Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1894-06-08
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.

| The Prevailing Fault Among American
of All Grades Is Extravaganza.
II the question were asked what ont
| 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-car
ness-will be on the road to amendment
Every housekeeper should have slate
hanging ip 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 | look about at the
amount now expended In year compared
with what was formerly needed, wonder
how much it will take to satisfy the wants
of 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 indulgencer
The antidote is twofold. We must educate
them to restrain their desires and yery
early to earn in proportion to their expen-
ditures. Every child should be brought
up to feel a responsibility for the house
hold. see girls daily that are surely pre-
pairing for misery. Heaven help a man
who is inveigled into marrying such wo-
man. She has and can have no idea of
earning or saving. She only considers a
husband as purveyor and provider. He
in turn loses his highest aim in life. Home
is hopeless idea never to be gratified.
His ideals drop down. He becomes club
man If rich, a soured man If poor. This
one thought ought to be uppermost in
training-to make our young people help
fui, and the girls to comprehend the duty
Of being helpmates
But about necessity: It is true that most
of those who are supposed to be above the
necessity of kitchen work really are sof |
know the inside truth about many fami-
les, and the slave, in the majority of
;ases, is the husband He has no leisure
n life from money making. We women
ire creating detestable class of men
money makers. On moderate income |
hey know that their family is not consti- |
uted to be happy. The outgoes are from |
'ne-fourth to three-fourths for things that
ould be spared without suffering.
Their is nothing SO honorable as toll, and |
his every one without exception should be !
made to feel. The work of the world /
hoUld be evenly distributed as privilege |
nd JOY. AS for menial work, it is gener-
lily such by inference; it Is that which |
hows skill Why should so many thou
ands OF our women consider cooking and |
leaning as out Of their province? A
Eoman that does not need to sweep a floor
hould nevertheless do it, and do It well.
Into Vassar and into our common schools
aust go the inculcation of nobIer spirit.
makes very little difference whether it
e in rich home or poor one, but q COM
lalnlng spirit and wasteful one spoils !
II comfort. Some one has said that one
aif OF the production of the United States
cts wasted. He laid special stress on the
ad habits of those who cultivate the soil
nd handle crops. My special trouble is
18th those of us who waste In the house
Old. am not urging penuriousness, but
sonomy there is no escape from. Our
oung couples should be trained formally
study of ways and means. 1t is in
unity to start out in life ahead of income.
: even flush with it. wish all young
arried couples were compelled by law to |
to a school Of domestic economy for one
'ar after marriage. .-St. Louis Globe
emocrat.