The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-08-20

per's Bazaar" Some women are mean
just as some men are mean; but women in
general-of course they are not mean, or
at least rot meaner than the general run
Of men. The general question does moi
need discussion; the thing to- discuss is
to what circumstances or conditions is it
due that there should be any doubt upon
the subject.
Women don't give tips as readily as
men, don't subscribe as literally 10 mis-
~cellaneeus objects. like bargain counters
better han men do, are more alert in saw
ing small sums. c~heapening domestic ser
| vice and household supplies, and such
matters. Why? Not because they are
meaner than men, but because they have
less money and more time. The average
man who earns money and has it to spend
| is an economist of time. Minutes are OF
/ more value to him han dimes or
"nickles." He pays readily for prompt
service. does not consider small differ
ences of price, but expedites his progress
through the day by any minor disburse-
ments that seem expedient. If he is a
h~ard-worked man he likes to ave thought
and bother as well as time, and would
often rather pay than think. He is apt
to consider, not always wisely, that his
time and thought are more profitabiy
spent in earning money than in saving
it by driblets.
In spite of the great increase in women
wage-earners. the average woman does
not earn her own money, but has it pro-
vided for her to spend. 1t is usually a
liked sum, not easily expanded, cut of
which there are necessary expenditures to
be met. What the margin of indulgence
shall be after the n~ecesaries are provided
depends upon close buying and little
economics. The average woman has not
only a stronger motive for petty
| economics than the average man, but she
can afford to spend more time in devils
ing them n carrying them out. But
such economics by no means necessarily
imply meanness. That depends upon the
ultimate object. There is usually little
generosity in tips Tips are common
~ given either because they seem to be
fairly due, or to promote the giver's ease
and tranquility of mind. What a woman
saves on Unnecessary tips or by luz
ing bargain counters or by spending time
to save pennies. she may spend in ways
tina are truly generous and self-sacri-
fcing. There is nothing novel in the idea
of thrift. as the precursor of Hberalfty,
and it is an idea thai thousands of
women are constantly putting into prac-
tice. They are content to be just, with
out being lavish, in order that they may
be generous in the end.
AS for women who earn their w
money, and earn it in sufficiently quantity,
they are a good deal like men in their
ways Of spending it. except that they
seem to find rather less satisfaction than
the average man in providing for their
own ease and comfort, and rather more
in making provision for others less for
tunate than themselves. There is little
fault to find with the generosity of most
women who have enough money of their
own-earned or inherited-which they can
spend as they like. and need account for
to no one. They are usually very gener-
Gus givers: and living, as a rule, more
simply than men of like income, and hav-
ing less expensive personal habits, they
are able to devote, and do devote a
larger share of their Incomes to works of
perseverance, anu DellGldcllDu sH
Summer time is the lean season for
the dealer in bric-a-brac. This is because
the women are out of town. for it is by
the might of the newly developed femin-
inc love for collecting antiques, backed
by the feminine dollar, that the keeper Of
the curiosity shop has become the most
pompous. prosperous tradesman on the
block. He used to be about the furtherest
underdog in the business of buying and
selling, but his boom began about six
years ago and it has been a rising boom
ever since, and he gratefully admits that
the women did it all. He can prove it by
showing you on his books a dozen fem
inine for every masculine name.
ut was the ultra fashionable women
who went in for antiques and bric-a-brac
first" said one dealer, who does a whirl-
ing business in the winter. '"They and
the actresses who grow rich are our
most valued patrons and the shrewdest
and most intelligent buyers, too, though
fem~inine-like. they exhibit very marked
eccentricities in selecting and purchas-
ing. For example, 1t is rarely we find a
woman who interests herself in more than
one species of bric-a-brac at a time. Then,
too, true to their sex. they dearly love to
bargain, to hammer down the price of
everything they buy to the lowest possi-
BILE figure, and nine-tenths of our custom
ers won't buy at all until they rave had
the article under discussion sent home. to
try its effect among the remainder of
their belongings. But the speciality system
is what exerts the largest influence on the
woman who treasures antiques-to be
known and envied for having the finest
collection of this or that particular style
Of plate, for Vernis Martin or Sheraton
furniture, for fifteenth century tapestries
or Florentine carved oak is the true goal
of her ambition
Profitable customers as they prove in
the long run, the women are not on this
very account easy to deal with. They are
SO apt to know whereof they buy, they
are keen-eyed. incredulous and among
them are recognized authorities on every
species of ~bric-a-brac, who are as quick
as hawks for detecting the truth from the
false. Now, when it comes to tapestries
and French furniture of other days a deal
er must rise early in the morning to get
ahead of Miss Hewett, the ex-Mayor's
daughter. She was one of the first women
in New York to go in for this sort of
thing. and in her two specialties her de-