Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-16
DOWRIES OF THE EAST SIDE
Girls Who Provide Their Own Mar
riage Portions.
SAVING UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Cheap Living on the East side-Am-
bition One ReasOn for the GUS
tom-LittIe Tragedies-Ef-
feet on the Husbnnds.

IlaNu u XIII vi AHt AAfAoN RAaN hAN1N 49,
save or at least attempt to save money for
a dowry. No matter how small her earn
ings may be she will manage TO cut down
her expenses so as to get together a sum
with which to start life after marriage.
No matter how hard she may work in the
shop she will avail herself OF every oppor-
tunity TO work overtime so as to make his
sum as large as possible.
''The East side of course is not devoid
of romance, and not every young man ex-
poets the girl he marries to have q bank
account" continued the young woman who
had lived all her life in Grand street.
Nevertheless. every East Side girl feels
81 incumbent upon herto save as much as
she can. Where a girl in another part of
the city says All is we'll that ends well
the East Side girl reveTses the saying to
.All is we'll that begins we'll and chooses
to begin her married life with some money
to her credit.
ut is not the love Of money that impels
the East Side girl to skimp and worry
along for years i'm order to provide a
dowry; It is the fear of poverty and the
misfortunes and domestic ~unhappiness
which result from II. Where a girl In an
other part of the city sings and dreams of
love in a cottage the East Side girl thinks
hard over the Yiddish aging that When
want comes knocking at the door love
escapes through the window and hence
she seeks to make the escape Of love inn
possible by terrifying herself against want
With a handbook.
ambition IS another reason for the East
Side girl saving every cent she can toward
a dowry. Her ambition is to marry a bust
ness man. The girls hate the shop and
detest work under somebody's orders. AS
there are not enough business men to go
around, a w~orkingman, which may mean
a tailor or an operator in a sweatshop, will
do. The girl with ambition who marries
such a tailor or operator will never give
up hope Of turning her husband into a
business man, whether the business be that
of owning a garment factory or a little
soda water stand on a street corner.
"She. saves money, therefore, with a
definite object in mind, to start and buy
a little business Of her own, of their own,
after marriage. Indeed, so common has
It become on the East Side TO see a man
who had been working in a shop prior
to his marriage start some business with
the money his wife brought him as a
dowry that many a man begins to look
forward to such a marriage as the only
way Of escaping from the shop.
How can the girls save money when
their earnings are so small that a girl in
another part of the city could not even
get flong on them? Well, on the East Side
everything is possible.
mo matter how small your earnings
you viii always find that you can live
here cheaply enough so as to save a few
cents a day. In fact, there is practically
no limit as to how cheaply you can live
here.
ELSEWHERE You can hear Of the in.
creased cost of living. A boarding house
Keeper In another part of the city viii
raise the price so cents or 81 a week fol
board and again as much perhaps fol-
room. On the East Side you can still
get board and room for $3.50 a week, ant
II you pay 50 you consider yourself en-.
titled to certain privileges.
'The housekeeper or landlady somehow
knows how to meet the high prices. In.
stead Of eating meat every day and rails
Ing the price of board the East Side land.
lady will feed her boarders three times {
week on chopped liver, which is mucf
cheaper than meat. Sometimes she will
cut out meat altogether and substitute her
ring instead.
"As for rent 1t is the same. Instead o
raising the rent she will rather take il
another roomer, and the room where for
merly two girls slept will be occupied b,
three, and thus a crisis in the budget O
both the girl and the landlady Is averted
"Of course, this sort Of life has its eff
rects on the constitution Of the girl in tn,
end; but the effects generally are not fel
until later In life. and the East Side girl
eager to get out of the shop. eager to ge
out of her station. as 1T were, by becom
ing a business woman. the wife Of a bust
ness man. does not stop to think about Of
fects.
THE same economy that the East Sid
girl resorts to in her board and lodgin
she also practices in dress. No girl in Ne,
York. perhaps, loves finery more than In
East Side girl, yet no girl manages I
natisfy her taste for finery as cheaply a
GOES the girl of the East Side. She Is
bargain hunter, and as the East Side
fhled with all kinds of secondhand an
bargain stores she generally manages [
cut down her clothing expenses to a littl
less than what she expected to pay.
You win find on the East Side hundred
or girls who buy their everyday apparel
secondhand stores, and II is only the
Sunday wear that they buy new. Tn
shoes they wear every day are bought
a secondhand store often and are a dolIa
or a dollar and a half cheaper than the
would cost in another store. Their ever,
day dresses they get in a combinatio
secondhand and job lot store where N
same skirt which is marked $ in SON
show window uptown is sold for 81. Fl,
coat or Jacket she buys the same wa,
She knows the places which make a SD,
oialty OF buying Job lots from factori,
and selling them cheap"
sometimes this custom OF SAVING I'm
dowry for the husband-to-be causes trag
Giles and disappointments. With the grow
OF the custom to save dowries there h,
grown up a class of men who expect
be paid for marrying. When after maria,
the money their wivey brought them
spent or lost in some enterprise. or II
turns out that the woman did not have
much money as the man expected. eth,
there follows a life OF quarrels or the ms
deserts the woman.
The marriage broker or schateben nrosi
from this dowry saving. lie generaIIv p
ceives from the bridegroom a commissi,
OF so much per cent en- what the girl
supposed TO have. Immediately after n
engagement the marriage broker is ma
and his share in the affair is settied