Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-19
There

There
Is more than one feminine view of the sim
pie life. One woman lives 1t by doing her
own work and scrubbing her own floors as
she did when her husband was at bottom
salary. And yet she buys furs which run
into the hundreds, and wears other things
In proportion. She would rather work to
feel that she can have>t things" is her ex-
PLANTATION. although her husband would like
to try a regime of that open house which
good housekeeper, well assisted In the
kitchen, can make a delight TO the chance
guest.
Another couple live in an extra large and
beautiful fiat. The wife works all the time
to keep it immaculate. doing the cleaning
herself. They follow the chilly way of
going out to meals because she Is not strong
enough to do everything and because 1t is
cheaper and there is a little more to put In
the fiat.
The ideal of pleasure and expenditure in
both cases is its own commentary on what
the training of sink routine may become If
the divine longing to learn and know has
not already been implanted.
When the wifes contribution of work is to
the health or education or development OF
another 1T only react in blessing to
herself. When it is a matter of strenuous
economy it is often as helpful in shutting
out the irritating contact with those who
are merely idle tri1ers as 1t is in actual
saving.
But when there is not actual need the
woman who has the best good of her family
and herself at heart should stop and take
an inventory OF what it means to her. 1t
IS the narrowing of opportunity. There Is
shutting down of part of the hospta lily
The husband, instead Ct bringing home an
unexpected friend to dinner will often en-
teTtan him downtown.
The wife cannot iinger al the little after
noon tea TO which She has been invited on
account Of having to hurry home to start
dinner. She can't enjoy the caller who
drops in late or join the Chjldren's French
class after school for the same reason.
1t means that the dead level of tlredness
from getting the dinner ana doing up the
dishes comes just at the tiIne when her hus-
band suggests a walk. II when money
tightness eases the extra is being put into
furniture and clothes and outside dinners II
is not the simple life which is lived by
working and saving. There was an older
cult Which expressed the meaning of that
popular phrase more explicitly if less terse-
1y. 1t WAS plain living and high think
ing, and Il surely included plain dressing.
But there was nothing in Ii to prevent
the plain vilnds being beautifully served
or the weil-tr2ined attendance of a maid.
The picture OF II is One somehow in which
the wife and husband together can take a
little gracious, if austeFe. leisure In which
and ceremonies.
Many
Times you say that YOU never have given
anything away without finding the next
minute afterward that you needed it your
self. There is nothing like that particular
time just after thing has gone out of ones
possession for making the need seem out of
all proportion. Ten 10 one II the coat or
the dress still reposed in the trunk or hung
up IN the attic your use for II would be so
trivial that you would go without 1t rather
than take the trouble to get 1t out. Or
more than likely, the idea that you suddenly
have as to what you could do with II Is
one with which you never go any further
than to rip 1t up and get It out OF the
shape In which it might do somebody good
Perhaps the thing that you are going to
put it In is an extra or a luxury which
does not mean much to you anyhow when
II would mean comfort, necessity and lux
ury all together to somebody else
There is a proportion of values to be OBJ
served or economy becomes extravaganza.
Suppose you labor to rip off the trimming,
which is carefully stitched on, giving by
good workmanship and good style the tone
to a partly worn dress. As il Is the dress
will be q godsend To the woman who works
for you, who is so busy getting things for
her children that she never has the time
or money to get anything for herself. She
has admired II, Tor she appreciates the good
style of It as much as you do. But it would
be useless without the trimming and she
wouldn't have time to replace 1t.
Take IL OF TO save buying something new
for the dress YOU are making over and it
Is a small economy, but you have spent
large amount of time and you have deprived
the other OF a great good. 1t Is not the
divine economy to take the first al the eX-
pense of the other two.
The divine economy is the wider kind by
which the home economist not only does
u IL h..t. far f1Nr lttt
for herself and her family and for the par
ticular set of retainers which seem to be
thrust upon her by Providence. This plan
OF economy does not permit the saving of
small thing for ourselves at Dlg cost
to somebody else.
In what seems an eXtraVdgance there Is a
same time II does not permit her VINO
learns II to give hours of application 10
making something which has no real value
iu her dress scheme. Before sitting down
10 some wonderful feat of needlework she
considers its value in relation to her time
and what the same time would bring II
employed I'm adding directly to her income.
A
Safe rule to apply TO the servant girl who
IS your maid of all work IS not to ask her
10 do anything that you wouldn't do your
self woman told the other day of hav-
ing a Danish maid who embroidered mono
grams in her tablecloths, and who took
upon herself the whole task of keeping the
table linen mended and In order. II was not
only done beautifully, but she took the
point Of view that as her employer paid
for her time, and she had plenty of leisure,
It should not be called extra service. The
kind of a mistress who could keep such a
servant after having once had the good luck
10 discover her turned out to have little
WAYS of her own in household management.
She took upon herself that part of the
work which wasn't included in the girls
regular duties" The house lay out of the
water district and there was light force
(R=alE/.IY [INNE-