1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
395 
Household Expeuses. 
SOME INTERESTING KACT8 AND FIGURES. 
Several months ago reference was made 
to a Chicago experimenter who had figured 
down the family living to 15 cents a day. 
That this is not a specially meager allow¬ 
ance is shown by the following experience 
from Connecticut: 
During a term of 12 weeks I had pro¬ 
visions amounting to $16.82. A child of 
eight years took one meal daily with 
me. We had chicken, oj’^sters, spare 
ribs, etc.; two meals of meat and vege¬ 
tables each day, and canned or fresh 
fruit, bread and cake for tea. Counting 
336 meals, 252 for myself and 84 for the 
child, our board bill was just five cents 
each meal. I am a teacher, and do not 
keep either cows or poultry. 1 buy my 
milk, butter, eggs and chickens; buy 
my wood and hire it sawed. The only 
things I had that I did not pay for were 
some time during the year I had four 
bushels of potatoes, a barrel of apples 
and some squashes and cabbage sent me. 
My rent costs me 50 cents per week; my 
wood, with chopping, $6.82; oil, $5.70. 1 
use an oil stove for getting dinner and 
for all uses in hot weather. The whole 
expense for a year was $84.27; deduct 
rent, $19; wood, $6.82; kerosene, $5.70, 
will leave $52.75 for board for 38 weeks, 
and the child had one meal each day; 
thus each meal cost five cents. This is 
the account for the school year of 1899 
and 1900. Of course, I cannot tell what 
1 had to eat last Winter; I always have 
oysters Sunday and Monday mornings. 
I can tell what I have had for three 
days just past. Thursday, after school, I 
boiled corned beef, squash, cabbage and 
turnips; Friday noon had some of the 
same steamed; Friday morning had 
li;»m, potatoes and doughnuts; for tea 
had buns, canned peaches, mince pie 
and sponge roll. This morning had sau¬ 
sage, potatoes and cookies. Tea or coffee 
every meal. This noon had baked beans 
and baked potatoes, and to-morrow shall 
have stuffed baked pork. I cook dried 
beef, fish, etc., as my neighbors do; have 
oranges all the season, strawberries 
nearly every meal in the season. I 
think it more fair to reckon by the year, 
as 1 buy flour, sugar, etc., by quantities, 
so cannot tell any one week what my 
board has cost. 1 would have to pay 
$i:.50 for board. I live so far from 
church and from Hartford that I bought 
me a little horse, and he and I have kept 
within the price of board ($4.50). I 
weigh 166 pounds and he kept so fat 
that 1 could hardly get my hand be¬ 
tween him and the shafts when I har¬ 
nessed. A SURSCHIBICR. 
Some Massachusetts Figures. 
1 send you an account of our expenses 
for the year 1900. Although we usually 
have a nice garden, last year was so very 
dry that we were obliged to buy what 
we ought to have raised. What we did 
raise is down in its proper place. You 
will probably wonder at some things, 
but this is a true and accurate account 
of our year’s expenses. I have receipted 
bills to show for all. We use very lit¬ 
tle pastry. Old-fashioned New England 
dishes, beans, brown bread, boiied dishes 
and such are staples. Our clothes are 
made by ourselves; my two girls trim 
their own hats and mine; and with New 
England thrift we turn and make over 
garments, and withal manage to look 
as well as people who buy new continu¬ 
ally. I buy the cloth for my husband’s 
clothes and cut and make them, coats, 
trousers, vests and underwear. We are 
seldom ill enough to employ a doctor. 
Some simple home remedy is generally 
all we need. We own our house and six 
acres of land, now mostly in grass, my 
husband feeling too old and lame to do 
much farming. I have not said any¬ 
thing about insurance or taxes. I have 
compared this account with similar ones 
in past years, and they all vary only a 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
few cents. My family consists of my 
husband, myself and two grown-up 
daughters. My son is teaching, but at 
home part of the vacations. Company 
for a part of the time. The following is 
an itemized statement of expenditures: 
Fruit 
Gro- & Vege- 
ceries. Meat. Fish, tables. Milk, 
Jan.$6.41 $8.75 $1.04 $1.60 $1.60 
Feb. 4.25 8.51 .83 1.10 1.20 
March . 6.75 8740 1.00 1.50 1.70 
April . 3.86 5.34 .75 1.80 1.50 
May . 7.41 9.18 .85 1.60 1.55 
June . 6.59 9.16 .80 1.75 1.60 
July . 13.80 9.74 .90 3.05 1.60 
August . 9.60 13.69 . 60 2.20 1.85 
Sept. 4.69 8.59 1.30 3.95 1.50 
Oct. 6.15 6.21 1.25 2,61 1.20 
Nov. 4.62 8.00 . 93 5.25 1.60 
Dec. 10.78 10.77 1.00 2.20 1.65 
Total ..$84.91 $106.37 $11.25 $29.61 $18.56 
Four in family 12 months, five in fam¬ 
ily five months; food, $249.69; firewood, 
$22.50; coal, $18; medical, $7; clothing, 
$37; total, $334.19. This amounts to 
about $6.30 for each person per month. 
