We have all heard a great deal about t ho high cost of living, but there is still something to be said on the low cost of living. How would you like to support your family on less than ten dollars a month

Carlson, Thelma

English

We have all heard a great deal about t ho high cost of living, but there is still something to be said on the low cost of living. How would you like to support your family on less than ten dollars a month?</p

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The Homemaker's Books ''Living With OuT Child?· en,'' by Lillian M. Gilbreth. W . W. Norton and Co., New York. \Vhen Lillian Gilbroth was married, she ar,1d her husband believed that the haphazard way in which most families tried to work out their problems was un-necessary. 'rhey thought of family life as a definite project, to which all their expert knowledge as to methods used in industry and their lmowledge of psychol-ogy could be most helpfully applied. Every educational or industrial pro-ject has a plan; so should family life, they decided. The planning should not remove the romance or interest from mar-riage, but add a stability and lo•i!g view which is so often lacking. Mrs. Gilbreth describes in an interest-ing manner just how they planned thei1· family life and the methods they used in raising their eleven children. The child1·en were treated as distinctly inuividual members of the family a•,Hl they learned not to fear life, but how to combat and master it. ''Live with them, not for them,'' was one of Mrs. Gil-breth's mottos. In planning things we should plan the play time as well as the work time, she states, and allow enough time for the gr0atest ad v0nture-living together. '' Ha-ha, I :un not a parasite,'' said a five-year-old, as sho finished dusting a room. Mr~. Gilb1·eth believes •,wt only in children "learning by doing," but she thinks it necessary that the desire to work shoulu be aroused in every child. 'l'hc teaching of etiquette, and the treatment of the superior child, the in-ferior child, and those who get pleas-ure from exercising a great amount of power are among the many child prob-lems discussed in the book. ''Living With Our Children,'' besides bei•,Jg a goad book for parents, woulcl also be welcomed by a newly married couple. As Mrs. Gilbreth believes that the children cannot be happy unless the home is happy, she givos valuable sug-gestions as to how to start a happy ancl successful home life. One book read is worth a dozen looked at. No book is possessed until you have 1·ead and digested it. Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much in-fluenced by the former as the latter.-Paxtou Hood. Au Jnclian philosopher, being asked what were, according to his opinion, the most beautiful things in the universe, answered: The starry heavens above our heads, and the feeling of duty in our hearts.- Bossuet. THE IOWA HOMEMAKER 5 Living on $10 a Month Thelma Carlson We have all heard a great deal about t ho high cost of living, but there is still something to be said on the low cost of living. How would you like to support your family o•,1 less than ten dollars a month ~ It sounds impossible, but it is being done successfully in China. If one were going to try this plan, howeyer, it would bo necessary to mo,·e to one of t he vil-lages in northern China, and there pick out a nice little farm home. The rent will not be vory high, for people Wllt only small amounts of land. 'rhey rent it in two piecos, some on high ground, and some on low g1·ound, so that a crop failure or flood will not affect both crops. 'l'he courtyard around the house always faces south, and the main house is the most n01'thern building. Probably the house would not be extra ,,,ice, for t he houses are la1·gely built of mud, a lthough some aTe partially made of baked bricks and have tile roofs. 'rhe house itself will have three to five rooms. Sometimes the last two Tooms will be thTowu to-gether, making airy apartments, or the end rooms may be used for the sons' families, for storage, o1· for anima Is, ac-rm·ding to tho size of the family. Dur-ing tho winter, the rentral room is usually curtained or papered off to reduce the space for heating. The windows are large, usually about four square feet per room, and open out into tho court. 'rhey arc quite decorative, although they are made only of paper with a scrap of glass pasted it11 to afford an outlook. 'fhe entrance is always through the central door into the room which serves as kitchen, pantry and hall-way. Although the homes have little equip-ment, everyone has a k 'ang. A k 'a11g occupies about two-thirds of the kitchen. It iD a large, bod-like stTucture, made of clay and edged with wood Ol' cement. Fires are built under this and it may be used as a stove, or it may be usecl as a table, or in the winter , whe;1 a fire is built under it at night, the people sleep on it. 'fhis makes such a warm bed that even in this cold c limate only one quilt is needed. Of course, it would be a mthet· hard bed, but the Chinese sleep all J'ight, so what does that matter~ The clay usually CJ·acks when it gets old and smoko leaks into the room, but then the k 'ang is broken up and used as fertil-izer. A new k 'ang is built every five or six years. The k 'ang may be used for so many clifferent things that many Chinese women keep house with this as their only piece of furniture. Tn most kitchens, however, one finds a table, big boxes or chests, chairs or benches, and maybe even cup-boards, where clothes in consta•11t use a re kept. Nearly every family has some framed plwtographs of members of t he family on the wall, the remainder of which is covered with clippings from newspapers, cigarette advertisements and cheap prints. One never needs to worry about not having enough f urniture to keep the room f rom looking bare, for the men al-ways brit,1g in their fann implements to help fill up the kitchen. Nor is there a need for curtains; a roller towel hung in front of the door answers for one. The Chinese diet caJls for a small ex-penditure. Every meal consists of three things: porridge, a bread ancl a vege-table, which is usually a salty vegetable. Cereal is the most common dish, while sweet dishes are rare. Almost all t he food eaten is grown on their farms, a l-though some things are bought at the market towt;1, which is a mile or so dis-tant. Pedlars bring fish, vegetables, spices and a variety of other things to the door. Although the f uel is quito expensive, tho people have found several ways to economize. 