The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-24
To Cure Constipation
BiliOusness and Sick
Headache in a Night, use
60 Pills in Glass Vial a5c.-An Dealers.
OLD DAYS AND THE PRESENT
AS Considered by Philosopher Bag
nall In the Turner's Falls Reporter

AS Considered by Philosopher BAG
nall In the Turner's Falls Reporter
Every other minute somebody pops
up to tell us how much more 1t costs
to live nowadays than it did say 10
or 20 years ago They" say 1t takes
| all man can earn to keep body and
soul together, and there is no Joy in
| living. These earnest complaners
can back up their statements by such
solid and ncontrovertible arguments
as pork, 20 cents a pound, eggs, 40
cents a dozen; butter 40 copper bits
for scant Is ounces; milk eight or
more cents quart; beef steak as
high as the marketmans conscience
allows him to charge. When It comes
10 clothing millinery and shoes the
exhibits in the case are equally i'm
pressiye. Granting the truth of these
assertions, the fact remains that the
reason it is so hard for the average
man to keep his head above water
is because what were once considered
luXuries are now counted stern nee
essities and the cause for the gener-
al run OF married mems early silver
ing or loss of their hiTsute adorn-
ments is the struggle to maintain
their families in the extravagant man
ner they have acquired If people
were content In this year of grace
with what they used to offer family
prayers over three times day, not a
few householders might be able to lay
up a quantity of shekels against a
rainy day instead of growing stopped,
cranky and decrepit over the necess
ity of cashing drafts on the bank of
futurity, which, as we all know, de-
mands usurious rates of interest
In the old days, families thriyed.
flourished and attained honor, fame
dollars. contentment. comfort and res
pect on a simple diet composed large
ly of such highly filling but cheap ar
ticles as beans, corn-meal mush, oat
meal, porridge, soups. stews and
host of other savory eatables which
were low in price but required more
skill and time to prepare properly
than the modern housewife cares to
give. Are we satisfied with such diet
now? No sir, never. Now we turn
up our noses at anything less than
sirloins, ice cream, mushrooms, or
cetera. We demand fruits and vege-
tables not i'm season, when plenty
and cheap-then we don't want them,
but out of season when it takes
connoisseur TO tell the difference be.
tween strawberry and tomato il eat
en- without the evidence of the eyes
then it is we insist upon having them
and we pay the piper accordingly. No
wonder the grocery bills for a family
make the man of the house grow pale
round the gillsl In between times
we must consume 60 cents a pound
chocolates and ice creams, sundaes
and sodas. Why marvel that II costs
much money to keep our internal APP
paratus in such a state that we inev-
itably cultivate the fashionable dis
eases of appendicitis, adenoids, ano
so on? The high prices of food would
not trouble us were we content to
subsist as our good old grand daddes
were. OF course we are not content
to do this and nobody wants to give
up the present day fieshpots and go
back to the old times, but having de-
cided that we want the good things OF
this present day let us pay for the
said blessings cheerfully and let it go
at that. Better so years of Europe
than cycle of Cathay" Is it moi
so?
Unless we are ready to go back to
wearing clothes such as the makers
of history did, it were wiser not to
harp so much on the matter of cost.
Years ago man got new suit when
he needed it and wore it summer ana
winter till it simply refused to longer
hang together. Now he has to get
suit for business, one for around the
house, formal occasions, informal oc-
casions, vacation, spring, summer,
FALL and winter, and the Lord knows
what all. Certainly the Gibson man
of today is decidedly better looking
specimen than was his ancestor of
homspuns and hobnail boots, and is
much pleasanter to contemplate but
you can't put on style without paying
for it and as long as we must have
furbelows what is the sense of com
planning because one can't get them
by the simple act of wishing?
In women's clothes the difference
between then and now is so very
marked that no odious comparisons
need be made. 1t costs much more
to keep the modern women in hair
rats, massage creams, perfumery, etc.
than it did to clothe, SHOE hat and
glove her grandmother, and she is
decidedly expensive, albeit a charm
ing luxury. Needles and pins, need
les and pins, when man marries, his
financial troubles begin for II costs
all he can rake and scrape to keep
his wife looking as well as the other
ladies on her visiting list, and even
then he is probably reminded at least
once day that she hasn't single
decent thing to wear" The same is
true with the children. Nobody short
of a millionaire has any business to
raise children. They cost big for
tunp avery one of Them and raca Ont