Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-09-14
Cus.lman's Nerve


Ever since tic great day in the house
when my friend Francis w. Cushman
Of the state of Washington ran amuck
on the house machine and put to route
General Grosyenor and all his lieu
tenants | have thought he should sue
coed to the title of sthe bravest Of the
brave given by Napoleon to the in
trepid Ney. The charge of the Old
Guard at Waterloo or of the Light
Brigade at Balakiava was not a cir
cumstance to Cushman's performance
on that occasion. but be recently gave
an exhibition of nerve which eclipsed
his charge on the house machine He
delivered a speech in Tacoma to a
graduating class on "Woman's Sphere
and Duties III the World" for which
he should have the grand cross of the
Legion of Honor | wish had space
to give it ALL but / haven't. Here
are his remarks on the bargain counter,
and they constitute what the late I'M
lamented Professor Squeers of Dothe-
boys Hall would have called rich
ness"
/ want to say a word upon another SUBJ
ject to the young women here today
Don't become a bargain counter fend
Don't waste the one life which God gave
you chasing a special sale or trying to
run down bargain counter bonanza
Whenever / see lot of women strug-
Cling around a bargain counter / am IN
doubt as to whether life Is a comedy or
a tragedy. If there is any spectacle in
modern life that tends to make a sane
person lose hope in the future, it is to
see a lot of women with hair disheveled
and raiment awry crushing and JAM
ming through a living ocean of frenzied
femininity in order to reach that modern
misnoner called a bargain counter
whereon is displayed everything that peo-
pie don't need. In what am saying now
l have no intention of being funny. It is
a serious subject In the last few years
there has been developed q new and dis
tinct type of disease in the American
woman, and it might aptly be called bar
gainitis.'
1t is proper in this world for people to
buy what they need and to take whatever
time is necessary to buy it and to go
wherever they think they can get what
they need at the most satisfactory price,
but there is no sense in rushing to every
bargain sale, whether you need anything
or not. I have known women in my life
who would rush down into the front hall
in the morning before they had combed
their hair, and with feverish haste and
bated breath they would seize the morn
ing paper. Its headlines might tell of a
bloody race war in the south. of famine
in India, of the slaughter of the Armenian
by the Turk or the death of thousands
before the walls of Port Arthur 1t
fof,f fali or Sue
and panic, but without a glance she
would turn past the tears of the world
and the woes of humanity in order to find
out what particular CASTOR remnant had
been marked down (?) to IS cents.
Girls of Amer:ca-you in whose veins
courses the blood of a noble and illus
trious race remember that you are
sprung from a race that gave to civiliza-
ton and to America it's brightest names
and most shining examples; that gave to
US Dolly Madison and Nollie Stark
Mother Hodge and Mollie Pitcher
Frances E. Willard and Susan B. An
thony, line of illustrious and noble wo-
manhood that stretches clear back to
Martha Washington and reaches clear
down to Clara Barton, a line that has
added luster to our civilization and honor
to our institutions. Girls, as you go out
into the world, for heavens sake lift your
eyes above the fads and freaks and fol-
lies Of life and be worthy of the age in
which you live and the race from which
you sprung.