'l'he most noticeable way is tho system they haYe of cooking their food. It is all rooked in one big pot. T hey wm cook the cabbage first, add enough water to make a soup, and then (Continued on page 13) summer to take an eight months course. She would have finished her training the middle of February, but as she was eager to find work here in America and not return to Estonia until August or Sep-tember, sho postponed her training a•,Jd took the emergency position at the hos-pital. January 9 she delivered a talk from tho broadeasting station, WLS, on ''Foods and Cooking in Estonia.'' '' Oh, yes, I knew Bess Streeter Ald-rich,'' said Mrs. C. E. Burton of Shenan-doah, Iowa. '''Why, we used to have the same beau. That was back i•,1 1902 or '03. She was his girl in school at Cedar Falls and I was his girl at home. We had heard about each other, but never met until one day when we both hap-pened to be on the same street car. 'He' was at the tation and introduced us and after that we became close friends . Ancl the man,'' chuckled Mrs. Burton, ''well, neither one of us got him.'' Fern Carl, '18, has accepted a position as home advisor in Rock Island County, Illinois. Since graduation she has been doing extension work in West Virginia. Farm and Home Week (Continued from page 10) finely shredded lettuce, then roll the slices. Put into a clamp towel, and place in the icebox for about an hour. THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING % pt mayonnaise dressing 2 eggs, boiled hard, a•,Id the yolks m1d whites chopped separately lf2 green pepper, ehopp<>d 1 pimento, chopped 2 tbsp. strained ehili sau<·e Mix the ingredients in the order listed. GHAPEFRUI'l' MEDIN A 2 grapefruit 1 one-third ounce glass of strained honey 1 tsp. powdered sugar Peel grapefruit as you would an orange. Also remove the pith. Cut the sections of fruit out, a11d remove the membrane so only the pulp is left. Squeeze juice from membrane. Mix the juioo, honey and powdered sugar. Pour this mixtme over the pulp and let sta'.Jd in an icebox ove1· night. Serves four. Grow Up '' Tf we arc to lead manki11Cl we must grow up," said Dr. Edward Steiner, as-sociate professor of applied Cluistian-ity, Grinnell College. '' 'l'o improve our country, we should all think about what is good, true and beautiful, not think in terms of size and number,'' he declared. '' W c ought to grow away from qua1ttity to quality." ''It is marvelous how young we are,'' he continued. '' Whc,Jever you ask an THE IOWA HOMEMAJ(ER Amel"ican how he is, no matter how many heartaches he has, his reply is sure to be 'Fine,' " said Dr. Steiner in his char-acteristic way. ''We are a great, vital nation, but,'' he commented, ''our childishness is shown by our spirit of optimism ancl our boast-fulness.'' Living on $10 a Month (Continued from page 5) set this away in a covered dish. '£he mush is next boiled in the bottom of the pot, and the coi'a pone is either put 011 the side in slabs, or bread and turnips are steamed on a grass rack above, where tho cabbage is kept warm. Housewives are not considered extravagant if they have dumplings once a week, though the kind they make require hours of cooking. Very little food hygiene is known here. But experience has taught the Chinese to drink boiled water ancl eat cooked food, so O'"lle would not have to spend half his allowance buying magazines to keep up on the latest developments. Unfor-tunately, babies are fed greasy dough -nuts and candy. But babies do not cry much in China, for as soon as they whim-l?er, they are feel. Clothing does not take a great deal of the fmnily budget. Th e Chinese have clothing of three weights-the single, the li•,wcl, and tho wacldccl. Th e latter is quilted more or less heavily with cotton hatting. Most of the clothes are made of heavy, durabl e cotton cloth, usually of indigo blue. Endless time and energy aro spent in making these clothes, and not a snap of material is wasted. And even though it is a. harcl .job, the women mak () all the shoes. Very little work is required in laumler-ing, as the wacldecl garments arc ripped up ancl washed infrequently. Each time tho cotton is resp1·eacl ancl this same cot-ton may be used as long as 30 yca•·s. In winter, people put on layer after la y<>r of clothing until it gets to be an un-wieldy hulk. One may not know his friends on the street because of the astounding increase i•,1 size. 13 God sends experience to paint men's portraits.- Henry Ward Beecher. ~------------------, I I I Reynolds & Iversen 1 I STATIONERS I I I, I Books, Stationery I I I I School and Office Supplies I ' ' ' ' 1 Downtown I I I ~---------------------~ r--------------------., ' ' I Everything I I I , 1n 1 I I I j ewelry I ' ' ' ' I I ! DUDGEON'S I ' ' ' ' 1 Ames Campustown 1 ' ' ~------------------------~ ~-----------------~----, ' ' ' ' ' "You Can Get It at I I ' ' I i Stephenson'S 1 ' ' ' ' 1 The above quotation has be- I1 come an axiom among the I 1 students and people of Ames. 1 ' ' ' ' 1 Examine all of the samples I I available, decide just what 1 Now, there is littl e money left for lux-mies, but still even th e poorest afford enough to 't:eep them smiling. If smiles show happiness, one need not fear losing that in China, for smiles are seen ever y-where. Even a ten dollar budget can bring happ:ir,Jess. ' ' I you want for your new spring 1 .I dress, then bring your sample 1' I to Stephenson's. 1 (Based on "Obsrrvations on the Social Lifo of a North China Village," by Jean Dickinson, formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Yenching Uni-vm·sity, Peking.) Who,l we see men of worth, we should think of becoming like them; when we seo men of a contrm·y cha1·acter, we should turn inward and examine our-selves.- Confucius. ' ' I You are bound to save a lot 1 I o~ trouble and very likely I 1 you'll save money, too. I I I ' ' I Stephenson'S 1 I Opposite Campus I ' ' 'I I Where the finest fabrics come I from. I ' ' L------ ------------J 

Living on $10 a Month

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Living on $10 a Month

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