Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-23


 A tremendous snare Of th,. teeter- board see-saWing is all poppy.'ook ard ! stuffing. Most of the talk aocut what people "can live on" and what they | cant live on" is worse thar perry l cock. A man can live on very little, 1 if necessity compels or hoped-for re-
 suits induce him.
 l - Some years ago, as I th.rk I have
 mentioned before this, a Philadelphia ] physician whose work among the poor
 CT classes had led him to a great desire | to help them, tried an experiment to | see on how little cost a man i'd live | and work. He made up a carefully balanced ration, containing al: the nutriment that an active man ought i to need, bought the materi l.s in the open market and lived for q full month at a cost Of ten ceaIs a day. | He did his usual work, often reaulr- and, though accustomed to tal:ing LIs meals at an expensive club Where tIisy l had cost him from one to three del | lars each, found himself at the end of | the months trial of a ten cent lation | in better physical trim and of exactly | the some weight as when he started. He did not say, at the end, tha- he had enjoyed the diet as gustalory lux | ury. He did say that wha. he had done any man could do. T. at how ever, was years ago, when prices were
 much lower than now.
 The other day group of young men and women in Chicago Wore put on another trial diet. There Were ten or a dozen of them, I believe. For a specified time they ate the ration pre- pared for them and nothing else Dur
 ing that time they did tnel' usual work. At the end of the tlnse they were every whit as well as When they
 began and all weighed a triile more. The attempt was to see il such q group could be adequately led on forty cents a day, each, at present retail
 prices. In fact, the cost turned out ! to be considerably less than that. less than thirty-five cents, if m> memory
 serves. And that in a big city where everything is inordinately dear
 A food expert in New Yo.E recently prepared and served to 9 party of six critics a meal composed Of corn
 meal and grated cheese, which the
 critics joined in declaring tasted
 same nutriment as six chops weighing pound and costing forty-two cents, and which cost less than nine cents | and a half for the six portions.
 Up in Augusta, Me, is a co:.on mill operative whose regular bill. for a only a trif1e over Il cenIs a day. This includes the kerosene which he
 uses to cook it with over an oil stove.
 It is needless to say that he doesn't
 use butter or eggs, or rum or tobacco, or tea or coffee. But he has kept up
 his work, and usually puts $9.30 of
 his $10 weekly wages into the sav- ings bank every Saturday.
 Do you and l want to live or eighty cents week? You bet we don't! But when, as within a week. a farm laborer tells me that he cunt live" on cent less than forty dollars 3
 month, with board, and won't work
 unless he can get at least that, I
 know that he's talking nonsense. Of bcourse, he wants his $40. He'd rather have $50. He probably wouldn't re-
 fuse $500 month if it was offered
 him. And III bet a good cookie against a stale one that, within Q
 month, he'd be wanting S,0J and
 swearing he couldn't 1ive'' on $500.
 That's the way some kinds of human
 nature are made.
 When a man says he "can't live" on
 $40 a month or any other figure what
 he means is merely that he can't live
 as he wants to on that sum. You
 and I can't, either. Practically none
 of us live as we would like to, if we
 only could afford to live differ ently.
 In any big city, or small one for that
 matter, a man can spend ;0J00 a
 year and still not have anything like
 all he wants. Or he can live on a for
 tieth that sum and have all that he
 actually needs.
 If a man with an income of s3."?9 a
 year spends $10,000 he is really a
 poorer man than that Maine cotton
 mill operative with an income of $520