The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-18
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.

The dictum of woman at MILL
ners convention that lit is better ia
substitute dried beef for roast beef
than to substitute home made hats for
custom made millinery, is only. what
one might expect to hear from the lips
Of a professional milliner. SO is the
statement which followed. to the eff
feet that it Is better for woman to
stint her appetite for food than to
curb her love for fine millinery Stint
their appetites in order to put the
money on their backs is precisely what
hundreds of thousands of women do,
or would like to do, and they stand in
no need of being urged to do it more
Whatever the faults of women as a
class, gluttony and epicureanism are
not among them. Women care far less
about what they have to eat than men
do, or than is good for them. A man
will have nice things to eat and
enough Of them if he has to go
around in overalIs to make up for it.
A WOman's first instinct, if she needs
to econonlizt IS to pinch on her diet.
Single women in need Of funds will
almost always haYe recourse to econo-
my in food as a first resort, and the
mother of a family which finds itself
less prosperous than, it has been will
cut down on the table the very first
thing. eD e. 5az ~s
Of course there are several reasons
for this. One naturally begins to econ
on1ize at the point where economy
hurts least. and women do not feel
privation of this particular sort so
keenly as they do some others. And
then, it is part of the feminine meter
to go without to deny oneself
Perhaps the most cogent of all Is the
reason that this is a form of economy
that can be practiced in private No
one but those Immediately concerned
need know that there was only oatmeal
and bread and butter to go with the
coffee for breakfast this morning, but
soiled linen and shabby gloves publish
the fmpecunious to the world.
Where this economy in food Is not
carried to the point Of undertaking
there can be no fault to find with it,
Most people in a fair state Of pros
perity eat too much. and physicians
attribute not a few Of our national
Ills to the American tendency away
from the simple substantials in food
toward delicacy and. an excess of re-
hnement. A woman or a family can
cut down on the Ice cream sodas, on a
good deal Of the meat they eat, and on
a long line of sweets, pastries, made
dishes, griddle cakes, sauces, etc, and
be none the worse off for the retrench-
ment. "a
The point to make here Is not, how
ever, the benefits or the, evils Of econ
omy in ones living, but only to en-
phasize the fact that American wom-
en- do not need any fniIlfner to tell them
to stint their appetites rather than
curb their love fer fine millinery, be-
cause women do that sort of thing of
their own accord. If there is one thing
more than another that hallmarks a
woman as something less than a gen.
tlewoman 1t is the passion for dress
ing beyond her income, for putting all
she can save and serape upon her
back. Much of the bad health from
which women suffer comes from mall
nutrition. actuated by "a love Of per-
sonaI display.
There are worse things than being
hungry. There are harder things to
bear than being chronicaily underfed.
But if woman is going to deny her
self proper food, II she is going to
stint her appetite in heavens name
let her do it for. something better worth
while than new hiatt