The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1902-02-01

wemsn wiah FamiIies shouIA Aaeps
Consistent scale Of Kx-
penditmre.

There are few women who careful.
Iy estimate the actual cost OF the
daily living of their families and
logically adjust it TO their income,
In estimating the cost of living the
necessaries of life, which should be
the first things counted, are not al
ways estimated in their place. I II
should be remembered that neces-
saries are not always the same for
different persons. What is a neces-
sity for one woman living in GER
tain way may be luxury to another,
who lives in a much simpler manner.
1t is the duty of everyone to adopt
q scale of expenditure in consistency
with her income, says the New York
Tribune. The taste and even the
health of individuals cannot regulate
the amount of money they should ex-
pend. In time of sickness, when ex-
ira money must be used, there should
be the most rigid economy, wherever
economy can be exercised, to meet
the extra expense of the family, or
bankruptcy will be the result, If the
income is limited. Literary and artis-
tic tastes are commendable in man
or woman, but the possession of such
taste without means to crafty it
is no excuse for exercising it. The
taste, If INDUCED in, calls for rigid
economy in other directions, when
the income is limited one.
"A L.
lay out scale of living in consisten-
cy merely with their tastes, and pro-
coed to adopt it, without counting
the cost. They seem to imagine that
in some way they will escape the
logical results of their acts and live
with an income which is wholly in
adequate to their expenses. 1t il
such household management as this
which is responsible for the various
defalcations and other populations
that are so frequently discerned in
business houses, banks and in pub
lie Office. 1t is the old story of some
extravaganza to which so many of
the disgraceful occurrences must be
laid. Every intelligent woman whose
husband lives on salary knows what
his income is, and she also knows,
or should know, at what scale she
is using money in household matters.
She knows whether she is living be- |
yond her husbands income, and she |
is then as responsible as he is if he |
yields to the temptation which impels
him to sacrifice honor and take that |
which does not belong to him. The |
Il did not know" when the disgrace
of wrongdoing is brought home to
the husband. 1t is her duty as a wife
to know how much her husband can
afford to spend and to regulate her
within that sum.
1t is often easier for a woman to
retrench in her household expendi-
lures than it is for her husband to
ask her to do so. Pride and many
things tempt him to keep the house
hold expenditures at generous limit,
and it is the wife's duty to see that
this generosity is not imposed upon.
There are undoubtedly cases of the
'closeness" of men who, like Mr..
Barkis, are "little nearer" in mat
ters of household expenditure than
hey should be, but we do not believe
,hese cases are as common as those
where the man of the house is Tempt
ID to be more generous than he
should be to his home. The good
,ld-fashioned time when the majority
# refined women gloried in doing
heir own work in the best and most
'areful way seems to be past. We
'ften hear inquiries like the follow
ng: "What should family with an
income of $1,000 year pay for a
ervant?" In old-fashioned times no
MISTRESS of house with an income
# $1,000 or even $4,000 would think
t keeping servant, but she would
o her own work, and it costs to-day
lmost as much as it did to keep a
ervant so years ago. 1t is much east
r to do the work of house to-day
han it was in the old-fashioned days,
7hen our grandmothers did their
FORK with their own dainty hands,
nd the price of servant, with her
GARD, is proportionately greater
han it ever was. "a wise woman
,oketh well to the ways of her
ousehold." 1.-THE heart of her hus-
and doth safely trust in her, so that
e shall have no need of spoil"