The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-23
A WOMAN GAN SAVE.
AND SHE JUSTLY PRlDES HER
SELF ON THIS ABILITY
Men Buy What They Want When
They Want 1t, but Women Often
Buy What They Do Not Want, "Be-
cause 1t Is Cheap"

The demands of modern life are so
tremendous that the woman who is
head of a household, and yet desires to
and needs must economic, wonders
where and how she can cut her eX-
penditures. Just at present when food
and clothing are at maximum cost, or
seem to be, the housekeeper is con-
fronted with a grave problem. Dor
othy Dix, an excellent woman writer,
has an article in a current magazine
upon women's virtues that are vices,
and she ranks economy in the front
rank of these. She says that many
woman who may not have very high
opinion of herself in other directions,
regards herself as a past mistress IN
the art of saving and believes that
it is only the accident Of her sex
which prevents her from being sec
rotary of the treasury. Also she re-
CARDS a man as the very embodiment
of extravaganza because he buys what
he wants when he wants it, instead OF
buying something he does not want
because it is cheap. There is a great
deal in that and it would be well for
women to ponder upon it. we all
know the temptations of bargain sales;
10 buy things when they are cheap,
even if not needed. But this is the
falsest enconomy, because what we do
not want is never cheap. The writer
SAYS that economy in women has be-
come a virtue through tradition, for in
The old order before women were earn
ers, about the only way for them to
make money was to save it, hence it
has become a rule for women to re-
gard economy as the chief of their vir-
tues. But too often an attempt at
3 saving will bring about the greatest
eXtravagan How many women have
run up a big bill buying things that
are cheap because they may want them
next year. Dorothy Dix says: Every
now and then some prophet in Israel
arises and sets forth the economy of
buying your summer clothes in Mo-
vember and your winter clothes in
August. 1t sounds feasible and al
Turing Most of US have tried it, and
that yet no woman has committed sui
eide when she got out her season-be-
fore bargains is a striking proof OF
feminine heroism under blighting
disappointment"
How painfully true that is. How
often we buy some expensive thing to
cover up a bargain that we purchased
The best economy is to buy the best
if you can-in season, and it will out
last all the bargains you could obtain.
Dorothy Dix thinks there is but little
econo. ny in having ones clothes made
over, but here we must part company
with her, for we believe there is econ
omy, provided, Of course, that the
thing was worth buying in the first
place. In the matter of shopping.
women could learn much from men;
not much perhaps on other subjects.
But when man wants thing, coat
or a hat or some wearing apparel, he
goes to the best place, asks the price
and if he has it pays il without muir
muir. Few men shop in the real sense
of that term. But a woman will walk
miles, tire herself to death and become
irritable and nervous, in pursuit of
towels marked down to 40 cents. Orig
inally they were so cents. Or she will
spend 20 cents in car fare to save 5
cents a dozen on eggs. She thinks
that walking down town saves car fare,
but does not reflect that the wear and
tear on her shoes and the bottom of
her skirts amounts to more than the
10 cents she would pay to ride Or she
will insist upon putting up the cur
tains herself when the spring cleaning
is over, and if she falls off the step
ladder, breaks bone, and is laid up
with a trained nurse for two months,
it may occur to her that it would have
been cheaper to pay a man to do 1t.
All these inconsistencies are intensely
feminine, and also interesting. If
women did not do these things many
men would have no texts and writers
would be out of a job. Women are ex-
ceedingly nice, even if they do these
ridiculous things. For many a woman
with a thrifty soul, has been truly eco