The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-09-21
How Ancient Thrift Becomes Modern
Unthrifttness.

| AAoSs &AACAOhS LhIAIL AOCULloS EAOAcI Il
| Unthriftiness.
| 1t was said by them of Old time that a
girl should never be married till She had
knit pillow-casetul of stockings. And the
stockings, after all, We're only sign OF
what was going on with the rest Of her
wardrobe. One would say that pretty
much all the leisure Of young madenhood
was devoted to preparing clothes for Il
damsel to wear the rest of her life.
This was not altogether unreasona lie,
When the only one way to get stockings
was to knit them up painfully, stitch by
stitch-seaming the beginning, widening
tor the calf narrowing for the ankle, set
ting the heel. slipping and binding, curry
ing the lnstep, pointing the toe; when the
only way to have under suits and table
linen and sneets and towels was to pull
the ilaX, and spin the thread, and weave
the fabric, and cut. and shape, and sew
with the slow, however deXtrous needle,
it was proper that a gIrl should start out
in the tussle of married life We'll equipped
When all the housework must be done by
her own hands and when the little ones
come with their fresh, imperative claim,
there could be yery little time lett for
making clothes, especially lor the dainti
ness OF attire which women love SO it
was We'll and wisely done that the girls
should Use their comparative leisure and
freedom to- stock their chests with linen
and woollen in preparation for the day
when they should have something else to
DO. This was real thrift, foresight, pru-
dence.
But IS the same thing thrift to day
With the world fall OF factories and sew
ing machines and cut paper patterns,
with shops heaped UP with ready-made
underwear. why should i woman cumbcr
herself with snowy heaps of Hamburg
edgings and tatting and tucking and llut-
ing? We travel. we tairy at the seaside
in summer, VIC fit to Florida i'm the win
ter, we close our houses for weeks and
months at time Why should we leave
a dozen Of everything in the bureau
drawers to be stolen bY burglars, to be
burned with lire? Why should we bur
den our trunks with clothes that we do
not want and cannot wear? Suppose Il
girl IS to be married. The chances are Il
hundred to one that she will take her
sewing machine along, The chances are
ten to Que that AlonZo will board the first
ycar, though he makes Il mistake in doing
So Then he viii move to another town
to take larger partnership; then he viii
try California while; then come harl,
to Boston, and be sent on q business trip
to Europe All that Ella needs Is clothes
enough to be thoroughly comfortable and
tidy. The fewer superlluties She has the
easier and cheaper her transportation.
Nobody but the Adams Express and the
railroad companies profit by her piles of
fire linen. And the fine linen itself turns
yellow, anG the arm sizes grow small,
and pieces must be set in, and the neck
bands begin to pinch and the fashions
change, and there is a good deal of van
ity and yeNation of spirit
But suppose Ella falls i'll suddenly
what then? Why, then she has but to
send down town and get everything she
wants at hardly greater expense than the
bare material would cost her In Il world
where they sell good strong white petit
coats, with six tucks and q rullle, for fifty
cents, there cannot be great deal saved
By lnHking your own tucks and ruilles.
More yer, III case Of illness tUcks and
rulies are supernumerary, dare say we
We're all fed ON the prejudice thlt Il great
deal OF fine and iusay under-gcariDg must
he laid up in order that we might be re-
spectacle IN sickness But the first touch
ol real sickness dispcls that prejudice
" hat YOU want in sickness is the planest
and soltcst and oldest clothing attainable
What you want is something agreeable to
the touch; something not easily injured,
not 700 Good TO cut and tear and stain;
something that goes quickly into the
Washtub and comes easily out from under
the llltiron. In sickness, edgings and
rulli gs and embroidery are simply stiff
ness and roughncsS and discomfort. In
sickness, mustard poultices and rye ponl
tice, are patting down on everything,
and the qunine is distilling It's bitterness
everywhere, and the linimcnt you should
have been rubbed with you are swallow
ng and the iron you should have swal-
lowed is rubbed in till all is hopelessly
black with iron rust. and the sole comfort
is tnat everything is old and kept for Just
such use. Moreover, our houses are gen
orally established ON a health basis. and
sickness brings extra work in every direc-
tiun and the tired arms of the laundry
maid should have only the WORK Of clean
Illness to do, and not the cunning work of
high art.
True thrift, then, should say, consists
in pursuing exactly the opposite course
which our granimotherS pursued Il hun
,ired years ago. True thrift teaches You,
dear Ella, not to buy and make clothes
enough to last You u dozen or twenty
Years. but simply enough for your yearly
wearing 1t teaches You not to neglect
the rcplcnishi1g Of Your wardrobe till
everlthing is worn to shreas, but to keep
always u little ahead, and to lay aside Il
few sheets and napkins and towels and
undertaking while they are only soft
and thin. but still hoia together, against
the sad emergency Of sickness; and to
take the money that would otherwise be
locked up in yellowing and useless linen
aud invest i ia stocks, vi bonds, on books,
on drives. or seaside strolls and mountain
rambles, and the general Strengthening
and sweetening Of life which is more
than meat, an,l Of the body, which is
more than raiment. Gail Hamilton. In