The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-01-10
The Cost of Living.

estimate the actual cost of the daily liv-
ing Of their families. and logically adjust
it to their income. In estimating the
cost of living the necessares Of life,
which should be the first things counted,
are not always estimated in their place.
It should be remembered that necessaries
are not always the same for different per-
sons. What is a necessity for one wOm-
an living in certain way may be lux
ury to another, who lives in a much SIM
per- d ,5 manner: It is the duty Of every one
sistency with her income. The taste and
even the health Of individuals cannot reg:
ulate the amount of money they should
expend. In time of sickness, when ex-
ira money must be used, there should be
the most rigid economy, wherever econo-
expense Of the family, or bankruptcy will
be the result, if the income is limited.
Literary and artistic tastes are commend
able 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 fog rigid economy: in
other directions, when the income is
A great many women appear to lay out
scale of living in consistency merely
with their tastes, and proceed to adopt it,
without counting the cost. They seem to
imagine that in some way they will es-
cape the logical results of their acts and
adequate to their expenses. It is such
household management as this which is
responsible for the various defalcations
and other populations that are SO fire.
quently .discerned in business houses,
banks and in public Office. It is the old
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
bands income, and she is then as respon-
sibIe as he is if he yields to the tempta-
ton which impels him to sacrifice honor
and take that which does not belong to
NM I1e woman in such case cannot
plead, Il did not know" when the dis
the husband. 1t is her duty as wife
to know how much her husband can af-
ford to spend and to regulate her expen-
diture within that sum.
It is often easier for q woman to re-
trench in her household expenses than it
Pride and many things tempt him to
keep the household 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 'elittle nearer" in matters
Of household expenditure than they
should be. but we do not believe these
cases are as common as those where the
man of the house is tempted to be more
generous than he should be to his home.
The good old-fashioned time when the
majority of refined women gloried in do
ing their own work in the best and most
careful way seems to be past We often
hear inquiries like the following: 'What
should family with an income Of $1,000
a year pay for servant" In old-fash-
Toned times no mistress Of house with
an income of $1,000 year or even $4,000.
would think of keeping a servant, but
she would do her own work, and it costs,
today, almost as much as it did to keep
a servant fifty years ago. 1t is much
easier to do the work Of house today
than it was in the old-fashioned days,
when our grandmothers did their work
with their own dainty hands, and the
price of servant, with her board, is pro-
portionately greater than it ever was.
"A wise woman looketh well to the ways
of her household" 1.-The heart Of her
husband doth safely trust in her, so that
he shall have no need Of spoil"
York Trihune