The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-03
WOMEN AND ECONOMY.

Dix in the New Orleans Picayune, I
am more and more convinced that,
with women, economy is the root of all
extravaganza. When one runs up bill
that simply paralyzes her, or goes dead
broke before her allowance comes in.
nine times out of ten it is the direct
result of her conscientious effort to
economize. That this proves a boom
erang, does not discourage her, how
ever. On the contrary. she simply
wraps the mantle of conscious self
righteousness about her and wonders
what on earth her poor family would
do if they did not have her to manage
for them.
Economy has always been woman's
pet virtue-the one' quality on which
she prided herself-and each and every
one of us are firmly convinced that we
alone thoroughly understand the fine
art of financiering. We are willing to
admit that we don't know it all in other
directions; that we make mistakes and
failures in other affairs; but | have yet
to meet the woman who did not think
she was a better economist than Rus
sell Sage, and who wasn't mortally of
Tended if you ever limited that she was
extravagant or Wasteful.
Mrs. Smith buys some towels for so
cents. On bargain Monday we go
downtown and after a struggle, in
which our dress is torn, and our corns
trodden upon, and our nerves wrecked,
we succeed in getting similar towels
for 48 cents. "Ha,'' we reflect, Mary
Smith never did have the slightest idea
of economy, anyway, and it's Won
der she hasn't ruined her husband long
ago with her extravaganza, and it is
only after the towels come home and
we remember that we are oVerSuppied
with towels and that there isn't a place
in the house to put them, not a draw
er, nor an armoir that isn't crowded
with previous bargains for which we
have no use, that we begin to wonder
when a bargain is bargain.
Every now and then, too, some
prophet in Israel arises and tells how
one can economic by buying their
things out of season, getting sum-
mer muslins in winter and winter fan
nels in the dog days. 1t sounds allur-
ing and reasonable. Most of us have
tried it, and that no woman has yet
commimtted suicide when she got out
her season before bargain is a signal
proof of woman's fortitude under har-
rowing dfsappointments. There's just
one infalHble rule you can depend up
on in such matters. Whatever you buy
will be the thing you don't want. If
you get a full skirt, everyone will be
wearing skirts that fit like the paper
on the wall, and you can never know
how you banker after the latest style
until you find yourself loaded down
with last years birds nests that make
you look like a perambulating back
number.
Akin to this is the folly of trying to
bring things up to date by making
them over. This is an extravaganza
that only the richest women should
ever dream of permitting themselves.
For a poor woman to even contem-
plate it spells bankruptcy. That, too,
looks possible and seductive. You have
a dress that isn't quite good enough
to wear and is too good to throw away,
and in an evil moment you have an
inspiration of economy-you will have
it made over, and you do. The dress
maker grumbles and shifts, and says
of course she'll have to charge you as
much as for a. new gown because III
more work. You are surprised, but
agree, and then she cuts in and dis
covers that it is worn in places you
never suspected and faded where it
didn't show, but she thinks she can
make it look nice by the addition of
some chiffon ruffies and a new silk lin
ing and some real lace applique and
few bolts of velvet ribbon, and heaV-
en- knows what all, and by the time
you get it home you have paid out
more than a new dress would have
cost, and when you put it on you have
the proud consciousness of having
proved yourself a master economist and
looking like 80 cents.
Another false alarm in economy is
the cheap dresSmaker. For years we
have been going to competent Dress
maker or tailor, who turns out reliable
work, who knows how to give us the
correct Zines" that palliate our en-
bonpoint or conceal our bones. All or
a sudden one day we are attacked by
the microbe of saving on our dress
makers bills Heavens" we say in
lf-condemnation, ito think l have
been paying Madame Modiste $25 for
dress, when I could get IT mace py
Mrs, Shears for &c." Forthwith we
take our cloth and trimming around
to Mrs Shears, and she wreaks her
inexperience and lack of skill upon 1t,
and when we assess the damage we
are simply out the gown and the price
of the cloth and the making, to say
nothing of the wear and tear upon our
temper. One of the things that it takes
women a long time to learn, and some
of them never do learn, is that good
work is worth good pay and that poor
work isn't cheap at any price.
1 suppose there isn't a woman living
who is a housekeeper who hasn't thrill
ed with the possibilities of getting rich
on what she could save from the table
as she reads the inspiring words or
some of the household economists. New
er throw away a scrap, say they. Utll-
ize everything. Then they give min
ute directions for converting cold po-
tatoes into appetizing entrees, trans
forming scraps of leftover meat into
enhancing croquettes and converting
stale bread into luscious buildings.
Likewise every woman is told, as the
price of household salvation, to keep
a stock kettle, where the material for
soups will gather itself together as II
by magic and without price.
Now, all this may be possible. Far
be it from me to stand in the way OF
any woman pairing down her household
expenses to the last farthing, but l do
state. on authority, that soup Kettle
and nervous prostration are synono-
nous terms, and the woman who starts
with the first will end with the latter.
Nothing short of eternal vigilance VIII
get the right things into the pot and
keep the wrong things out Further
more, to turn cold potatoes and scraps
of meat into things a la maitre dhotel
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