The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-07-03
eais third attempt to get the port OF
Charleston open it will not be because
o1 lack of energetic effort
A THRIFTY GERMAN FAMILY.

---- ----
A THRIFTY GERMAN FAMILY.
In Five Years its Six Workers Saved
S1O.92O From Their Wages.
Five years ago Joseph Cuinen ana
r. fanlily, consisting Of wife, three
and a daughter, bade goodbye
q their friends in Germany ana
started for America to make their
fortune; today they are back among
their friends with a fortune that is
sufficient to remove all financial wor-
r.. their sojourn in this country nav
ing proved so successful that they
accumulated S10,920 during their stay
here. Mr.. Cuinen said just before his
departure for IS native land that he
planned to buy a -four mill and en-
gage in business which will give them
a social position they little dreamed
oe when they started out five years
ago.
1t was in May, 1902, that this family
OF German immigrants arrived IN the
village Of Housatonic and began
working in the Monument Mills.
They all worked, father, mother and
children, who although in their teens
wereA old enough to perform the task
tc which they were assigned. All the
earnings went into the common treas
ury from which all expenses were
paid. OF course the lived frugally,
thing they had learned well in the
old country where the "high cost OF
living is unheard Of by people OF
their station in life. It is said that
the wages Of the daughter which av-
eraged about Sc a week was sufficient
to pay all the running expenses and
ali the rest went into the steadily
growing fortune. Of course, the IA
ther of the family did not play the
stock market when he got his first
500, nor did he consider that having
saved the first $1,000 he was on the
read to great wealth. He did not buy
a house and mortgage it to pay for
an automobile in which his wife and
daughter could display their style
and arouse the envy Of the other wo-
men Of the neighborhood so that they
gossiped about how the Cuinens man
ased to make both ends meet. He
didn't belong to any club, pipe So
laced him more than a 25-cent per-
fecto and beer quenched his thirst
better than champagne.
Mrs. Cuinen didn't spend her time
and her husbands money trying to
keep up with the style nor call on
her fashionable neighbors to discuss
the servant girl problem. She never
dreamed of going to the theatre three
nights week, giving receptions and
contributing to the country club.
AS for the children. they were
brought up in the way they should go
and they knew better than to go out
of the path in which they were to
walk. Sister didn't go to finishing
school, she had no time for party
crosses, she did not ruin her diges-
ton with college ices nor addle her
brain with senseless novels. The boys
were not sports" they may not have
been good fellows. In fact ore may
be sure Of it because to help accu-
mullte s10,e2o in five years time
they didn't have any spare change
to tsset 'em up with; they never
got into dress suit nor spent the
"cld mans cash taking the girls ouc
to ride. In truth the whole family
was as unsociable a lot as one could
hnd in days journey. But they kept
their eyes on the main chance and
they won. Now with their fortune
in their old country they can have all
the society they want.
How did they do it? Their pay en-
ve!opes weren't marked much over
$40 week but with six working the
small wages they could earn totalled
a pretty good sized sum. It is said
that after the expenses were paid
with what the daughter earned they
managed to put away s24 every week.
They lived economically but were
we'll nourished and were free from
sickness and in this way they sue
ceeded. Of course, this isn't the ideal
American life. but as Americans as
we'll as every other nationality are
after the money, the success Of the
Cuinens is a good object lesson.
And yet they say that the day when
a man can start out with a dollar
and make a fortune is passed in this
country.-Springhe (Mass.) Union.
THE BUSINESS SITUATION.