Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-16

enamel myself. making a parlor suite that
cost me five dollars. A pretty lamp. some
Inexpensive rugs and few pictures l had
room after fashion that was very proud
| Of My dining table was stained pine and
| cost only $50. Four dining room chairs
cost =. l had to buy table linen and bed
linen. as well as all my kitchen furnishing.
The allowance was limited to the strict ne
cessity of cleanliness. and for several
months we had to wash table cloth and
napkins in the middle of the week to have
things spick and span for Sunday. But the
cost of everything 1 bought was sixty dol
lars ten of which 1 paid, and for the rest
l signed an iron-bound contract requiring
me to pay dollar a week till the balance
was covered, and in event of failure to
pay gave the dealers full liberty to come
IN and strip my house Of all l had got Of
them. 1t Is not pleasant to get ahead on
such terms but 1t was the best possible to
begin with. The remaining .hree dollars
of my thirteen l spent on groceries, and we
actually moved into our own home-ours
with string to 1t, my husband used bru-
tally to say when l became disagreeably
proud and inclined to crow over my possess
sion. Yes. indeed; 1 made the poor man
understand that 1t was my house, whenever
he took exceptions to the way it was run
or to anything about It..
Debts Were Pressing.
my monthly obligations to real estate
dealer and furniture dealer amounted to
$40. which left balance of but $50 to clothe
and feed four people I am not physically
able to do the housework without assist
ance. and naturally. with no experience as
a housekeeper. my economy was poor,
struggle and figure as might. I was get
ting behind all around. l had even got two
weeks behind in my furniture. and horri
be man with no more feeling than a block
OF wood came to the house from the furni
ture store and told me that everything
would have to go back f I didn't pay up
1t was in the spring. and one Of my first
bits of work after had acquired a foot OF
ground that l could call my own had been
to ill it with flowers. / had a friend up in
Boston in the seed business, and he gave me
what wanted for start, so my back yard,
which was deep. If narrow. was abloom at
the time when it looked as If 1 was going
to have to give it all up.
Then l guess an angel must have in
sp red mel conceived the idea Of starting
a small flower service. 1 put on my best
ciothes-they were getting pretty shabby,
and perhaps that and my unavoidably hope
less face helped-at all events, looking the
best l could, 1 visited a number of offices,
making it a point to catch the men just af-
ter lunch, when you know a man is most
apt to be good natured and generous to a
woman. and proposed delivering poutol-
Mere to each of these men at his office
regularly every day for fifty cents a week.
1 secured twenty-five men who agreed to
take my flowers. and do you know, five of
those men, somehow divining that was in
and there in advance, so that l was able to
stop in on my way home and pacify my fur
niture creditor The young colored boy that
L had helping me about the house deli yered
my flowers, and not a man failed 10 keep
the agreement he had made This gave me
such start that afterward had compare
lively clear sailing. 1 devoted all my spare
time and energy to systematic study of
nutritive cookery, and the whole subject of
domestic science. so that gradually I be-
Came able to manage my household in the
most economic way, and oh! how my hus-
band and children did thrive under my care.
Better even than their improved physical
condition was the perfect sympathy and
| harmony that somehow resulted among US
in consequence OF having home and moth
er in it. At the end of five years my mouse
had increased in value SO that l was able to
sell out at a profit and buy this house.
had $1,000 cash to pay on this place, and
the balance 1 am paying through building
and loan association which makes a life
insurance provision, whereby. in event of
my death before the whole payment Is
made, my family will receive clear title
to the house. All this you see, Is not
theory. but fact, Of what a woman may &C.
ccmplish with one hundred dollars, If she
has the mind to-"
Another Woman's Experience
1 left this woman, fired with ambition to
put money in my purse. and met the other
woman, whose plan for money making is
similarly inspiring.
This woman lives in Mt. Pleasant. She,
too, said she answered my advertisement
for no other reason than to fortify me with
a knowledge of her experience in determin-
irg how best to invest 500. Her first argu-
ment was to take me into her back yard,
where she showed me seven facuba tors,
each accommodating 800 eggs, all in opera
ten.
II was discharged from one of the de-
partments last January" she said, land
counting up my assets and liabilities they
| Nft hA Iot thr,A hill
self to provide for. and of the former. my
rent paid for a month, my pantry stocked
for a week. and 500 In cash. l had worked
in the government treadmill 50 long that
any original ability l ever had for any other
sort OF work mad been sacrificed, so thai
my 500 represented my sole capital. Some
body idly suggested to me why don't you
buy an incubator and raise chickens 1
was that stupid with the hopeSSness of
my outlook that IL any one had suggested
why don't you buy cage and raise ele-
plants 1 would have made the experiment,
provided knew where to go to buy 1t. My
little house had no yard. and if had stop
ped to consider the leasonableness of my
STEP that would have settled the chicken
business. But didn't stop to consider, not
until ] was examining an incubator, when
1 suddenly exclaimed: But the things
have to grow after they're Matched. don't
| they? and l haven't any back yard Got
roof said the man, and when answered
that l had. he told me 1 could have
brooder-house built on the roof, and show
ed me one built thus in operation. Well,
1 went home, having bought an incubator.
and contracted for chicken house to be
built over my head. l paid $25 for my in
| cubator, $50 for my chicken house. $40 for
my bro oder. and S. for 200 eggs, and began
business. After putting in the eggs and
| lighting the lamp that heats the incubator,
l was told that all 1 need do for three
| weeks was to fill and clean the lamp as
would house lamp every day; turn the
| eggs every night end morning. and refill
| the water pan on the seventh and four
| teenth day.
A Woman's Patience.
"It takes the natural humanity and meek
| ness Of woman to do such small things
| to perfection. A man would be sure to rise
superior to some one or more of them, and
ruin would be the consequence. But with
| the fneekness and the patience Of saint
attended those eggs, and when on the
| twenty-first day I had two hundred infant
| chickens on my hands-well, tell you. the
| awful responsibility of a mother with her
| first baby is not circumstance to 1t. not
| even If the baby Is twins-I posted down
| town for the man who had sold me the In
| cubator to come help me get my large.
| new, motherless family under the protec-
| ton of the funny. patented steam pipe
| fI,a,y Thap hax, bod