The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-22

There
 Is more than one feminine view or
 the simple life. One woman hVes IL oy
 doing her own work and scrubbing her
 own floors as she did when her husband
 was at bottom salary. And yet sne
 buys furs which run into the hundreds
 and wears other things In proportion.
 She would rather work to reel that
 she can have things" is her explana-
 tfon. although her husband would ike
 to try a regime of that open mousse
 where a good housekeeper. well as
 sisted in the kitchen, can make a oe-
 light to the chance guest.
 Another couple live in an extra large ana beautiful flat. The wife works all the time to keep it immaculate. doing tbe cleaning herself. They follow the chilly way of going out to meals be- cause she is not strong enough 10 oo everything and because 1t is cheaper and there is little more to put in the flat.
 The ideal of pleasure and expendit- ure in both cases is its own commen- tary on what the training of sink rou- tine 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 0eVelODIntnt LII duOtHCf lt CdIt ohty IC-
 act in blessing to herself. When 1t is
 a matter of strenuous economy it is
 often as helpful in shutting out the ir- ritating contact with those who are
 merely idle trihers 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 to take an inventory of what 1t
 t4 hnr to
 opportunity. There is shutting down
 of part of the hospitality. The hus-
 band. instead of bringing home an un- expected friend to dinner will often en-
 certain him down town.
 The wife cannot finger at the little
 afternoon 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
 children's French class after school for
 the same reason.
 It means that the dead level of tired ness from getting the dinner and do- ing up the dishes comes just at the time when her husband suggests a walk. If when money tightness eases the extra is being put into furniture and clothes and outside dinners 1t is working and saving. There was an | older cult which expressed the mean ing of that popular phrase more ex- piicitly if less tersely. 1t was "plain | living and high thinking" and it sure | 1y included plain dressing. But there | was nothing in it to prevent the plain | viands being beautifully served or the we'll trained attendance of a maid. The | picture of it is one somehow in which | the wife and husband together car | take a little gracious, if austere, leis. | ure in which there is an observance oi l the amenities and ceremonies. | Many
 Times you say that you never hay, | given anything away without finding
 the next minute afterwards that yol needed 1t yourself. There is nothing | like that particular time just after 2 thing has gone out of ones possession for making the need seem out of al | proportion. Ten to one if the coat ol
 the dress still reposed in the trunk ol
 hung up in the attic your use for il
 would be so trivial that you would gC without it rather than take the trouble | to get 1t out. Or, more than likely, the | idea that you suddenly have as to wha
 you could do with 1t Is one with whicf | you never go any further than to riI l 1t up and get it out of the shape 1T | which 1t might do somebody good. Per | haps the thing that you are going tC | put 1t in Is an extra or a luxury whicf
 does not mean much to you anyhow
 when 1t would mean comfort, necessity