The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-18


protests. Restaurants are better.
1t is at the cheap. business mans restau-
rant that the genuine economist solves his
problem best. He eats meat three times a
day. He allows himself dessert at dinner.
but not at lunch. He drinks coffee twice.
Breakfast costs Is cents. lunch Is. and
dinner IS.
The SIS girl. on the other hand. pays more
for her room and less for her board. She
is at home more of the time, she says. AS
a matter of fact. she is not thinking so
much of her own comfort for she is too
self-denying in the matter of that, as she
is thinking OF the appearance her home
will make. There will be callers. If pos
sible, she secures a room in some house
where the privilege of the parlor is includ-
ed, or she clubs with three other girls and
takes $40 apartment in pleasant loca-
ton. Her share in this apartment will cost
81 Sc week. and it has TO be furnished in
the beginning. which will make it impossi-
BILE, unless somebody can rummage at home
for odd bits OF furniture that busy hands
can recover. Occasionally savings will add
to the furnishing from time to time.
You may as well have a decently COM
Portable room-board costs so little" she
says.
''Can YOU be satisfied with a five-dollar
table?" one of these economists was asked.
Five dollars?' she exclaimed. Two and
half is all my food averages
And how?"
There's little lunch around the corner"
she explained. Meat and potatoes are Is
cents, and that's all anybody wants for
dinner. For lunch 1 take sandwich or a
cereal, sometimes tea or coffee, and this is
only 10 or Is cents. We girls get our own
breakfast"
"And what does that breakfast consist
Off"
Coffee and toast. Sometimes we give
ourselves a treat and have eggs. When we
do that we save by boiling the eggs In the
coffee so that the gas bill won't rise"
This is close economy, but many girl on
that income does get her own breakfast.
Plenty of her are fed for $3.50. Over against
that place the mans figures-$525. Her Sc
for room and board stands opposite his 81.
In case these bachelors live at distance
from their work there will be so cents
week invested in car fare. Distances being
equal, the man will be more likely to save
this amount, or part of it, than the woman,
for walking is easier for him in bad
weather.
WASHES HER OWN CLOTHING.
In laundry, however, she has the advan-
tage. She washes her own handkerchiefs,
collars, dozens of small articles and some
times large ones.
1T is easy as washing your face" she
says.
Not to him. 1t is one Of those infinite
feminine mysteries. He can't wear fewer
than four collars a week, and when the
laundry bill comes in he finds it foots I'D rs
cents. The girls is So cents.
There are a hundred little things that she
can do for herself where he stands helpless.
shampoos and manicures herself. while he
pays Is or 20 cents every few weeks to have
his hair cut. She mends and cleans and
presses her own clothes; he pays sometimes
$3.50 in a month to have his kept in order.
On the little acknowledgements she will save
money where he won't. He probably
smokes; If not constant smoker one pack
age of 35-cent tobacco will keep his pipe
busy for a week. He wants his own drinks
ard he wants to buy the other fellows oc-
casionally; he may get through on two
beers a day, or he may pay for several
cocktails, which makes the price of drown
ing sorrow leap from 10 to go or rs cents
day. The girl of SIS will deny herself ice
cream sodas and the other things she likes;
if she has a practical soul she will count
on somebody else paying for them. On the
occasional holiday trips or to the theater his
expenses are double and hers are none at all.
Allowing each 70 cents a week for the
countless small sundries. such as postage
expenses foot up to $l2 and the girls to IS,
in round numbers. On what is left they
must dress and pay the occasional large
bills that arise-dentists bills. Christmas
gifts, Journeys.
The girl has "a more than he to dress on,
and If she is a genius with the needle, she
can look well on less than he. She can
make her shirtwaists and collars and hats.
Perhaps the goods for a pretty silk waist
or a fluffy gown comes among her Christ
mas presents. and she puts in several even
ings making herself ready for splurge.
THE MEMS LIMITATIONS.
Nobody ever gives him dress suit. He
must refuse all invitations where full dress
is de rigeur, If he means to save closely.
He must restrict himself to dinner coat
| functions, where he can wear the dinner
| coat, provided he has il, with the trousers
| of his ordinary black suit
| Allow them each 500 year for dress
| and she will have a far greater variety
| If she would only remove her heart from
| the feather boa that it is set upon. she
| could have all the square meals she needs.
| If she does this, she is far better off on
| her SIS than is he. She dresses better, she
| lives in better room, she can accept
| many pleasant invitations without being
! oppressed by obligation; sometimes she has