The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-08-29
SPENDTHRIFTWOMEN
ANEwYoRK CORRESPONDENT DRAWS
IT RATHER STRONG.

ers Never Dreamed-why Many Young
Men DO Not Marry-A Movement In the
Interest of Practical Economy.
1t is so thoroughly questionable
throughout this country to be economical
that the American woman doesn't seem
to realize that she has become spend
thrift.
Not only are the mass Of girls Of mar
hageable age quite innocent Of any knowl-
edge of household economies or frugality
In personal expenditures, but the advanced
woman and the fin de steele production
who may be willing to wed have any num-
Der of expenses that women never used to
have.
Alphonse Karr wrote 1.-THE prodigallty
Of woman has reached such proportions
that one must be wealthy to have one for
himself. "
Few young men are to be blamed II aft
er study of possible wives they decide
that matrimony is too expensive for their
incomes. 1t is said that so well established
is the spendthrift trait in our women that
no matter in what part of the world they
appear the natives look on the average
American woman as a princess of prodi-
gality, and the extortionate prices foreign
ehopkeepers name to our compatriots are
well known.
Rich young women have the instinct Of
money spenders naturally because they
never know the value of dollar by earn
ing It, So generally accepted is this fact
that when matrimony was suggested as
young John Jacob Astor's intention II
was insisted that his mother would never
approve any engagement until he chose
a flancee of financial prudence. When his
engagement to Miss Willing Of Philsdel-
phia was announced, it was agreed that
just such a woman had been found. No
one could blame Mrs. Astor for her salts
faction.
Young Mrs. Astor has proved an emf
nently happy choice While she is popular,
lovely and has even added to the Astor
prestige, it is well known that she is thrift
ty in a sensible fashion that is worth
thousands of dollars annually.
To be sure, among the most opulent cir
cles there is now a tendency to encourage
young girls to learn the value Of money.
The cashier Of the bank of New York's
Four Hundred, where very young girls of
millionaire families follow the fashion and
keep an account, says that some of these
girls are developing prudence and thrift in
handling their allowances But this small
grain Of leaven has not spread into the
lump.
The edict in general society is: GO
abroad and economize. Come back TO the
United States and cut a wide swath."
Fashionable women are willing to be
known as following those laws, but econo-
mize at home-never.
Next to fashion, mothers are the mis-
chief makers. In our great prospering
middle class as soon as a girl is born her
mother begins the struggle to dress her
better than the other baby in the block.
The strife goes on as she grows up, and
there is no class distinction here to frown
on the impulse to rise higher in fashion or
teach the mother the good sense of cutting
her aspirations for the girl to fit the fam
lily income The girl grows up with her
desires foolishly granted. She spends
money without looking at it twice. In
stead of saying II save SO much money"
when she has her own little allowance, she
tries to get more than the money will pay
for, BY the time she is ready to marry
She is grounded in spendthrift ways and
intends to give up nothing, but to gain by
marriage.
When a young man would like to en-
his salary, lightning calculation shows
him that she is too expensive and hasn't
any characteristics that are likely to de-
velop his income and make it big enough
for two. So he cuts off his courtship with
the lovely spendthrift, whose parents are
not too rich nor yet too poor, but in just
that state denominated middle, but aspir
ing, j."
hp
blamed in these cases. It's the girls own
parents.
If prudence could be made "fashiona-
BILE, " it would certainly have good effect
in families whose heads have incomes
ranging from 81, 500 to $5, 600 per year. 1t
is in this grade Of society that young men
must plead that they can't afford matri-
mony. Girls in these families are not
taught those mysteries of household eco
nomics or general frugality that are daily
dirt in German and French households.
Many of them live and die without ever
realizing the heights and depths of the
purchasing value of 100 cents. How wom-
en- of this kind can bring up daughters en-
dowed with more thrift than their mothers
is a problem.
l firmly believe that the advanced wom-
an, or she who is truly fin de steele, is one
of the most costly wives ever known
The man who takes one to himself must
make allowances for many expenses no
woman used TO have.
This advanced woman who tries to keep
up to the age has as many club dues as
most men and a great many more than
| the average one. She outdoes him on his
| old exclusive territory She has 20 pay for
club and society suppers to distinguished
women and now and then to a man.
| She subscribes to all sorts Of entertain
ments courses and classes that her femi-
nine predecessors never dreamed of, and
that are quite as expensive as anything
men do in the same line.
She is continually taking up new chart
ties of whose invention her grandmother
! never dreamed, and most of them come
/ high,
| Radical movements and those for the
amelioration of sociological evils have to
| be followed up.
Every movement and most of the clubs
that are worth anything have TO have con
! nor, Ff,pa rrrIfalt r1at MOOD 45,apRtr