The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-22
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Extravagant Economy.


economy has become not only an ex-
preston of patriotism, but an obses-
sion, it is a good thing to sit down
and try to figure out when saving is
saving and when it is wasting.
Especially is this true in regard to
women who are. only too frequently
penny wise and pound foolish and
who are never so wildly extravagant
as when they are most conscientiously
trying to be economical
Indeed one man l know claims that
he really can't afford his wife's econo-
mics. He says that he can pay her
bills with ease so long as she follows
when she has fits of retrenchment and
saving she bankrupts him.
Most women will have an uneasy
feeling that this woman'S cap fits
them, for the majority of our crimes
of extravaganza are committed IN
the name of economy and We waste
more money in trying to save than
in any other way.
What woman, for instance, hat not
at times INDUCED in the ruinous ex-
travagance of having her old frocks
and hats made over? At the begin
ming of the season she gets out her
last years gear and looks it over.
Times are hard. Husband is COM
DldlnlnS
ing. Her old buds look pretty good
to the woman. Not quite good enough
to wear as they are, but with a little
touch here and there they will pass
muster. She has an inspiration of
saving. She will have them made
over.
She takes the hat and gown to her
milliner and dressmaker who looks
sour and disGruntied, but who rather
than lose good customer agree to
see what they can do with the old
things. They do.
By the addition of a couple of fiji
teen dollar ostrich feathers, a bolt of
expensive ribbon and some imported
ornaments the old hat is camouflaged
into an understudy of a new one at
about twice the price of a new one.
While the cost of reconstruction of the
old gown, with layers of chiffon, en-
broidery, spangles, gold net and heav-
en- knows what, superimposed upon it,
makes its second estate far more ex-
pensive than the first. And they are
still made over clothes and look it.
1t takes a bank roll big enough to
choke an elephant, and a barrel of
tears, to teach a woman that having
her old things made over is an ex-
travag ance that only millionairesses
can afford, and that woman in mod
crate circumstances is reduced to the
pitiful economy of having to buy new
clothes when she needs them instead
of having her old things furnished up.
Also it takes age and bitter expert
ence to teach a woman that a bargain
is almost invariably a bomb loaded
with dynamite. I recently overheard
a conversation between two sisters
that illuminated this point with great
clearness- Said one of the sisters to
the other:
1--WE have exactly the same allow
ance. yet you are always dressed ex
quisitely and I look like a human rag
bag. How do you do it 81
by avoiding a bargain sale as
would case of smallpox" replied the
other. "Oh, I know the fascination
of getting something for s1.97 that
has been marked down from 50, and
buying a French model at half price
at the end of a season, and so on. 1
know they look alluring and sound al
Turing, but when you get them home
they are never just exactly what you
want. and you generally find out that
you bought an evening gown because
it was bargain when what you need
ed was sport suit. or that you've in
vested the money you intended to put
everything in that sale had been
marked down to IS. And you have
too many hats, and your feet are
shabby.
Worse than that. If you get the
bargain mania, you fritter away your
{
ends that you buy, simply because they
are cheap, that clutter up your house
and for which you have no earthly
use. That's where your money goes.
and that's why you never have any to
spend on really good gown or hat.
also avoid cheap things, because a
cheap thing is never cheap, it never
has the wear to it, to say nothing of
the looks, that a good article does
The way to economic on clothes
is to buy the most expensive ones you
can possibly afford. 1t pays in the
end because they last better and they
always have an air and a style to them
! that shoddy things never have"
OF course bargain hunting cannot be
solely attributed to woman's mis-
, goes bargain hunting for the same
! reason that man goes big game
! huntington the excitement of the
chase. Both probably get the worth
( of their money in the fun they have.
but neither one of them are money
! saving amusements.
Now thrift is one of the most ad-
! mirable qualities that any woman can
J possess, and no one would throw a
/ wet blanket over the enthusiasm of
! those ladies who are attempting to
practice it. It is a wholesome expert
save something for the government.
and it will certainly be valuable OBJ
] ject lesson to the women in giving
! them a line on how much they spend
on unnecessary things
] But while all the prophets on the
watch towers are calling out to them
| to Savei Save! Save! I should like
| to call their attention to the impor-
lance of saving themselves at he same
time that they save their bread crusts
and potato parings.
There's no real economy in spending
five hundred dollars to save five, and
yet that's exactly the sort of finan-
! ci ring that a lot of women are doing.
I Not long ago I went to see a woman
| who was convalescing from physical
I breakdown that had necessitated the
J expenditure of young fortune in doc
tors bills. trained nurses. medicines
and a sanatoriun
| But the woman was perfectly jubi-
liant in the possession of an annrov-