The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-06

money enough to manage ON, and the
reason they do not have enough is
simply because their husbands, know
ing nothing about domestic manage
rnent and the expense thereof, do not
give them enough. This may be an
unusual way of looking at the matter,
but / believe the idea is worth con-
Sideration. At present we are working
at cross purposes. with no necessary
connection between the power of the
purse and practical experience or
knowledge. In no other department of
human activity is this the case, so
far as + recollect, and If man were to
provide the money for any other in
duStry about which he knew nothing
If he were to erect the building in
which it was to be carried on by the
light of his own unaided reason. and
even determine the education to be
given to the workers without ever
1nquiring into the necessities of the
case, we would expect nothing else but
to grief There is no reason why the
same causes should produce different
effects in the domestic realm"
There is no word in the English
language which is more thoroughly
| misunderstood than economy. AS or
dinarily used it implies merely doing
without things, and in domestic af-
fairs 1t is synonymous with all sorts
Of petty and irritating deprivations.
But, according to the dictionary, econ
omy is the prudent management Of
affairs. Swift defined the virtue as the
parent of liberty and ease" and Rus
kin says economy no more means
saving money than it means spending
money; it means the spending or saw
Ing, whether of money or time or any
thing else, to the best possible advant-
age" To be economical, therefore,
means, apparently, to manage so that
one will not have to do without things
that one ought to have, but will be
able to satisfy all ones reasonable de-
sires. 1t is the people who get things
and do things with their money who
are economical. not those who do not
spend it at all.
'There is one advantage in having
weakness for beauty" observed the
artistic woman. zone is subjected
thereby to a great deal of discomfort,
but one is also preserved from many
Of the temptations to break the Tenth
Commandment from which most other
people, judging from what they say,
appear to suffer. Some women never
return from an afternoons shopping
or a visit to friend richer than them
selves without bewailing audibly or
otherwise their inability to possess
such things as they have seen; but,
for my own part, not all the wealth
of Croesus, whatever that may have
been. and supposing 1t not to have
been an announcement amount, would
compensate me for having to own the
things with which most people sur
round themselves when they have
money enough to get them. To me the
most desirable thing about wealth
would be that it might afford a means
of escape from the tyranny Of things.
but if it were only going to plunge one
deeper in the 'mire of matter I can't
see any object in having 1t. William
Morris says that he never saw rich
mans house that would not have been
improved by the destruction of nine
tenths of all that it contained, and
my own experience has been almost
precisely similar There are few
houses in any class Of society that do
not make me long for a bonfire in the
back yard"