The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05
FOR FEMININE READERS
ExTRAyAGANCEs THAT ARE BENE-
FITS AND TRUE ECONOMY.
One WOman's Way OF Making Herself
ing YoUng-VariOus Suggestions.

What floods of pulpit eloQuence were
wasted on Mrs. Bradley Martin and her IA
nous ball, says writer in the New York
Times. One would have thought that this
woman was a sinner above all others. Yet
it is highly probable that Mrs. Bradley Mar
tin and some of the motley crew who danced
at her function will walk into the kingdom
OF heaven some distance ahead of the pious
Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian who
gives literally to the pastors salary and
the missionary cause with one hand and
cuts down the wages of her sewing woman
and her laundress with the other
| 1t is said that Miss Grace Dodge once
asked in one of her Working Girls Clubs
| What message shall I carry from you to
your wealthy sisters?" and the reply was,
Tell them not to deny themselves any
luxuries." She spoke OF one rich woman
who the previous winter had ordered a $500
wardrobe for a baby and the order had
given employment for many weeks to a
large number of girls who would otherwise
have been idle. No doubt there were pious
economists who held up their hands over
such sinful extravaganza and inquired why
that money was not given to the poor
1t was given to the poor, and given in the
best possible way. If the extravagant wom-
an had sent check for $500 to a benevolent
fund she would have been Iauded as a bene-
factress and model Christian.
We are apt to forget that there are two
classes of the poor; one class asks aims, the
other asks merely work and a just system
of wages in payment for the work.
The woman whose extravagances furnish
work for this latter class of poor may not
be able to get herself into the ranks of pub
lie benefactors, but she has her place in
the economy of things, and, consciously or
unconsciously, she does benefit society by
the extravaganza which puts money into
the purse of the working girl or the working
man. The rich woman hears many lectures
on the responsibility that wealth brings, and
the duty of giving her money in charity is
constantly held up before her. But spend
ing is no less duty than giving. The wo-
man who considers the need of all those
who serve her in industrial capacity and
VINO pays generous wages for her work is
doing her share in the solution of the indus
trial problem. There is no scarcity of
money in this country, every one acknoWl-
cages that All that is needed is a general
I0osemng OF pursestrings and a thoroughly
CHRISTIAN extravaganza on the part of those
VINO pay wages toward those who are the
wage carriers.
wealthy woman was complaining re-
Gently OF the price charged by her laun-
dress. 1t makes me furious she said Ito
think how cheap she will wash for other
because am able to pay it,
Wei" said a plain-spoken friend, "in-
stead OF grumbling at the price she charges,
you ought to be rejoicing that you are able
to pay it. You ought to consider it one of
the privileges and blessings of being rich
that you can pay princely wages to all who
work Tor you. Every woman of generous
impulses viii tell you that one of the hard
est features OF poverty is that it forces one
TO be niggardly toward those who are
poorer than ones self. Laundry work is
very hard. You are not paying one cent
more than the work is worth, and, instead
of grumbling you ought to be congratulate
ing yourself on your opportunities for do
ing the right and just thing"
BUT this is the last thing that the woman
of wealth would think of doing. Dear
me-" she will say Il must economize.
Times are so hard" and she orders her
tenth diamond ring, drives to the china
store and purchases a costly piece of brio
a-brac for her parlor a. set of Limoges
plates for the dining room and then scours
the town till she finds some poor wretched
se1mstress who is willing to work ten hours
| day for so cents, and who will make a
| wrapper for so cents Then she folds her
| hands complacently, watches the sparkle
| of the gems, whose value is up in the hun
dreds, and calculates how much she has
| saved by this means. She calls it economy.
But the angel of the pen writes it down
as meanness. There are wealthy women
! who would consider it an extravaganza to
| pay 20 cents q day to a poor woman who is
| struggling with her needle for the support
| children, and there are others who will sew
! from morning till night rather than pay
/ even 90 cents a day to a seamstress. 1t has
never occurred to them that they have no
| right morally speaking, to do their own
| sewing. They do not stop to think that
| while such an economy is commendable and
| Chr1stlanlike on the part of the woman
whose husband is in debt and whose salary
| is barely sufficient for their needs, it is an
unpardonable sin on the part of the woman
| In easy circumstances.
Another sinful and shameful economy is
| the practice of selling old clothes instead of
| giving them away. 1t seems almost incredi-
| BILE that women of good social standing and
| abundant means will haggle with a poor
WasherWoman or charwoman over an old
dress or an Old cloak and gloat over The
! money obtained. One woman was heard TO
| boast that she had paid a dollar for cheap
muslin, mad worn 1t two seasons, and then
| sold 1t to q negro servant for 81 % lady
| will leave the business of selling old clothes
| to those who make this their means of live
! l1hood, and at each successive season she
| Will make herself providence to the poor
within her reach by giving them every gar
ment that is useless to her. One need not
| join the Kings Daughters or any other
! benevolent society in order to do benevolent
! work Question the cook, the nurse, the
| chambermaid, and you will find out enough
! of the other half OF the world and low it
| lives to keep your Sympathies alive and
warm and forever prevent you from econo-
MIXING in the matter of wages and old
| clothes.
Let US put economy in the list of the
| doubtful virtues, the virtues that virtu-
Gus only in certain people and under certain
circumstances. let us loosen purse
strings. open our. trunks of half-worn cloth
! ing, and luxuriate in the practice of a right
| eous extravaganza of paying and giving
| that will gladden. the hearts of the poor and
| leave us richer than we were before. 1t is
| a law that 1.-The individual whose thought is
| to give finds himself the constant recipient
of all that he needs on every plane Of his
| being. physical, intellectual and spiritual.
Nothing can be taken from him, because
| he attracts giving .
| hn lx06 n inn ion in
| hard times this winter if the preachers
would reverse their methods and preach to
their church members on the sin OF econ
orny and the virtue of extravaganza instead
of giving long range exhortations to society
on the virtue of economy and the sin of ex
| travagance.
In the meantime here is a lay sermon that
| may reach the conscienceS of some good
women who only need to know the right in
! order to do it.
Secret of Popularity.
| New York Commercial Advertiser.
ba bpd xuba accused Of hpincr