ceiling-scarceIy eight feet-but II
was a good size. fourteen by sixteen, and
had four nice wide windows two on the east
and two on the south. There was a tiny
fireplace. with plain wooden mantel paint
ed dark dirty brown when she took the
| room. tiny hall, down three steps, led
from the newer part of the house to her
room, and Oft the end of this was the
closet-like hall bed room, with one south
window. The lady Of whom she rented II
had 1t cleaned for her. letting her select her
own paper, a plain cream ground for the
side walls. and one of clouded cream and
blue for the ceiling.
The dado and border. because of the low
ceiling, had to be narrow and inconspfcuous,
SO Margaret selected dainty blue scroll
work on dark cream ground. Among the
rubbish In the room when Margaret took IL
was a wire cot with one end broken down
small kitchen table In the same condition,
and one wooden chair and a rocking chair
with the bottom rushed" out When she
came to take possession of the cleaned up
room she saw from her south windows,
which looked out on a nice grassy hack
yard, that the old furniture was piled lIp i'm
the yard as though to send away. She
asked about it, and was told that il was to
be made into kindling wood. She offered to
pay kindiing wood prices for il, and got the
lot for twenty-five cents. Then she went to
get a colored man who had done a great
deal of mending for her former landiacv
end for twenty-five cents more she got her
new furniture mended iShe secured il up at
once and had bed to sleep on, a chair to
sit in, table with a drawer, and a rocking
chair with a piece of canvas for a bottom.
d
sweetly that first night on bedding borrow
ed of her accommodating landlady.
On Two Dollars Per Week.
Margaret had only SO to start in upon
her experiment after paying her rent, so
she had to go slowly, as that had to last her
for fifteen days. She desided to get her own
meals at once and fix up the room as she
could. She bought a small spirit lamp for
fifty cents. and plat Of alcohol. That was
all the stove she had for over three months
She had the privilege of getting boiling wa
ter from the kitchen below. and when she
wished a cup of tea or a boiled egg, it was
a matter Of only five minutes or SO till she
had them In a tiny pan over her alcohol
stove she could brcil a chop or a thin slice
of ham: In another she could make an ONE
let or fry or scramble her egss-in fact, she
could cook for her own appetite In the
dAintiest mar ner possible. and the tinware
she used cost her only twenty-five cents.
She kept strict account of what 1t cost
her to live. and q two-dollar bill each week
covered the amount She never INDUCED I'm
pastry or cake. and had very few sweets.
She lived principally on eggs. meat once q
day, cereals, fruit In the natural state. gra-
ham bread. oatmeal crackers. green salads,
celery and onions She got good butter and
a mint of milk a dav which she vya a r,err.lf.