Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16
A PLAN THAT FAILED

There's g. certain young married couple
in his town. who. after year OF strict
ecor:omy. have now forever forsworn fru-
gality. They have firmly declared their IN
tention 20 give the saving habit the peren-
NAL pass-along.
There is little story behind the dislike
with which they now regard the economic
ing habit.
The male one-eighth of the matrimonial
sketch IS a young man with $1,000 billet.
The couple have been married for about
four years. Up to about this time last year
they were living up to the last piastre OF
the $4,000 per annum.
They occupied a $55-a-month fiat. and the
remainder Of the salary bank-roll went TOT
such chicken-feed expenses as food, ser
want hire. duds, smokes, theaters. car fares.
gas and so
Both of the young married people were
fond of watching the gee-gees wallow
around the Benning merry-go-round at the
two annual racing meetings. and. as regu-
larly as the thoroughbreds reached Ben.
ming, they were-of course-shredded and
set back quite severely. But, oh, they sure
did love to see 'em run!
Along about this time last year they both
were seized by the economical bug at the
same time. 1t was the home-acquiring mi
crCbe that thus simultaneously grabbed
them.
Lets stop being cut-ups." the man said
to his wife one day last September, and
get roof Of our own over our heads.
1. was just exactly what she herself had
been thinking, and she said so with en-
thUstasm.
First thing I know" he went on, elo-
qrentiy, ''ril be an old no-aco cunt nusante.
Here l am, thirty-five already; and at this
rate, by the time I'm forty, / won't have
a collar-bctton. It's time We cut out being
such hoydens and saved something for a
shack Of our own. WHAT?
She'd just been going to say the same
thing herself for weeks past, only shed been
afraid that he might think that she want
ed to have him deprive himself of little
flu l occasionally. etc.
Fun. nothfn','' he said austerely. I'm
getting tired of the kind O. fun that keeps
us up against 1t on the dough question all
the time-nothin' in 1t. And l sure don't
intend TO get to be an old yamigan of forty
without having tin roof. anyhow, to show
for my arduous labors in the vineyard.
The tumultuous applause from his wife
which this exalted sentiment called for was
his'n, of course.
New" he went on Its just this way:
Here we are, coughing up fifty-five per
lunar month for this fiat. That's big
gouge, that fifty-five. The furniture that
we've got doesn't measure up to the fiat
The fats all right, but the furniture with
which it's furnished Is heap taddy. NOW:
on October the first the agent of this fatu
pass 1t along to me to sign lease for an
other year If 1 do that. I'll want to herd
one of the nstallment men up In corner
o. his plant and take everything he's got
In stock away from him on the excitement
PLAN l wouldn't let the furniture that
we've got now live in this fiat with me for
another hull year. Well. the raid that I'd
m2 Ike on the installment house I'D set me
back another four or five hundred But If
we make up our minds to economize we
can get cheaper flat-a three or four room
dink. If necessary-and just camp out FOR
fIJrp ha q
got will do all right for the cheaper ana
smaller wickieup. and we wouldn't have to
buy much as what-not. And we could
stuff away about seventy-five month out
of my pay. That 'ud make $500 savings in
a year. Next summer we could peek around
and find little plant of our own to buy
| on time. and 1 could soak the $500 down on
it first payment. Seer?
She saw, all right. She said 1t would be
Just gra-a-and.
So they started off. right away. to look
for heap cheaper fat-one for about so 80
per month. They landed one, away out on
the outskirts after long search.
There several hundreds of sad-eyed
young married men and women in Washing
ton right now who know what S223O-per-
month Washington fiat Is. But these two
young married folks had the economy bug
bad and they decided to take the S22oO
fat and to stick out the year In it.
It's pretty gummy, all right" the young
man said. looking the fiat over with no very
joyous expression, but we can't expect TO
snag out a fat with porcelain tub and FL
| tered water and mosaic halls and an eleva-
| tor rugged out with a dinge elevator boy
/ that's never on hand, and all that. for IS
| cents per diem. The question is, Are you
l-you-game to stick along in this tepee for
a year for the purpose of coping out the
| first payment on home of our own?"
Well, was she? She invited him to look
her over and decide that for himself
And so, on the LIST of October last year,
they moved from their cute six-rooms- and
! tn haiti LAT wit ha IL
| wood trimmings, to the fiat with three
| rooms, each of about the size of a skirt
| trunk, with one Of those little white painted
| bath tubs, the enamel of which. half-peeled,
has rough and raspy feeling to the bather
They had to poke the bed into the parlor.
and the bureau and chiffonier into the hall,
| which was all of two feet wide; and they
| dressed in the hail.
| The dining room was so small that the
| hug band usually sat on the window-sill to
| eat Thus perched at meals. he made such
| a funny hit with his wife that she jes
| couldn't help but laugh-honest! For her
| part, she ate her meals while sitting on a
| tabouret placed beneath the table. The
| Only part of her person visible to her hus-
| band at meals was her hands when She
| reach up from underneath the table to graf
| off biscuit. or something like that.
But they were at last in position to save
| money.
| 1T his joint isn't such a bird as to looks.
| the man said, comfordngly, when the fiat
| was fixed up. but we're pot mixing UP with
the diplomatic bunch this year. and were
| not keeping house for other people, either
| If they don't want to visit us here they
| can stay away. l don't want the kind that
| visit to rubber and criticise and knock
| anyhow"
| When last winter set IN, they found that
| the steam heating plant of the fiat was q
| phony They shuddered through the winter
| in their out-ofdoor wraps. When the Ben
| ming races drifted along last fall and last
| spring they read the entries and the results
| and both of them, of course, since they
stayed away from the track. picked six
| winners a day. But they passed the ponies
| along. They did the best they could with
| their old clothes. They gave the high-priced
| theaters the raj-a-ma-taJ, and only staked
| themselves once in a while to quarter seats
| at the vaudeville. They had, In general.
| a real grisly time of 1T.
Slice the beginning OF summer this year
| they've been polting around town. looking
| fer home to buy on time On August 10
| they had $500 tucked away in the bank, and
| they hadn't taken any summer vacation.
| Then the man came into accidental pos
| session of a couple of passes to and from
| New York. He suggested to his wife that
| they might as well use the passes-just to
| lcok the big town over for a couple OF
days. She thought that would be lovely. He