The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-12-02

Ing any clothes this season, you know.
am saving all my money to go abroad"
LAS 1t isn't so very long before you
leave, this would be the very thing for
you; it's SO useful and SO cheap" said
her friend
That one word "cheap" settled 1t. The
pretty clothes bee'' began to buzz in
her bonnet. She had withstood tempta-
ton just as long as she possibly could,
and when the polite saleswoman said:
viii madame let me slip this frock
on her''-Why, that was the straw that
broke the cameps back.
OF course 1t is needless to say she
bought the frock.
Then what more natural than that she
should have a bonnet to match, and
gloves and shoes, and all the pretty fem
mime hnery that one frock can call for,
and SO at the next shop when her friend
insisted upon her trying on "a dream
of little Napoleon chapeau, plentifully
besprinkled with plumes, she fell vic
tim and purchased the hat.
When she got home and thought 1t all
over, she realized that her beautiful
little bank account had been invaded
outrageously and looked like the rem
nants OF the Armenian massacre or the
tag end OF the Boer war.
A few days later when she appeared
In her new clothes a crowd of her wom-
en- friends were SO shocked that they
could not help exclaiming
why, what has happened? Are you
going to be married, or what? We
thought you were saving your money
| for trip abroad, and were too econom-
| zeal to buy such things as froclks and
| hats"
Now, listen" she began apologetically.
| This dress was marked down
I'VE knew it." they shrieked in uni
son. I'VE knew you couldn't resist the
| temptation of q real, live bargain"
| And the poor woman was ridfculed and
| laughed at so that in days to come these
| women will tell her story as a matter
| of history to all those who are disposed
to be economical and saving, just as they
tell the story about the woman who de-
MED herself Ice cream sodas all summer
| long and when she counted up her money
at the end Of August found she had
| accumulated the large and imposing sum
| of ss.25, which was simply delicious, and
| all would have been well had not
| f1ossy book agent crossed her path with
| wonderful offer
He proposed to give her three years
| subscription to THE Onlooker' with a
kitchen table, q door mat, picture of
F., Peary and Cook at the north pole, a
rainy day skirt, q motto hand-worked of
What Is Home Without Mother"
some new side combs, straight front
corset and the complete works of Theo-
| dore Roosevelt, all for s5.e5.
Such bargain-none could resfst-ano
so her good money that she had saved
| went like smoke.
| Months afterward this same woman
confessed to not having read 20 pages
of the books and that she frequently
threw the magazine into the waste bas-
| ket, but she just had to have It because
| 1t wa q bargain"
| All of which goes on to prove that
bargains are q menace and a demon
alization to womankind. which they can
no more resist that gazing back at a
| rival as they pass her on the srrees,
or looking in every mirror that they come
| in contact with.
| And SO, we will forgive these two wom-
en- as well as third with the euphonious
name of Smith," who attended an auc-
ton sale one day A bronze door plate
| engraved Brown was knocked down
| to her as the highest bidder. and when
| ono of her friends asked her why she
bought 1t, she serenely remarked:
| why, 1t was bargain, and n my
daughter Mary Ann should ever marry
a man named Brown and needed a
door plat she would never be able to
l buy one that cheap"