The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-01
THE HOUSEHOLD
Economy Versus FrugaIity.
Edited by ANNE RITTENHOUsE

Economy Versus Erugality.
Did you ever stop to think what A
wealth of luxuries and conveniences
are showered upon the modern house
wife? Did it ever occur to you that in
even the simplest household today are
to be found fittings and furnishings
that women of a hundred years ago
did not dream of? Some time when
you are lamenting the scarcity or high
wages of servants just reflect that in
the most usual modern homes are to
be found conveniences that are equal
to the work of at least one servant
In our modern plumbing. in our wa
ter supply, in gas and electricity, in
easy methods of obtaining hot water,
in modern kitchen stoves. there is saw
ing enough to constitute the time of
one servant. And if added to these
things we have vacuum cleaners. cleo
trio irons, bread mixers and washing
machines. we are blessed with the
equivalent of at least one servant
more.
Then look at the luxury. the SPLEEN
dor, the richness of even ordinary
house rnishings-carpets and rugs
which. if not imported from the
Orient, at least show colorings and de-
sign that were once seen only in
kings palaces. We have windows
when our ancestor of a few centuries
ago were glad to have glazed paper
Our tables are set with the finest
china in the daintiest designs. To be
sure, we may have bought it at the
ten-cent store. but it would not nee
essarily be more dainty OF we'll col
ored if it were the finest Sevres.
Look at our clothes. too. Rapid
ocean transportation. the magic of
modern manufacturing method have
made it possible for us to buy ready
made clothes so nearly like, in cut
and texture, the clothes that the lead
ers of fashion are still wearing that 1t
is really very discouraging nowadays
to be leaders of fashion so close do the
rest of us tread on their heels The
food we eat, too, is gathered from all
quarters of the globe and brought law
ishly to our back door. Dates from
Arabia packed and shipped with all
the skill that modern industry knows
for little more than a loaf of bread
would cost, pineapples, oranges, cof-
fee, tea, fresh greens all winter. the
purest of white flour-now that the
war is over-when our ancestors had
to content themselves with heavy,
black flour of uncertain quality-all
these things are ours.
With all these things it almost
seems as if frugality were an impos-
sibility to the modern housewife-at
least, frugality as our grandmothers
understood the word. We would con-
slider a woman ridiculous who would
deny herself a daily cup of tea on the
score of its expense, and yet less than
two hundred years ago Benjamin
Franklin warned the American house
wives against the wasting expense of
an occasional cup of tea. And the
same Franklin tells US that for ing
time his breakfast was bread and
milk Ono teal" and that he "eat out
of a two-penny earthen porringer. with
pewter spoon" But mark" he
says, how luxury Will enter families
and make a progress in spite of prin-
ciple. Being called one morning to
breakfast 1 found it in a china bowl
with a spoon of silver. They had
been bought Hor me without my
knowledge by my wife, and had cost
her the enormous sum OF three and
twenty shillings. for which she had
no other excuse or apology to make
but thai sbe thought her husband de-
served silver spoo1 and china bowl
as well as any of his neighbCrS''
Apparently the industrious Mrs
Franklin still went on eating out of
earthenware with a pewter spoon and
probably never had a moment of self
pity for it.