The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-13
s1.N A MEEK.

Fifty-two dollars a year for two per-
sons is the sum which ex-Judge Tai
colt, of Valparaiso, Ind, sets apart for
living expenses. What is more remark
able, he succeeds in keeping within
this limit, and both he and Mrs. Tall
colt profess to be more than satisfied
with the amount Of food they allow them
selves.
Moreover, their figures are six times
as impressive as those of the Chicago
university economists, who have re-
Gently provoked wide discussion by de-
claring that a man and his wife can
subsist at a cost of $500 a year.
The 81 a week expense limit is more
startling in view of the age of the eX-
perimentalists. Judge Talcott is eighty
five years Old, but is strong, well and
active. Mrs. Talcott, who is some ten
years younger, has an almost girlish-
freshness of complexion and does all the
work about their home. AS the Judge
has an abundance of means the 81 a
week dietary regimen is adhered to pure
Iy from choice.
Households that have difficulty in
making both ends meet on ten times the
sum that affords this aged couple so
great contentment are invited to study
this simplest of regiments:
Breakfast-Oatmeal mush, milk and
sugar.
Supper-Cornmea1 mush and sugar.
Once a month this is varied by a
meal including a small amount of meat.
AS to quantity, one coffee cup full OF
the cereal at each meal quite suffices
the judge, while his wife eats even less.
Judge Talcott, in a talk with a news
paper reporter, told how 1t feels to live
on 50 cents a week.
"Plain living is the secret of content
nent and of economy as well,'' he said
81 used to be a pretty greedy eater when
/ was young. My first wife and [ gradu-
ally left unnecessary things out of our
table regimen, and during the sixty years
in which we lived together reduced it to
the simplest terms.
During the last two or three years
of her life l kept a close track to see
what our expenses amounted to, and they
were less than $50 for fifty-tWo weeks
for both of US We had no rent TO pay,
however, and no milk to buy. But L
raised a large quantity of garden stuff
We used practically none of that, but
gave it to my SONS and to The nelgn-
bors.
my first wife died a little more than
year ago, and L married again last
September. My present wife shares my
notions of economy and plain LIKING, and
our expenses are not greater than be-
fore.
ST eat lots OF sugar and find it an ex-
| cellent food. When 1 was a boy, sugar
was worth 20 cents pound or more,
! and 1 never got enough, and am MAX
| ing I'D now. Sometimes one or both OF
us feel meat hungry, and we get a
| slice of ham or some sausage or beef
! and eat that.
Look at me and tell me if I am not
| in fine health for a man away past eighty.
I stand straight walk often five or more
miles day and within the last ten years
| have made three trips to California, liv
| ing there two years. I work about the
| yard, cut all the wood for the winter,
| keep the hard wood trees trimmed and
| do other things of that sort without
difficulty. I can still swing my ak TO
fell or lop a tree.
| Mrs. Talcott is equally contented with
her triumph over the pleasures of the
palate and supplemented her husband $
| statement.
st have been living on plain diet for
| half a century" she said. Fifty years
| ago [ was i'll, aud the doctors said could
! not recover. I took to dieting, lived on
| graham bread and milk and other simple
| things and began to gain.
'.Thereaare two things for people to do
| to be happy and be healthy. They must
| instead of half the daytime. In our opin-
ion an expenditure of $500 year for two
| people would be great extravaganza. We
have 70 rent to pay, and We have milk
sent us by Mr.. Talcotts son, but even
! if we had these things to pay for we
would net need to spend $500 year"