St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1864-09-01
BsC'0 N:o'MY..t
BIT: MRS. STOWE.

Economy is the science of proportion
Whether : particular purchase is extrava.
] CANT depsndsmainly on tho income it is ta.
ken from. Suppose . aslvoman. has = hun
dred and 6fty-a year~for her dress, and
:Fgives fly, dollars for sa:boanet,; she give.
= ti third Of! her income i is horrible ex-
travagance-w for the, woman, whose
income is ten thousand it may may 81. ns iex-
travagiance *at all: The poor olergyjMan',
fwife, when she gives FIVE dollars for Is bon
net, maybe giving as much; intproper.ion
TO her sineopen as the woman Who gives
fifty. aNoHs, the r;qiHiculty: with, the greater
part Of women is, that the, men, who make
the money aud hold il, give them no Kind
81 standard by which to measure their -ex-
penses. Mes. wopcn 4nd girls are in this
matter entirely at sea, without chart or
compass. They don't know in the beast
what they have TO spend. Husbands and
fathers often pride themselves about not
saying word on business matters to their
wives and daughters. ri ;rhoy don't wish
them to understand them, or to inquire
into them, or 10 make remarks or suggest
ions concerning, them :,.->,..;...,
:, u u want you to have everything that is
suitable and proper says: Jones to lis
wife, '.but don t be extravagont.'' .~.,,q
"But my dear says Mrs. Jones, ''what
is suitable; and. proper depends very much
on our means if you could allow me- any
specific sum for dress and housekeeping,
could tell better = '@1' =. 80 ri''S'
~ s.Nonsense, Susan !: l. can't do that
it's.too much trouble: Get what you need,
and avoid foolish e1travagances !; that's all
Task" = '.i:~~r:, -: 'z1< -: :. >z, -.
~ By-and-by Mrs. Jone.'s bills, are sent in
in an evil hour, when ones has heavy
notes to meet and then: comes . domestic
storm. = 81. p. j -. a.. ~, T. .'.,.. :
7 sns.:" s:".1 shall just be ruined madam, if that's
the way you are going onsea:Is can't afford;
to dress you and the, girls in the style, you:
have set up. ~ Look at this :m,lliner's bill ="
' =. '.': 81 assure you,' says Mrs. Jones, :.'we
haven't got any more than the Stebtinses,
nor 50. much .r,,, 'r,,5<
+ =" :'.Don't you know that the Stebblnses arr.
worth i've times % much as eyer /. wa r.
No, Mrs, Jones did. not lnow it. = How
should she, when her husband makes it q
rule never to speak OF. his business to her,
ihcome7 sss ~ : nj - sta q 4
Thus multitudes of good conscientious
women aad xirls'ars extrstegans from pure
ignorance. The male provider allows bills
to be run up in his name, and they have
no earthly means Of judging whether they
are spending too much or too little, except
the ,scmi:-annual hurricane which attends
The coming IN of these bills!' Ert<
The first essential in tbs practice Of;
economy is a knowledge Of ones income,
and the man who refuses TO- accord to hif
wife and children this infor. nation has nev,
er any right to accuse them of extravagauce
because he himself deprlves them of that
stan dard of comparison which is an ,ndis-
pensab,e requisite IN economy: As' early
as possible in il, the. education Of children
they should pass from that state of ire
sponsible waiting to be provided for by pa
rents, and be trusted With the spending Of
some fixed allowance, that they may learn
pieces and values, and have some notion Of
ah qaasS il 4etaallyl HeesseAA tpdsaA,at ssas.l, it
will bring. The simple fact Of the possess :
sion Of fixed and definite income often
suddenly transforms giddy, 'e1travagant
girl into a a>aasertaking, g. prudent little TO-
man. Her allowance is her own; she be-
gins to plan upon ito add, subtract, mul-
tiply, divide, and do numberless sums in her
little bead EPhs nolorger buys everything
she fancies; she deliberates, weighs, COM.
pares. And now there is room for self-de-
niil md generosity TO come: in. = She can
do without this article; she oan farbish up
some older pqsssss,ii99n sto a. idaty = little
longer and Gye this = ,a1 money to some friend
poorer thaa she, and ten to one the gtrl.