The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1914-07-07

1t is against my principles. can see
you now sticking your pretty nose
up in the air, and hear you say
Against her principles. The hypo-
critic! After all the shopping she has
done here!" But I've been converted.
I've absolutely changed my ideas on
that subject and you know | do not
stand by a thing if | really believe
it. It was the new Whittier slogan
that did it. You didn't know Whit
tier had a slogan. Oh, but we have
and it rhymes so beautifully. In fact
think it was the rhyme that did it
all. You know how anything that
has jingle sticks in my mind, and
yesterday while l was doing my work
over and over in my head kept ring
ing the words
"Never roam
But trade at home.
Never roam
But trade at home"
l don't mind telling you little
family secret Tom and / never agree
on the question of trading at home.
He has argued and argued about it,
but I still continue to buy what and
where / pleased without giving the
matter thought, so | want to tell
you how / happened to change.
First of all / thought about those
slippers l bought the other day. They
are rights already. By paying half
dollar more land that was just
what my car fare was you know l
could have bought better pair right
here. Anyway if they hadn't been bet
ter, l at least would have had the
satisfaction of walking down to the
store and telling them so and they
would have tried to make it right.
But who cares in the city if your
bargains do turn out bad.
And my suit, / thought it was a
bargain at $3.50, but | had to pay ex-
ira for the alterations and go in twice
to be fitted, and when l got home the
buttons looked so cheap | had to buy
new ones for it. So when l figured
it all up | know it cost me more than
one l might have bought here, be-
sides coming home all worn outlaw
ing a sick headache-and missing a
dinner party and being cross to Tom
and the babies for two days. thought
of dozens of things like that and won
dered if they really did pay after all.
Besides, Nell, l happened to think
suppose everyone did as | had done.
What would this town amount to?
Suppose everyone went somewhere
else to buy their hardware for in
stance | guess Tom would soon
have to be hunting somewhere else
for a place and where would the ba-
bies and | be then? And our dear
| little home that we have fixed up so
pretty. with flowers and fruit and that
is worth fully $500 more than when
we bought it. Why, if everyone
traded away from here people would
have to move too, and we couldn't
hardly give it away.
And the schools that we are so
proud of and so glad to be near for
the babies, they could not be kept up
and run as splendidly as they are now,
and the churches-no one would have
much, if any, money to give them,
and even church cannot be run with
out some money you know, so there
wouldn't be even a place to go to
church or to send the babies to Sun
day school.
The more l thought the more in
4 tarested | became. 1t seems to me
we are all like one big family, and
whatever hurts one of US hurts US all.
And for US to trade away from home
and not help each other is just as
if each member of the family would
90 outside of the home for all his
pleasure and interest. And we all
know what dreary, unlovely home
that would be-with all its family
life of helpfulness and happiness
gone.
Isn't this lengthy epistle all on
one subject? But | thought | really
ought to explain why | wouldn't shop
in the city any more. I'll come in
any day you say TO visit you or GO
to a matinee or concert or anything
of that kind, but not to shop. I'll
not buy another thing anywhere else
if | can get it here. Tom is terribly
pulled up because he thinks he has
convinced me at last-but he did not
have a thing to do with it. 1t was all
the Whittier slogan, and if it hadn't
rhymed, | doubt if l would have
been convinced at all.
So never roam