Year: 1875

A clerks wife sends to ,Scribner's
magazine the following bit of experience,
which may have for many of our readers
an interest both timely and practical:


After many years of married life passed
in comparative affiuence reverses came,
and my husband was obliged to accept q
situation in large city, with small
salary of eight hundred dollars per year.
l felt that this could suffice for our
maintenance only by the exercise of the
strictest economy. A little over fifteen
dollars week ! How many times 1 di-
vided that eight hundred dollars by fifty
two and tried to make it come out n little
more. Still 1 determined to solve the
problem of the day-namely, whether
one could keep house on n small salary,
or whether clearinghouse life was n
necessity, as SO many clerks wives as
sert. We had neither of us been ac-
customcd to economizing, and L felt it
was but just, if my husband worked
hard for his salary, that should per-
form the labor of making it go as far as
possible.


Thirty replies were received to our adj
vertisement for two unfurnished rooms,
without board. Looking them over
carefully, selected half-a-dozen which
came within our means, and started on
az exploring expedition. In n pleasant
house and neighborhood I found lady
willing to rent two adjoining rooms,
with closets and water conveniences, for
the modest sum of twelve dollars per
month. In one room there were two
deep south windows, where could keep
Il few plants in the winter. l consulted
my husband, and with his approval en-
gagged the rooms.


We had one hundred and seventy five
dollars, ready money. With this we
bought bright, but inexpensive carpets,
parlor cook stove, an oiled black walnut
set of furniture, table, student lamp,
a few dishes, and some coal. With the
few pictures, n rack of books, and some
ornaments i'll our possession, we decked
the rooms tastefully, and commenced
the serious business of keeping house
on eight hundred dollars per year. We
determined from the first that we should
not have any accounts, but would pay
cash for everything, and when we could
not afford an article, do without it.
After paying rent and washerwoman we
had fifty dollars per month for other
nished us plentiful supply of food and
y
work. Strength came with each days
labor, and renewed health repaid each
effort put forth to make my little home
pleasant and restful to my husband.
And how we did enjoy that little home |!


When the stormy nights came, we
drew our curtains, shutting out the
world, with bright fire, and the soft
glow of our reading-la lamp upon the
crimson cloth, reading n magazine or
evening paper Tin which we were able
to indulgc), with a "God pity the poor
this dreadful night" forgetting in our
cozy and comfortable home how many
there were in the great city who would
call us poor. We always kept within my
husbands salary, wearing plain but good
and respectable clothing, and eating
simple but substantial food. And now,
as circumstances have been improving
with us, and we are living in house all
our own, with servants, and thousands
instead of hundreds year, we look back
to the year spent in our simple, frugal
little home, and know that it will always
be the happiest portion of our lives.