The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-16

Some women brag about how much money they spend-and get nothing, and some women brag about how little they spend--and get whole lot.
 One of the loveliest young matrons of Montgomery became appalled, res gently at the amount of cash that got away by the route of the kitchen to the part of the family's anatomy that has monopoly of the plague dys- pepsia and though her husband has never complained of it, she felt that he must marvel at 1t. so she bethought her to keep a full account of the pantry expenses for a month, and look them over with him to see where they could be cut without disadvantage to the home of indigestion. She did. She put down every nickel, and how 1t went. The bills were still distressing to her and when he came home she got out her papers and invited him to take a look and see how the money did go.
 What do you suppose that man did? This Is a true story, improbable as 1t may seem. He just took that paper that represented so much work on her part, tore it to bits, threw 1t into the fire, and kissing her, said:
 When I begin checking you up, I'll go out of business
 Now, little woman, he was noble. but you are in the right path. The usual waste on the average Southern table and in the average Southern kitchen Is a crying shame. I had the pleasure of having Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York as my guest for a few days once. She is a woman of great wealth, nickels do not need to be counted by her. For her benefit was playing rich lady" and she and l were breakfasting alone at II o'clock I was trying to keep my topics of conversation up to proper level for a woman of such intellectual distinction and wouldn't have mentioned so com monplace a subject as food for the world. When I led off on some of the mighty problems that women are now believing 1t their province to solve, and my cook had brought in the fourth batch of buckwheat cakes-to be sure her ladyship would not eat one that was not red hot-Mrs. Catt, quietly Ignoring my problem talk, laid down her knife and fork and though she was much the younger woman, looked at me in a most motherly way and said: 70, my dear. the South will nev- CT be prosperous as long as you are so prodigal of your cakes"
 The sermon reached me. By looking the matter over realized that our cake batter goes about this way: One-fourth is eaten, one-fourth is left over to sour and one-fourth goes into the bucket that the cook takes home. Economy is not stinginess. Women know very lit- tie of 1t. If a man practiced as small an amount of 1t in his business trans actions as his wife does al home, few bushes enterprises would pay.
 THE WATER BILL.
 How the women of the household regards the water bill. She never be- lieves one bit in a meter. and looks on the whole system as a swindle- when, in truth. if she gets "excess" it is an absolute fact that she or her household has been careless, or there is a leak.
 The same kitchen that would be run on eight or ten buckets of water if 1t had to be drawn from a well. will use thirty or forty buckets from a faucet. All during the preparation of a meal. of the dish washing process, the water is allowed to run. Gallons are vast ed with no benefit to the consumer. Some one in a family should know how to read the meter and, goodness. it is easy enough! Then the matter should be looked into occasionally. and if more than the limit is being used 1t should be corrected. A family of even ten, with horse and COW and lawn to water should not go over the limit, which is 10000 gallons for three months. 6,666 gallons a month, 22O gallons day. Do you think the same family would use more than 220 gal Ions a day if. as under the old regime, 1t had to be drawn from a we'll or pumped? So perfectly simple is the meter that one bath may be measured by looking at the figures before and after.