The age-herald., 1899-12-18
HOW ONE WOMAN PAID LIVING EXPENSES
From the New York Sun.

dn the south that something must be done
 to earn money, if worse comes to worse,
 she succumbs and takes boarders. She post i pones the evil day as long as possible but boarders are her final refuge. The New
 York woman is a long stride in advance of
 that way of doing, for she takes roomers,
 especially if she lives in flat.
 To the ordinary, minimizing individual 0 fiat would seem crowded enough under any
 circumstances. But evidently isn't, since
 under careful management difficulties as to 1 space vanish away, and the rent price of
 the flat becomes as nothing compared to 1 the income from the rooms. As to bringing herself to the point of renting out her
 rooms that Is easy enough after she has once taken the step from a house to flat.
 No one was ever brought up in flatdom and nothing else. There is always past to be
 recalled when sine lived in the old-fashion-
 ed style before she became typical New
 Yorker with a laudable desire to become
 financier. Sometimes this desire finds outlet in mere 1 economy. She can get along in flat with
 fewer servants than she could in a house,
 the rent may be quite small compared to
 even a house In the suburbs, and, if neces-
 sary, she may keep house lightly with no l servant at all and congratulate herself on
 the solution of the problem. But that is | not the latest or most approved method l Do not take a cheap fiat, for an expensive one is better investment in the long run.
 For a small family seven or eight rooms l are far better than five, If managed accerd- l ing to the up-to-date method and with the 1 good luck that one woman has had. The flat is an unusually attractive one, arranged
 with a square central hall and eight rooms
 opening out of it at various places. Eight
 rooms for the family of three seemed rather l small and too confined for the furniture
 that the family possessed However, she | mana ged the latter objection by putting the 1 pieces she Mixed the most into the flat and l putting all the rest into storage After such l a sitting out the rooms were naturally l quite attractive, and every one who saw 1 them said, Isn't your flat loyely?" and 1 then finished up generally with an ejacula- | ton about the amount of space.
 l The direct result of these numerous ex- | clamations was that the woman or the l family began to think that perhaps they were not so crowded after all. and when l some one approached her on the subject | of just one room she thought she could l manage to get along with seven, and took | tbe first lodger within her borders. It ouired just a little more crowding to let out still another, and then there were six. l By that time she was fully started on the road of the room letter. and she began to l look around for some one to be the third. 1 Maybe she thought there was luck in even 1 numbers, or more probably being wo- | man. she didn't know where to stop, but at l any rate her surprised family found itself l living in four rooms after time, with four l lodgers taking up the four best bedrooms 1 of the flat There still remained the parlor, CT reception room, or whatever it is called
 in hat-house terms, the dining room the l kitchen and one bedroom It was possible l to get some enjoyment out of life even so, for the folding-bed exists for just such | emergencies.
 But the end was not yet. The reception l room went next, and evidently it was time that something should be done. She was 1 making about $50 over and above the rent l of the flat every month now from the l
 ability so well proven. she was not going
 to send one of those lodgers away. Instead, 1 she said, I've can all take our meals out,' 1 and take them out they did, and the flat went through some remarkable changes, | and came out so transformed that its oldest | friends might not know it. The kitchen 1 has seen the greatest notifications Every l kitchen has one or two earmarks that can
 net be totally eradicated, but they may be concealed behind curtains and screens and
 things, and that is what happened to them 1 in this case. The range has been removed, 1 but the walls about it's place had been 1 painted dark and gloomy hue with the 1 idea that they wouldn't show the smoke. 1 Here pretty curlalnS are hunS to serve aS l a background for the bed, for this kitchen
 has been made into model sleeping apart 1 nent There was the sink, about which
 nothing could be done except to wall it l about with a screen and make the best of l it. The stationary tubs at first seemed quite
 as hopeless, but little thought disclosed
 wonderful latent possibilities in them, and l this is the way those possibilities were
 worked. The wall just above the tubs was l covered with drapery of soft-toned mate
 rial Against this a mirror that was origi- i nally intended for long panel mirror was 1 hung lengthwise. piece of felt that 1 matched the drapery in color covered the 1 tubs themselves, and pretty pieces of linen
 helped in the illusion of a toilet table. Dra-