MRS. A. c. 
Miss Laylock on Home Missions 
Yesterday afternoon I took the blue- 
gray socks I had begun to knit, and went 
over to Sarah White’s to sit awhile. She 
put me in the red-cushioned rocker, and 
I was real comfortable beside the win¬ 
dow, where she had some geraniums that 
bloomed cheerful-like. We talked about 
the old days, and had a pleasant time till 
Celia came in from Topton College. 
Everything in that kitchen seemed to 
know she’d come, and peace made tracks 
for a quieter home. Celia is a soncy- 
looking girl about 17. She is well up in 
all the ’ologies, but thinks sh« knows all 
creation, and quite patronizes her moth¬ 
er and me. Indeed, I once heard her say 
to one of her chums that I was “only a 
back number.” I suppose that was one 
way of saying I am not “up to date.” 
Celia threw her music roll on the floor, 
her books and hat on chairs, and her 
rubbers left mud tracks on the clean oil¬ 
cloth before she took them off. Then 
she put her feet up on the front of the 
stove, while her mother brought her 
some baked apples to eat, as tea was not 
quite ready, but she didn’t offer to help. 
I looked my disapproval through my 
spectacles, but she didn’t take any no¬ 
tice; only sat there talking about the 
college girls, who had pledged them¬ 
selves to go out to foreign missions 
when they were graduated, and to go 
wherever they were sent. Now I know 
Celia White pretty well; her mother is 
a widow with two younger children, who 
are well-known as hard boys to manage, 
in school or out, for they are very mis¬ 
chievous, and disobedient, but their sis¬ 
ter does not try to do any missionary 
work with them, and only tolerates 
them when they keep out of her way. 
Mrs. White can’t afford to keep help, 
because that girl’s college expenses take 
all her spare money, and yet there isn’t 
a “tea” or any other social function but 
Celia manages to be there, in a white 
dress her mother has ironed for her. 
There is always something to take up 
Saturday—if not she “studies” in the 
luxurious college library, and on Sunday 
she teaches a Chinaman. Some of the 
girls call her a saint; others envy her 
fine aspirations, and they tell me she 
makes a most beautiful prayer at the 
missionary meetings. But she never 
hears her little brothers say their les¬ 
sons, or takes a turn at the dishwashing 
—all that sort of work spoils the hands. 
Poor mother’s hands! 
So she spends her spare evenings in 
her cosy bedroom, reposing on a sofa 
among her books, while her mother does 
the chores, puts coal on the furnace, and 
if she sits down at all, it is to make or 
mend for those young people, who seem 
to think that is all she was made for. 
To-day she was busy rebinding the fray¬ 
ed edges of a skirt that Celia had worn, 
and would continue to wear, but for her 
mother’s tired fingers. 
“Why don’t you let her do that work 
herself?” I said. “She won’t have a 
dressmaker, or you to fix her up, when 
she gets out to foreign missions. It 
seems to me the Lord does not require 
you to stint yourself like this, and then 
when Celia is getting able to help you— 
and get a good situation, to have her go 
off to heathen countries and leave you 
to fight it out alone.” 
“Don’t talk about it, please,” she said 
in a faint voice, “I suppose I shall have 
strength when the time comes. I don’t 
mind a bit about the money and the 
little stinting.” 
“No; of course you don’t,” I added 
cheerfully, “but it isn’t square all the 
same, and I only hope you’ll get your 
reward both in this world and the next. 
If that’s all the comfort children are 
after they grow up I’m very glad mine 
have never been born.” 
Celia had left the room before I be¬ 
gan, but came down when the tea bell 
rang, looking quite sweet in a newly- 
ironed blouse that represented hard if 
loving labor by her mother’s busy hands. 
I saw that Mrs. White agreed with me, 
though no more was said, for she is of a 
yielding nature, and her boys have long 
since found it out. Owen had been kept 
in after school, and Thomas came home 
with a black eye, but Celia did not take 
any more notice of them than if they 
were two little frogs. 
