Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-09-05
LxlRAYAGANf ECONOMY.
WOMEN WASTE TIE;E AND
STRENGTH IN PETTY SAVING.


the Sex Stated With Somewhat
Unusual Vigor and clearness by a
Distinguished Engishwomsn.
ThaE women do not know how to
spend money is not new indict-
ment, but the case against the sex is
stated with somewhat unusual yigor
and lucidity by Mrs John Lane in a
recent number Of The Fortnightiy
Review
In the first place, Mrs. Lane points
out that it is not the women them
selves who are to blame for this par
ticular lack of capacity. In order to
learn to spend money it is necessary,
first, to have money, and women have
never had it.
Il don't for a moment believe"
says Mrs. Lane, that the lovely He
brew damsel, Rebecca, had a penny
of her own, nor that the peerless
Guinevere had half a crown Tor what
ever the coinage was) to buy her
Launcelot a love token And though
Scheberazade-tilat peerless, self
contained, circulating library of a
thousand and one volumes-eould
tell enough stories to her Sultan to
have made the fortune of modern
publisher, she could hardly have
made less even if she had the felicity
to write modern novel
Now, we modern women are the
descendants more or less remote. of
Rebecca, Guinevere and Schehera-
zade, and our greatest resemblance
to our fair ancestresses is that most
of us have no money to spend. and
those of us who have do not know
how to spend it. Heredity is an ex-
cuse for being what might be called
the stingy sex"
Among particular instances Mrs.
Lane tells of a friend of her own, "a
woman with massive intellect, who
is, however, not above economy. She
has been in search of an ideal green
grocer, and, after much tribulation of
spirit and waste of precious hours
that mean literally pounds to her, she
found him in Shepherds Bush. Lur-
ed by the bucolic name, tempted by a
vision of sprouts at tuppence a pound,
instead of tuppence ha'peny, she
made a pilgrimage there, wasted a
whole precious morning, and joined a
phalanx of other mistaken female
economists who stood on wet flags
in Indian file, each waiting her turn
to be served. My intelligent friend
waited twenty-five minutes, until she
was finally rescued by a serving
man, and had the rapture OF saving
sevenpence. She, naturally, returned
home in triumph and in a bus, but
she was so used up by her economy
that it would have been flattery to
call her a wreck. That night she
had chill, the doctor was summon
ed in hot haste, and he proceeded to
attend her with that assiduity which
only adds another terror to illness.
Another friend economical by get
ting double service out of her
matches. But she found it awfully ex-
pensive. One night she lighted the
gass in her bedroom, and, true to her
principles, carried the lighted match
to her dressing room, through the
foppy art curtain. The next instant
it was all in blaze, and she was
hanging out of the window shrieking
'Fire!' They broke down her front
door, trailed miles of dirty, oozing
hose upstairs, and finally left her gaz-
ing drearily at the black ceiling, the
sodden furniture, the dirty water
pouring downstairs, and hideous
burned wall where the fatal art cur
tain had been. Since then she has
never used a match twice.
"Still another feminine disciple of
economy is a nice girl who slums.
She has reduced self-sacrifice to a
science, and her life is an orgy of
self-deniaI She is a hollow eyed,
haggard young martyr, and keeps
body and soul together on five shil-
lings a week Every once in a while
she neglects and staryes herself into
an awful fit of illness, and has TO be
taken back to Mayfair and brought
to life, and then the good physician
sends a humping big bill to her par
ents, who never get any credit for
charity"
Women have been subject to much
derision on account of the queer
things they eat Mrs Lane discovers
the reason for the habit in their ex-
travagant economy. A woman feels
that 'to eat well and substantially is
sheer waste"
She also thinks it economical to
have cheap servants. Il have seen a
sensible woman rejoice" says Mrs.
Lane. because she had captured a
cheap servant, as if, what with ag-
grayation of spirit and broken crock
cry, a cheap servant does not take
it out of one in nervous prostration.
Not to mention that the incompetent
eat just as much as the competent!
"What women need most of all, -
concludes Mrs. Lane, els to be taught
unextravagant economy, which in
cludes the value both of money and
of time, for the day is coming when
womens time will really be worth
something. So let women earn mon
ey, or at all events, let it be given
them as a right and not as begrudg-
ed charity and l think it will be
cheaper for men in the end
A JILL OF ALL TRADES.