St. Tammany farmer., 1905-12-02
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

l
| Kindly notice, gentle reader, that
have not said q word about buying
what you don't need. If thing is an
actual need and one can afford its
purchase, there is no virtue in going
without it. Saving simply for its own
| sake SO that one may add dollar to dol
lar is often the poorest economy.
In the home we owe it to ourselves
and the children and our friends to
buy what we need if we can do it with
out injury to any other interest. There
is no merit in being shabby when we
| might just as well be spic and span
and up-to-date. Threadbare carpets
may be badge of honorable frugality
or sign of disgraceful parsimony
When pass the house of a multi-mil-
lionaire and see weather-beaten
boards devoid of paint and palings
broken in the garden fence and road
way lacking repair, need nobody to
tell me that the man however great
his wealth is at heart pauper.
Every miser is a pauper. To be stin-
gy is to be pauper. A happy-go-
lucky tramp without penny in his
pocket may be far richer man than
curmudgeon who deals in stocks and
bonds, accumulating money every
hour and boarding it to no good end.
To buy what one needs and what
ones family needs is praiseworthy. 1t
is quite a different thing from buying
what one faneies and yet does not
really want. Let me illustrate.
Mr.. A., who had the soul of a
prince with the purse of a beggar,
one day brought in and presented to
his wife, with debdhaire delight. an ex-
pensfve set of chess men. The gift
was superb. They were of the finest
ivory, beautifully carved, and their
cost made hole in a hundred dollars.
A shadow fell over the sweet face Of
Mrs. A. as she received the chess
men. For the life of her she could
not simulate enthusiasm She knew,
and her husband should have known,
that at the very moment when he had
spent much gold on this altogether
superfluous luxury, the wolf of debt
was growing at the door. Each of
the four boys was in crying need Of
new suit. The two elder ones were COM
PEELED to have new overcoats The
mother herself had not bought an en-
tirely new gown in several years. It
was little wonder that she could not
be happy when nearly 500 had been
lavished by her thoughtless good man
on curious carving and dainty ele-
gance.
Some people ara doubly at the mercy
of their own impulses and of the glib
tongue of an urbane salesman. There
are men and women worth big salaries
to their employers who could almost
vile bird from bough by their win
ming persuasion when they are selling
goods.
The unwary customer, with little
money in the purse. sees in some show
case beautiful article which he or she
covets. To look is to step into dan
ger. To ask the price is to be hope
lessly lost. Between inclination on the |
one hand and courteous suggestion on
the other, the luckless customer is be- |
tween the devil and the deep sea. It is |
very much the same with people of |
limited means who indulge in the lux
ury of monthly account Unless one
is very firm there is the peril of buy
ing during the month a lot Of things
one does not want. and being terribly
ut the sum total when the
bill comes in.
People without number yield to the
insidious temptation to buy what they
do not want, and what they would be
just as we'll without, when they buy on
the sweetly insinuating installment
plan. You pay one dollar down and
$50 worth of goods is straightway sent
you. You are to pay one dollar, two
dollars, or five dollars a month, and
the agent who engineers the transac-
ton assures you that the small pay
ment will never inconvenience you in
the least. Perhaps it may not. Per-
haps it may. Whether or not, you will
be safer If you wait until you can pay
cash down before you make the pur-
chase. did once. once only, hear of
! woman who induced a merchant to
release her from her bargain. But this
seldom occurs.
When it comes to larger affairs,
such as tempting investments which
Ire to pay a magnificent interest,