The Washington herald., 1913-09-07
by FRANCES sHAFFER.

At best, it would not be reassuring
to read that beef is to ascend in price
until it reaches the pretty rate of so
| cents a pound for the choice cuts; but
we can, if we like, or if we must, let
beef go by. Indeed, it has grown
something of luxury in ordinary
| homes already, so the new figures will
not create a panic.
But that is not all. For the same
ordinary homes have grown quite &C
customed to hear the dismaying tidhgs
of other advances from time to time,
bacon a bit higher today than yester-
| day, and nobody knows what tomorrow
will bring forth, with vegetables
pretty poor and. very fancy III price.
But not even that is all.
The thing that worries some careful
buyers the most, though perhaps it is
not the greatest item, is the steady ret
regarding in values on articles of
clothing and the like.
One may go into a shop with her
eyes wide open, yet unless she is an
expert in determining qualities, she
may be badly deceived. 1t makes one
bit pessimistic to pay good price
for silk, after looking it over with what
one always has reckoned pretty fair
judgment, to add the dressmaker's bill,
and then, after a month or so of wear,
! to find the fabric steadily giving way,
when it ought to last for many months
more.
Not WOmRn's FauIt.
It is not fair to blame the buyer, for
the silk seems firm in texture and to
be all that honest silk ought TO be;
and it is hard to guess the quality OF
dye or the many strange things that
may have entered into its manufac-
| ture.
Nor yet is it the fault of the sturdy,
faithful, little silkworm.
Time was when one did not pur-
chase and wear hosiery in fear and
trembling, not knowing what the first
day might bring forth. One cannot
hope to gather grapes OF thistles," and
in buying the diphanouS silk variety so
| much in vogue, one must expect to
take her fate in her own hands, and
perhaps to be forced TO discard the
purchase after one wearing or two.
But when one tries TO be as sensible
| and as wise as she knows how to be
in her selections, one has a right to
expect honest values. But, alas in
the hosiery world, they are few and
far between.
Yet women buy as carefully as ever
they did, and judge as well-the trou-
hle surely is not with them. And it
is scarcely on the co;ton-felds. either.
And II they only would not adulter
ate foods!
1t is bad enough to pay the fancy
prices, but when housewives find pull
verized sawdust in their pepper,
ground tan-bark in their chocolate,
benzoate OF soda in their canned
goods, plaster OF paris in their sugar,
and goodness knows what else in
other directions, they do not know
which way TO turn for safety
They must pay ruinous rates for
eggs snugly packed in nice little boxes,
carefully labeled Selected with care"
only to learn, to their sorrow, that the
period OF freshness has long since
gone by. And they have grown posi-
lively afraid of the rank preservatives
they find upon poultry, sometimes so
cOnspicuouslv that the odor is tell
tale proof OF some ones duplcity in
trying to palm them off as perfectly
fresh"
World Is Right.
Now, women have problems of their
own, and the world is not slow to ask
that they solve them, for the sake of
themselves and of everybody else.
And women of good, sober sense are
pleased to admit that the world is
right. and that it is their business to
go about their problems Conscientious
ly and with telling results.
But while women are urged to be
upon their guard against all kinds of
frauds, to learn something of values,
TO be careful of their weights and
measures, and to let nothing escape
their critical eyes, it seems scarcely
fair to expect them to straighten out
tangles not of their making. And be-
sides, the frauds in some of the goods
offered for sale. both to wear and to
eat, are so cleverly concealed that by
the time they are detected it is too
late to do any good.