The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-06
EVENING STORY
According to Budget.
n-f@

(By Jane OSborn-)
When Morton Blake. who had
been married a year and was. su-
ment with his blue-eyed little wife,
I seated himself in his favorite easy
chair with volume of his favorite
author and his favorite pipe, prepar-
atory to enjoying, for the evening, all
the old happiness of bachelor life
rolled into one with the contentment
of married life, there was blue-eyed
Peggy on the other side OF the table
with a flat oblong book that had
new look to it. Peggy opened 1t with
| care and pressed the covers back as
one does with a book that has never
been opened before.
1t was The Budget book.
Angelica has been here today,
Peggy announced, land she brought
| this-it's such wonderful ideal
Morton, did you ever hear of bud
get? 1 never had. but Angelica ex-
planned what it meant and here is the
book. She has made special study
1 of housekeeping, you know
But what does Angelica know
about making men happy in their
| honest" queried Morton, who had not
an altogether pleasant mental image
of Peggy's tall, angular, many-degreed
cousin, who seemed to be as fond of
putting ideas into Peggy's head, as
Peggy was of sponging them up.
| What does she know about real home
making?"
''Oh, she knows a great deal" in
sisted Peggy. And she says that the
reason why so many people aren't
happy is because the wives aren't
business like ana don't apply the same
methods to housekeeping that men
do to their businesses. Angelica
would make some man wonderfully
| happy"
Did she tell you that, too?" asked
Morton, putting on his pipe viciously.
| Yes, only of course she is so busy
telling other women how to make
their homes happy that she doesn't
have time. Well, she brought me
this budget book and I am to put
down in these little columns just
what 1 spend each day-see, here's
a place for bread and one for butter
and another for meat and fish. and
all the things we eat, and here's one
for ice and one for help and carfare
and light and things like that
Angelica says you call those last ones
operating expenses. 1t is the first of
the month, so L started right in. See,
1 bought some face powder at the
drug store and 1 put that down under
medicine and the two dollars for the
laundress-that goes under help.
Every time you give me anything that
goes in here under receipts. And
every week 1 am to balance it both
ways, so 1 can tell at a glance just how
much am spending for every differ
ent sort of thing-and in the front of
the book there is a table telling how
much we ought to spend for things,
and If I'm spending too much for any
one thing then we'll know it and can
stop making that mistake. Angelica
says she will help me balance and
figure out the percentages never
! could do percentage"
You don't mean that Angelica is
going to keep tab on our household
expenses % gasped Morton.
"Oh Won mustn't mind that She
helps lots of young married girls
she says she is helping them to make
their husbands happy and content.
That is her life work She started
doing it only for the -peor@people gin
the settlement, but she has 1iscovered
that people comfortably off need help
Just as much. And so 1 started right
away, but 1 can't finish till you tell
me- your part of it. Here's place
for man s lunch and another for car
fares, that you must tell me, and every
day You must tell me how much you
have spent for magazines or papers
that goes under improvements, and
if you give something to beggar you
must tell me so can put down under
Church and Charity
Every night 1 will ask you so you
won't forget anything Angelica mas
been helping one young couple and
they haven't been a cent out of the
way since they began. The husband
remembers every tinty winty thing he
spends and he is so happy just on &C
count of it,"
Morton snorted inwardly and had
some rather sinister thoughts regard
ing Angelica and her missionary en-
terprise. rs there definite per-
i centage for the amount of tobacco a
husband can use?
Yes indeed-but the book says
that one of the things the young peo-
pie ought to strive to do is to divert
) that money-those are the words the
book uses-into other more worth
while channels, such as lecture
J courses, the purchase of an encyclo-
padia or a beautiful work of art.
Don't you think Angelica is doing a
wonderful work o.
Yes, quite wonderful, not to say
remarkable, phenomenal and epoch
making" said Morton, and Peggy was
satisfied
; Every night for a month thereafter
Morton was obliged to confess just
how much he spent on luncheon. shoe
shines beggars and tobacco and even
had to admit that he lost a dollar on
a bet one day and gained two dollars
the next tho Peggy hadn't any idea
where to enter these items and finally
decided on putting the dollar down
under mortgage interest because
she hadn't anything else for that
column and calling the other simply
cash received"
Angelica had promised to help
Peggy with the percentages and cor
rect their budget at the end of the
following month and Morton was cast
ing about in his mind for way of
defeating her in her purpose. One
night early in the second month of
their budget accounts he told his wife
he had met an interesting old school
friend of his who had a delightful
mission in life. He was trying to help
the men he knew to make their wives
happy and he had worked out sys-
tenn which as yet he had not had pub
Iished 1t was, said Morton. the theory
of this man that the most worth while
thing in life was not money. Money
was incidental. Ones happiness did
not depend on the amount of money
one had so why take pains to con-
serve it? The things that counted