Wheeling Sunday Register

LIVING ON A SMALL SALARY.

Thrift and Comfort of a Clerk and His Wife.

A Cozy Home in a Brooklyn Flat—Saving Three Hundred Dollars on a Salary of a Thousand—Some Figures for the Frugal.

A smiling little woman opened the door of a plainly-furnished sitting-room at the top of the second flight of stairs and ushered two men into the apartment with the regal courtesy of a housekeeper conscious of her own merits. It was about 6 o'clock P. M., and through a doorway leading into the dining room could be seen a white robed table temptingly set for dinner.

"I thought I heard you coming," the little woman said, placing one hand affectionately upon the arm of the tallest of the two gentlemen, while she pleasantly acknowledged an introduction to the other.

"My wife always listens for me at dinner time," said the tall man in an explanatory tone to his male companion.

"Yes, and I can always tell your step," was the little lady's reply.

A few other remarks of a domestic character were interchanged, and The Young Couple, with their guest, sat down to dinner, feeling cheerful as well as hungry. The husband was the clerk whom the wealthy merchant, Mr. S., described as "a man who supports himself, wife and child on less than $1,000 a year," and the guest was the writer who gave the readers of the Times a few weeks ago an account of how a man with a family can live in New York on $25,000 a year.

"You observe," said the husband, as he struck his carving knife on the steel preparatory to attacking a modest roast of beef which his wife placed before him, "that although we have but little beyond the bare necessities of life, we manage to live comfortably and happily."

"Yes, indeed, we are happy," interjected the wife, removing her kitchen apron and taking her seat behind a steaming coffee pot. "We have good health, all we want to eat, drink and wear, and our baby is the best and cutest baby in the world. I don't see what anybody can want to make them happy. Do you take milk in your coffee?"

"Just look around you and you will see what a good wife can accomplish," remarked the husband, as he passed his guest a plate containing a nice cut of beef, a couple of boiled potatoes, and a liberal portion of green peas. "All of the decorations of this room, including the rug, the window curtains, and even that expensive looking buffet in the corner, are the handiwork of Mrs. R. When you get an insight into her genius for Improvising Household Articles you will not think it strange that we manage to lay by $200 or $300 each year out of my salary of $1,000. With a few bits of cambric and pine board she can fill a room full of stylish and useful furniture. She can make a dollar go further—"

"Now, Edward," interrupted the wife with a pretty affectation of reproof, "the gentleman did not come here to listen to your praise of myself. He desires, as I understand it, the plain facts of how we manage to live within our small income. I can tell him in a very few words just how it is."

"Very well; go ahead," replied the subdued husband, helping himself to another potato.

"My husband, as you know, gets a salary of $1,000 per year," said the little lady, turning with animation toward the newspaper man. "He gets his pay once a month and he brings home $83 and a few cents. When we were married we made up our minds to so live as to be able to put something in the bank each month, and we have not yet failed to do so. We figured $1,000 a year gave us about $2.73 a day and we based all our estimates of expenses on that. Both of us have lived in Brooklyn most of our lives, and we concluded to stay here. Of course, this flat is a great way from the bridge and the ferries—about two and a half miles, isn't it, Edward?—but the neighborhood is quiet, respectable and healthful. We pay $20 a month for this flat, and we rent out the front parlor for $8 a month, which brings our rent down to $12 a month, or about 40 cents a day.

The Landlord pays for the water bill for the whole building and as we do not burn gas we have no gas bills. The oil that we burn costs us 30 cents a month in the winter, and, of course, much less than that in the summer. I do my own housework, and therefore we save the servant's wages and what the servant would waste. As for fuel, we use ten tons of coal a year, the average cost of which last year was about $6.50 a ton, brought into the building. That makes 17 or 18 cents a day."

"Tell him about the provisions," said the husband, with a chuckle.

"I am coming to that part of the story," said the little woman, with a threatening glance at her husband. Then, addressing herself to the silent guest, she said: "Edward makes a great deal of fun about my buying the provisions for our table, because I never let the cost of what we eat go above a certain amount each week. If we have an extra good dinner one day we practice a little self-denial for the rest of the week. Some days we do not eat any butter, other days we go without milk, and in warm weather we only have meat once in four or five days. How much do you think it costs me a week to supply our table? Please give a rough guess."

"Oh, about $12 or $14," promptly answered the newspaper man, making what he thought was a low estimate.

"I spend $4 a week, and no more, for provisions," replied Mrs. R., with an emphatic toss of her head. "This dinner to-day is extra, because we have company, but shall not allow it to increase The Aggregate Cost of our food for the week."

