Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/26

 When the going of the man to war has meant a smaller income for the family, the Red Cross has frequently helped the woman to plan her economies so as not to deprive the home of things essential to its well-being.

Shortly before enlisting, a man had undertaken to purchase by installments a victrola costing $150. Thirty dollars had been invested in this way when he entered the army. His wife had not enough money to support herself and continue the payments. Yet to have given up the victrola would have meant a great loss to her. She needed the music. For her it was a refuge from worry. It cheered her when she was depressed.

The Home Service worker solved the difficulty by persuading the dealer to exchange the machine for one costing $50, and to consider the $30 which had been paid toward the purchase of the victrola as part of the price of the smaller phonograph.

On the other hand, there are women who now have larger incomes than they had before their men enlisted. Often they need the help of the Red Cross even more than those whose incomes have been reduced.

There was one woman who in the words of a Home Service worker "went all to pieces when her husband went away." He was an officer. The oldest son was also in the army leaving the mother with four children, two of whom were working and were receiving larger wages because of the war. The woman had now what to her seemed more money than she could use. She began buying all sorts of things upon the installment plan, a piano, a sewing machine, a graphophone. Some acquaintances whom hitherto she had barely known now became close friends. Their good times were not