I want to see all nations worship the 
Saviour, and believe the time is coming 
when they will, but I like consistency, 
and have little patience with these un¬ 
formed girls who imagine they have a 
calling towards heathen lands, when all 
they are really trying to do is to escape 
dishwashing and other irksome tasks at 
home, and there never was a time when 
overworked fathers and tired mothers 
and wayward brothers needed the help 
of these home missionaries so much as 
at the present. And even in Bible times 
just think what would have happened to 
Lazarus if Mary and Martha had been 
away on a missionary tour when he took 
sick? It always seemed to me that the 
Lord approved of a woman looking after 
her household, and if He had wanted any 
of them as an example for the benefit of 
all Bible readers He would have called 
one of them when He took Peter and 
James and John. But then I most for¬ 
got we live in the age of the New 
Woman. elspetii i.ayixick. 
spoonful of salt are put into the bean 
pot and stirred thoroughly. It is then 
covered and set cooking in the heater, 
there to simmer until morning, and 
when the delicate, jelly-like mass is 
served with sugar and cream, it is a dish 
that I should not hesitate to set before 
the immortal old “Quaker” himself, 
should he drop in unexpectedly. 
My bean pot also serves the purpose 
of a “casserole dish” most admirably and 
by its friendly aid a tough old hen may 
be made as tender as a Spring chicken, 
besides being incomparably finer flavor¬ 
ed. (In point of flavor chickens, like 
good people, “improve with age”). Un¬ 
der its genial influence tough pieces of 
beef lose their India-rubber characteris¬ 
tics and become masticable. And— 
crowning triumph of all—consigned to 
the bean-pot and set in the oven, onions 
and cabbage may be cooked without ad¬ 
vertising the fact in the next block. If 
one desires to taste apple sauce in its 
perfection I recommend the following 
recipe for consideration: Wash and 
quarter—do not pare—enough red apples 
to fill the bean pot; sprinkle over a cup¬ 
ful of sugar—more or less, according to 
the size of the pot—cover and place in 
the oven on ironing day. Cook three or 
four hours and pour into a pretty glass 
dish to cool. The result will be a deli¬ 
cious surprise in the matter of rich 
flavor and dainty appearance. 
In the language of Mr. Browning, 
“One word more”: Press the bean pot 
into service when you wish to try your 
hand on that time-honored delicacy, 
baked Indian pudding—than which there 
is nothing known to the cuisine harder 
to bake properly. And by the time you 
have tried the experiments indicated 
above I am no prophet if you have not 
discovered for yourself still other "pos¬ 
sibilities of the bean pot.” 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
‘‘a square deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
I BTOSitt’s^ 
Best Soap 
Possibilities of a Beau Pot 
The bean pot in question came into 
my possession about a year ago, a piece 
of Flemish ware whose gray-blue tints 
and quaint design made it an ornament 
to the table when a “Boston breakfast” 
was served in our western household, 
says a writer in the Christian Advocate. 
Surely, never were beans more tooth¬ 
some and tempting than those that came 
hot and savory on cold Winter morn¬ 
ings from the pot which had been kept 
snug and warm in the upper part of the 
big coal heater over night. Some of the 
possibilities of my treasured bean pot 
have been revealed to me during the 
year, which I deem worthy of being 
made known to other housewives. Per¬ 
haps second in importance after its nor¬ 
mal function is its use in cooking oat¬ 
meal, that delicious cereal which suf¬ 
fers more from undercooking than any 
of its fellows. After vain efforts to im¬ 
press upon my maid the necessity of 
long, slow cooking I bethought me of an 
expedient which works like a charm. At 
supper time two cupfuls of oatmeal, 
four cupfuls of boiling water and a tea¬ 
Family Washer Free 
ON 30 DAYS TRIAL. 
THE “ 1900 WASHER 
will do the family washing 
without boiling, hand scrub- 
ing or back breaking. It re- 
vol'-es on ball¬ 
bearings. Sim¬ 
plest, easiest 
run n 1 n g ma¬ 
chine known. 
No complicated 
machinery. Ku- 
tirely new prin¬ 
ciple. I.arge 
quanti ties of 
clothes are 
ivaHhed dean 
in iB uiiuutes. 
Saving in wear 
andc tear alone 
pays for machine 
in u^hprt time. 
Convincing Terntlmonym k 
CHnidt-n, N. Y., June 13,1900. 
I would not take twice whut 1 Kuve fur It. It doea the 
work Iplendidly. JDuu’t use tlie board any more. 
« Mrs. J. Scoviil. 
Gaines, Pa., Nov. 245,1900, 
I can heartily recommend your Wunlibr us betn^; the host 
I have ever seen. Don’t have to uau much Hlren»;th. 
Mrs, C. K. Dimmick. 
Columbus. O., P»*b’y 18.1901. 
I And your Washer exactly as represented. It is the 
most wonderful inveutioii of modern times. It Is perfect. 
It Is certainly a labor saver and dui^ not wear aiitl tear the 
clothes. Sly wife would notpart witti It for fifty dollars 
ifshe could not t^etauother. W. U. Humphries. 
Costs nothing to try. Sent to anyone abso¬ 
lutely free for a trial of 30 days. We pay freight 
both mays. No money required in adva?ice. 
Setid for book and particulars to 
THE *1900’ WASHER GO., 
143 G. Afafo St., Binghamton, M. Y, 
