The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-07-04
HOME BUYERS.
A. Town IL Known BY The w omen in

Dear Women:-I don't call you
ladies. God made the women. The
cook-lady and the scrub-lady were
made afterwards.
You love the town of your birth, or
the town of your adoption. You mag
nify its advantages, and you belittle
it's disadvantages.
No woman is half of woman unless
there is engraven upon the looking
glass of her mind that patriotic motto
of local progression.
"My town first; other towns after.
wards"
You are the owners of your town;
Man NAV think he is monarch, OF all
he can survey, but he isn't. -.
He who would beard the lion in his
den: who would press his finger upon
the button of trade, that business may
Jingle when be connects the wires;
who would smoke his cigar before the
all-ready-to-smoke mouths of many
cannon; dares not face his wife-of- over
-a.year, wearing the second pair OF
trousers made by the tailor who does
not fit to suit her.
The mother of creation is the buyer
of creations necessities.
Without depreciating the great me-
chanical and financial interests OF the
country, I will make the surprising
and vet positively true statement, verl..
fed bv the unimpeachable statistics of
the world, that the larger part OF the
product of the earth, and oflnachlnery,
is intended for the inside and outside
of the human body. and is used IN the
economy, comfort, and luxury OF home
living.
Woman controls the family. She is
the queen of the home, the home
maker or the home breaker, the cap
tain of the house, and the naturally
elected buyer. -,
Woman not man holds trade in the
hollow of her hand.
Eighty per cent. of the ADVERTISE
ments in your newspapers, in your
magazines, and in your family papers,
are written for the eyes of WI man, and
announce goods used by woman and
purchased by women.
The woman buys for herself, for
the children and for every member OF
the household.
The woman of your town, not the
men of your town, make the business
of your town.
Within the woman ia the power to
make or break the town.
Unless the town be merely subur-
ban bedroom, its character ls reckoned
by its business.
Show me the business street OF a
town, and will tell you the sincerity
of its churches, the size of its librar-
les, the breadth of it's schools, and the
character of its people.
The business street is the giant ar
terry of the system of progression.
In local home-business Is local pro-
gression.
Where there is local business there
is availableImoney for better churches,
better libraries, better schools and bet
ter everything. !.
Annihilate local business, or stunt
its growth, and there comes a depres-
sion that depresses everything even to
civilization.
Would you, as representative women,
have your town satisfactory to your
selves. satisfactory to your visitors,
good enough for your children, so pro-
gressive, so pleasant, so filled with
every needed advantage, that your
sons can afford to make the town of
their childhood the hometown OF
their life and business, and your
daughters may not be driven across its
borders in search of husbands?
In your hands rests the fate of your
town.
AS you will it, so will it be.
The business of your town makes
the town and you make the business.
Let your local duty be your first
duty. There can be no second duty,
while the first duty remains unattend-
ed to.
There cannot be business without
customers.
You are the customer.
Don't go to the distant city a-shop-
ping or a-buying unless necessity de-
mands.
Give your local stores the first
chance.
If your town is halfway decent,
there is very little of necessity. and
and almost as little of luxury. which
you cannot buy at home at blg-clty
prices.
Don't for a moment think that
would be so foolish as to say it is
woman's duty to buy every thing at
the local store. unless it pays to DO so,
for am aware that there are eXcep-
ceptional towns where the local stores
are not worth patronizing; but l know,
from experience, that in ninety per
cent of the local towns of fair size,
the stores carry goods good enough
for anybody. not perhaps in confusing
variety, but in sufficient number to
satisfy the reasonable demands of SEN
sible people. -,
Did it ever occur to you that the
shoddy woman of shoddy style, who
whitewashes her gingerbread that her
may think she has frosted
cake. is sometimes the one who makes
the biggest fuss about shopping, and
who often spends the most, and gets
the least for her money? Really she
works harder in getting lid of her
money than in gettingit.
You have a duty to perform. and
that duty is for you to support your
town from progressive moti> es as we'll
as from selfish motives
Ifyour local stores don't carry the