The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-08
EVENING CHAT
81 RUIZ CAMERON.

There is such a thing as raising the
standard of living wisely.
There is also such a thing raising
the standard of living unwisely and
wrongly.
And I think the second course is the
one which great many of our yourg
are following.
Let me tell you q little concerning the
standards of a young woman who has
been married about three years. This
girls father is making an excellent in
come. Her husband probably receives
about one-half or third much. And
yet in almost every case, the standards OF
living in the younger folks home are
higher than those to which their parents
are accustomed.
For instance, the girls mother probably
never paid over thirty-seven and a half
cents for towels. Sometimes she has pur-
chased for even less than that But
her less than fifty cents Her guest
towels We're seven dollars and half
dozen, and she has a few to be displayed
to extra special guests for which she paid
Her mother thinks seventy-five or
! eighty cents a good price to pay for
sheets. Her daughter tells with horror
of one of her girl friends who didn' t
have a single sheet in her trousseau
worth more than seventy-five cents. Her
own bed linen ranged from dollar a
sheet up, and included embroidered linen
pillow cases and a pair of hemsutched
linen sheets which she says were bar
gain at seven DOLLARS
Her mother is satisfied with table linen
that costs a dollar and a half a yard, for
ordinary use. The daughter wouldn't use
anything but pattern cloths, and wouldn
think of putting a.cloth on her table less
than four or five dollars Her best cloths
cost two or three times that
Grapefruit for breakfast in the parental
home is considered luxury. In the
household of the young folks. it is looked
upon as a matter-of-course necessity
The father and mother put telephone
| home nnlV after long
ton. The daughter looked upon a teie-
phone as an inevitable part of the fur
nishings Of her bridal apartment.
When the mother has a suit made she
goes to the old family tailor and pays fif-
| teen dollars for the making. Her daugh-
ter says that his lines are harsh and
pays an uptown tailor twenty-five
These are a few typical comparisons
between the standards which content the
old folks and the standards which the
younger people think simply must be
And vet. as I said before, her father
has probably twice the income her
What wonder then, that the young peo-
pie in three years of married life, hadn t
saved a cent, and that the old folks hal
! to step forward and pay some of the bills
We see examples of such conditions
/ everywhere-that is, of young people who
are living up to their income from week
| to week and have to be helped out by the
older folks every time some unforeseen
/ contingency some ''twenty-first reason
demands a little extra money, and think
these exaggerated standards of living,
these inflated notions Of what are the
| necessities of life, are largely to blame.
| You often hear 1t said that young peo-
/ ple want to start where their fathers and
| mothers leave off. If only they'd be con-
! tent with that! But most cases, they
want to start where some friend, vino
| has about twice the income they have,
started And that's where the tragedy Of
unpaid bills and exceeded incomes be-
/ gins
/ A more general habit of basing ex-
| pendittlres on ones earnings, instead OF
| on what so-and-so has or does, and a
/ more general realization that life is a
! Mace where all true joys don't hang on
| fnanfel pegs are things sadly needed by
! the great majority of the younger gen
| Grafton.