Matrimonial Misfits.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue IV, 26 July 1902, Page 253

Matrimonial Misfits.

SAVING AND SPENDING

The pecuniary prosperity of the family life is as Important as any

part of it. and living within one's means is an essential condition of the peaee that should follow plenty. Uneasy lies the head that has debt for a pillow, and very uneasy must be the man be who knows that while he is saving money at the “spigot” his wife is letting it “run out at the bung.” His devotion to her had need match his confidence in his own powers for him to face the future with equanimity. An extravagant wife is a thorn in the side of the plodding man. and the marriage that might be almost perfect in other respects must necessarily be marred by this one failing, for he is for ever in anxiety as to what she is going “to let him in” for next. I once heard a man say laughingly to his wife whom he was accusing of extravagance: “You cost me £3OO a year more than you need, but. on the whole, you’re worth it.” Which was good philosophy, but not the best way of putting on the brake. Perhaps it was his pleasant way of bowing to the inevitable, and perhaps he could afford it. So many cannot, and yet are dragged miserably into debt for the sake of doing like their neighbours, and having what others have. “They stunt and distort their true selves in striving to act up to some conventional standard of propriety. THE LIGHTING QUESTION.

Extravagance is, of course, only a question of porportion. and the causes of friction vary from old china at Christie’s to the odd halfpenny in the butcher's bill.

The Browns, whose electric light costs them about £3O a quarter, are looked upon with horror by the Robinsons. whose bill is never more than £6 17/6. But then. Mrs Brown revels in a large income, and can afford the dazzling splendour of an Alhambra illumination, whereas the Robinsons, of humbler means, live practically in the dark, and are obliged to precede you upstairs to turn on the light.

“Never have electric light, my dear.” said Mrs Robinson to me one day. “I’ve had more quarrels with my husband since we’ve had it the last six months, than in ten years of married life.” The leak is generally in the everyday expenses of the house, however much the woman exclaims “Cigars!” or the man retorts with “Hats!” (How is it they always attack our hats?)

It. takes almost a lifetime to thoroughly master the intricacies of domestic economy, without, being mean and stingy. I stipulate for that. It is easy enough to do without things, and teach others to do without them, and to cut it so fine that you must go without. But to have everything you need, to buy it In the best market at the lowest rate, and use it to the best advantage, and use it all, is a triumph of management continually vearned after, but seldom attained.

Managing money is like playing golf. The best player will sometimes find himself landed in a bunker, and it is only his experience which enables him to get out of it without a bad loss.

WHEN ECONOMY BECOMES EXPENSIVE.

To save without suffering, that is victory. Economy becomes expensive when it means torment. I know a woman whose housekeeping ambition is to keep her weekly bills down to £3 5/, and her condition of mind when one of the children happens to lose sixpence on the way to the fruiterer’s amounts to frenzy. Even with a very small income one should still continue to allow a margin for trivial losses, that one may be spared the wear and tear of penny vexations and two penny worries. Many of us who have quite a comfortable margin to our incomes pinch and screw and save to buy luxuries that will i eally not make any difference to us.

Forgo a few odd things you can do without, and you will be able to go along easily without scraping and meanness; and you will not be so busy either laying down those fretful lines that disfigure the faces of those who are for ever wanting something. You will have money to spare for a little inevitable waste or loss, and you will be able to afford to wink at the contingencies which other folks dub extravagancies. Let them buy furbelows and kickshaws —yon will have bought peace of mind. And yon will escape the fate of tin majority, who “eat their hearts out in a wearying struggle to copy those who have twice their income.” o O o o o Fortunes in Feathers. A French enthusiast has been collecting the statistics of the number of birds which are killed to decorate the hats of ladies on uis own and our side of the Channel. To begin with, he informs us that the craving for wing-feathers has resulted in the total extinction of swallows. kingfishers, and goldfinches in France. They have all been hunted into other countries or exterminated. The feathers with which ladies decorate their hats nowadays come mostly from Siberia and from the country where the Kerghese,Ostiaeks. and Samoyeds abide and flourish. These tribes employ their - interminable winter mainly in shooting and in snaring birds. They eat the flesh and sell the skins, as well as the feathers. At the market of Urbit, a town on the borderland of Europe and of Asia, this winter 3000 horned owls were sold at seven roubles (15/) a pair, and 4000 pairs of eagles fetched the same price. White owls were in great request, and 16.000 pairs were sold at two roubles (about 4/4) the pair. The ordinary grey owl is not marketable.

No fewer than 200,000 pairs of magpies fetched good prices, and 2000 grebes (a little crested bird which looks like a duck with the head of a hen) were run up to the price of half a crown a pair by the fur merchants, who were very keen on the feathers, which are much in request for muffs and the trimming of ladies’ dresses, owing to the glossiness of their plumage.

Sixty thousand pairs of grouse tail feathers and of woodcocks’ tails fetched only about 10 eopeks, and partridge feathers were a glut upon the market. Thirty thousand pairs of partridge wings were sold for less than 2d the pair.