Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-04-19

7
deyouring flame in the heart trying to
save it.
This is the principle: Avoid waste;
but if waste there must be, let it be OF
the less valuable and not of the more
valuable material.
Economy is a pleasurable and not a
painful exercise Pinch is not economy.
Ii may be necessary to pinch, but pinch
ing is quite another thing from econo-
missing. Economy is a characteristic OF
expenditure, not of non-expenditure.
Economy is a dynamic, not a static
force. 1t belongs to giving just as
much as to expanding.
A woman of fortune living in the
country, is praised because she does
her own Homework. She is called
smart" capable, energetic, indepen-
dent. | do not praise her. tolerate
the ''smartness' because | know the
difficulty of getting good service in the
country, and because of a profound be-
lief in the right of every woman to ar
range her own life in her own way. But
| do not admire any one for doing lower
work when he might be doing higher
work. 1t is higher work for an intel
lectual woman to teach an ignorant
woman how to make bread. than it is to
make the bread herself 1t is higher
work to administer the government OF a
household than to do the work OF a
household. Some minds are incapable
of administration. They can do only
solid, single, steady work Let them
do it in Heavens name But let us not
praise, as superiority, the incapacity
which is inferiority.
A wood fire on the open hearth is
very costly, but very economical. What
it costs is money, and cordwood is like
gold leaf But what it saves is fresh,
vital air 1t is good cheer. 1t is high
art. 1t is society. Visible heat is ten
times as powerful as invisible heat You
are warmer for seeing fire. If CONVEX
sation drags, you can always take the
poker A wood fire is pulsating pie
ture, a living jewel, solace for the
lost summer, sequestered, household
sun.
But if you cannot afford it, it is not
economical. Nothing is economical
that has to be bought with peace of
mind. If it require only the sacrifice of
silk gown, or a Turkey rug, or a rep
utation for style, that is another
thing. Generally we expend our money
at the behest of other people, not of any
special taste of our own. Art is merely
fashion. We have not the courage of
our preferences. Often we have no
strong individual taste We enjoy greg
ariously. We are cultivated in the
lump. In the grey old world, before
the centennial, before Kensington art
work, before the aesthetic Renaissance,
| knew just one woman who by acct
dent came across a japanese picture
1t was coarse and common to the COM
mon eye-cheap and tawdry. But
something in it pleased her, and, in
spite of jeer and gibe, she would have
it on the walls of her room Presently
it was discovered that the Japanese
were masters of conventional art, and
all the world was Japanned. Then the
picture was orthodox; hordes of people
began to talk japanese @thetics, where
in my poor artistic had neither part nor
lot-only her one pioneer picture.
In single heartedness, in much over
work of mind and body, with limited
means especially of observing, in the Sc
clusion of rural home, she embroi-
dered Persian patterns on linen and
cambria out of her. own busy brain with
her own busy fingers. She made APP
plique work of roses and lilies on door
mats and hearth-rugs. She stole min
utes for combination of color and grace
full contour with bits of flannel and
yarn. 1t was economy because it was
necessity. 1t was economy because it
was luxury. 1t was outlet and outline
for her teeming fancies. BY and
by Kensington arose and all the world
began to stamp and sew a clematis vine
on a towel, or fluff golden rod upon a
table-cloth, and call itself cultivated.
To call itself gregarized would have
been nearer the mark. But if it pleases
the eye, if it soothes the nerves, if il
tranquillizes the spirit to cover cretonne
figures over and over with bright-col-
ored floss silk, it is good economy,
though the Chinese can embroider bet
ter and at lower prices; only let us call
it sanitary economy, not art, not origi-
nal taste, not aesthetic cultivation even,
still less thought. 1t may be innocence,
it is not genius.
"Kate has been starving us because
she wants horse and wagon, means a
young American. Good tidings of
great joy, Kate has the commissariat
and | know what it means. They are
not in the least starved. They are as
fair and fat of flesh as the four children
which did not defile themselves with the
kings meat nor with the wine which
he drank. Kate has been cconomizing
in some non-essentials for the essential
of q horse and wagon next summer,
which has all the high necessity of q
war measure. He who has horse and
wagon at command has new worlds at
command. He can change his horizon
and there are a thousand troubles, per-
plexities, annoyances in life which can
not stand against one breezy drive to a
neighboring hilltop, one lazy, lettering
day upon the shore of the many sound
ing sea, one plunge into the beating
surf, one picnic in the sweet pine woods.
There is no such thing as saving food
economically. What yields most read
lily to the wonderful chemistry of the
human organism, whatever sweet and
wholesome food most quickly becomes
muscle and nerve and brain. that is the
cheapest. AS well might one begrudge
the fuel that creates the steam and pro-
pels the engine, as think to save by
Withholding from the human engine
the fuel which must set and keep in en-
ergetic motion its marvellous machinery.
But much of the sheen and glitter, the
banners and rosettes that make brave
spectacle are not essential They are
pretty and to be desired, but not to
make one wise. Wisdom dwells in blue
skies and broad sunshine and the wide
hills and the infinite waters; in peace of
mind, freedom, ownership of the earth.
He is povery stricken who is so absorbed
in the one little enclosure of which he
holds the title-deeds, that he loses his
grasp on the bending universe, which is
his most splendid possession, his most
suggestive, enduring and, we trust,
eternal inheritance. Gail Hamilton, IN
the Weekly Magazine.
THE GREAT CONNECTING LINK.
.'Gath's'' Account OF Trip Over the East River
Bridge. Connecting New York and Brooklyu