"That's so, she won't," groaned Edward. "To-morrow there will be nothing but herrings, soda crackers and cold water on the table."

"I resent that imputation," said the young wife laughingly. "Edward knows that we always have plenty of good, wholesome food. In fact, we are obliged to have it, for both he and I exercise a great deal each day, and though our baby is two years old, and she has a ravenous appetite. I know that to persons who have never kept house it will seem almost incredible that a family of three can be well fed on 60 cents' worth of food each day. We could not get along on what 60 cents would buy if I should purchase my supplies from day to day. But I go to market, sometimes twice a week, and buy enough to last two or three days or a week, as the case might be. Flour I buy by the bag, and sugar ten or twenty pounds at a time. I make my own bread, cakes and pastry, and I have learned how to dress fancy little dishes out of the simplest kind of fare. We have ham quite often. One ham will last us a long while, yet we do not get tired of it, because there are a dozen different ways of preparing it for the table. Whenever I buy a roast of beef we have it in many different forms. I can get a good roast of beef at my butcher's for $8, and that will last us three or four days. We will have from that single piece a meal of roast beef, a meal of stewed meat with potatoes, a platter of cold meat with pickles, and perhaps some good beef soup. We eat a good deal of oatmeal, cracked-wheat, hominy, and rice. Such food is not only nourishing, but it costs very little and can be served in great variety of ways. Fried hominy and syrup or rice pudding makes a very nice dessert.

The pudding was served a few minutes afterward, and it was truly A Delicious Compound rice and egg and sugared frosting.

"Now let me do a sum in addition," said the husband, inking out his pencil after the meal was over. "My wife says that we pay 40 cents a day for rent, 60 cents a day for provisions, 18 cents a day for fuel, and about 1 cent a day for oil; that makes just $1.19. Is there anything else?"

"Oh, yes," exclaimed the wife, "there is Kate, the washerwoman; I pay her $1.25 a week, which is about 18 cents a day."

"Well, that brings our necessary expenses, not including clothing, up to $1.37 a day," continued the young man, putting on a thoughtful air. "My salary, as you say, is about $2.73 a day. Last year we saved nearly $270, which is a trifle more than 73 cents a day. Take that out and it leaves us just about $2 a day to live on. We have already accounted for $1.37. What becomes of the rest?"

"We spent about $150 for clothing last year," suggested the wife. "You had that $25 suit and your summer suit which cost $10, and I had a dress and my new cloak, which with what the baby had to have, and shoes and hats for all of us brought the whole amount up to nearly $150."

"That makes about 40 cents a day to be added to the $1.37, making in all $1.78 of our $2. There is 95 cents a day or a little over $43 yet to be accounted for. That I suppose, we can put down for incidentals."

The young wife nodded her head affirmatively, and the newspaper man asked, with some surprise, whether it was possible that the $95 would cover a whole year's expenses for two persons in car-fare, amusements, lunches in New York, etc.

"Oh," said Mrs. R. eagerly, "but we don't have any such expenses. It is very seldom that my husband or myself has occasion to take a street-car. I walk to market and back: it is not very far, and Edward always walks to and from his place of business. His Daily-Expenses are just 2 cents—1 cent for crossing the bridge in the morning and 1 cent for coming back at night."

"But it is two miles and a half from your house to the bridge," exclaimed the newspaper man.

"That is nothing," interposed Edward. "I walk it twice a day, rain or shine, and I enjoy it. It is but a short distance from the New York end of the bridge to the store, which is in the dry-goods district, as you know. I take my lunch with me."

"Don't you ever go to places of amusement?"

"Once in a great while my wife and I spend money for such things, but not very often. We can not afford it, and we both had much rather put the money thus spent into books and stay at home and read. By the way, there is a little item we left out of our calculation. We pay 50 cents a month for the privilege of drawing books from a circulating library. That takes $6 out of the $95 that was not accounted for. Fortunately for my wife, she has a great many acquaintances in Brooklyn, and she has all of the social recreation that she has time to take. She and I both agree, however, that it is our duty to save at least as much as we do. A young man with a small salary and a family on his hands runs a great risk in spending all that he earns. Suppose he should have a long fit of sickness. What a plight his family would be in! They would, in a short time, become subjects for the charity of the neighbors. None of that for me, if you please. I would rather deny myself unnecessary comforts and have the consciousness that if anything should happen to me, my wife and child would have a little something to fall back upon."

"Do your employers allow you a vacation each year?"

"No. In such large houses as the one I am with there are too many clerks to make the vacation plan feasible. Only the heads of departments are granted leaves of absence with pay. If I should want to go away for a week this summer I might possibly get permission to go, as business is rather dull, but I would lose my week's pay."