The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-08-07

We have to calculate pretty closely
our house, you know; and the Wholt
AKmily are called into council when any
important expenditure is TO be made
Well, the other evening we were consld
erinp the small remnant of the quarters
salary, and Mrs. Dobbs was trying to
reckon how it could be made to cover
everything. There was her new dress,
| and a new coat for me, and new carpet
for the best parlor, and new hat for our
Cat present. unmarried daughter, besides
la great many other things, with which l
will not occupy your valuable space.
The main point was the new dress, and
Mrs Dobbs was thinking of this shade,
and scrutinizing that pattern, wishing
she could buy them, doubling If she
could buy any of them and our faces
grew longer as the salary grew shorter.
Presently, with one of my happy inspi-
rations, | said to her:
Mrs. Dobbs, there is no dollar that
does you much good as the one you don't
spend"
She looked at me little perplexed,
and presently she said: ''Why, Doctor,
don't understand you"
So | said: "The handsomest dress is
the one you don't buy"
"Oh, yes, that's true. The best dress
ever had was the silk that Mrs. Large
head gave me when she came from Phil
adeIphia. She bought it at Homer d.
CoIloday's; it couldn't have cost less
than"
Mrs Dobbs," said |, interrupting her,
" the handsomest, and every way the
best dress, is the one that you don't
have"
She was more puzzled than ever, and
was forced to explain.
&c Mrs. Dobbs," said l, call the dresses
YOU have ever bought have worn out,
Invent they%
Yes" said she, very promptly, call
of them. haven't decent thing to my
name. There is my bombazine-
" Wait moment" | said, for was |
afraid to have her get up that |
topic; "and did you ever buy dress,
did you ever have a dress any way, that |
you didn't have some misgivings over;
that you didn't see some defect in; that
you didn't rather wish that you had
bought the other?"
81 believe you are right, she said
But" 1 said, ''the dress that you
lon't buy has no faults; you never are
ired of it; it never grows old; you
lever wish you had chosen some other;
,r if you want to change, how easily the
change is made"
{" Why, yes" said Mrs. Dobbs, 81
never thought of that before"
And SO" said |, "of your dollar.
You never spent a dollar in your life
hat you didn't feel at least doubt as to
whether you had spent it wisely. You
wish you had bought something else.
But the wish was vain; you couldn't
make change The dollar that you
,ou spend you can spend but once,
,ut the dollar that you don't spend
you can spend a hundred-times. You
an buy dozen things with it every
ime you go out. If you are dissatisfied
With any of your purchases, you can 60
'ack and begin all over again. And so,
continued, ''the dollar that you don't I
pend doss you a great deal more good I
han the dollar that you do spend; and ;
,etter than all, it brings with it no re-
,rets, no misgivings, even.
Mrs. Dobbs looked as though she did
lot know just how to answer me, but at
he same time as though she wasn't quite
onvinced. Presently she said:
well, Doctor, l don't know that l
ee through it all, but no doubt you are {
light, for you are great deal wiser than
am. And so we will go on that prin- |
iple l will take the dollar that we do {
pend, and you shall have the dollar that
re don't spend, which is, as you have !
hoWn, 80 much the better of the two. /
The Condition of IEle Sexes ina ,