The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-01
DoRoTHY DIX TALKS
N DoR0rHY DIX
Wsg1Ass NigAsst Paid Weaaa WEitags
Are Women Stingy

Are Women Stingy.
An English paper has recently been
devoting much space 30 a discussion
of the question whether woman Is
stingy or not and, unfortunately, the
general consensus of opinion seems to
be that whatever her other and mani
fest virtues, when it comes to money
matters she is decidedly close and
mean.
Various things were brought forth
in support of this theory-woman's
passion for the bargain counter. her
inability to buy anything without first
trying to beat down the price. the ad-
amantine and unshakable attitude she
takes towards the giving of tips, and
SO on.
Every woman who reads this will
feel like entering a vigorous protest
against such an unjust accusation. and
will deny the charge in toto. We are
not stingy, and if, as a sex, We are
less free with our money, and more
given to a cheeseparfng policy than
men, it is for the very sufficient rea-
son that we have less money to spend.
Man. as a general thing, is the
money Garner. He carries the pock-
etbook, and may do as he pleases with
his own, without giving an account to
anyone. Woman seldom has any
money of which she has absolute con-
troll. What is given her for house
keeping, for clothes and necessary
expenses is the very least with which
the desired and expected results can
be accomplished, and she must needs
look well to every cent and see that
she gets the worth of her money.
1t is this necessity that makes her
the victim of the bargain counter, the
n efa t7a III rIr<r za1I
make-believe goods where you get
something for nothing. She has lit
orally nothing to blow in on things
that are a mere temporary gratifSh
ton of the moment.
AS a matter of fact, women are not
expected to spend much on purely
personal indulgences and so 1t seems
doubly hard for them to be accused
of stinginess. A man thinks nothing
of ordering a lunch that will cost a
dollar or two. His wife may be just as
hungry, and would enjoy it as much
as he does, but she hesitates before
she treats herself to a glass of five
cent soda. No intelligent female
stomach bankers for. cream puffs and
pie, as SO many seem to suppose.
Women simply order them because
they are satisfying and cheap. and
cause it was all they felt they could
afford. If any woman spent as much
money on the qualification of a purely
, individual taste as a man does on CT
CARS, she would be held up as warn
1 ing to young men about to commit
matrimony. Nobody. would speak of
| her as a liberal woman. They would
say she was recklessly, ruinously ex-
ttravagant.
1t cannot be denied that men and
women look at money from different
points of view, and that men do spend
more freely than women. Take the
matter of treating, for instance: A
man feels that he must treat his
cigars even tho he is behind with his
BRENT, and owes the butcher, baker and
candlestock maker. He must do it to
maintain his character of liberality,
and so 1t often happens that he is gem
erous before he is just or honest He
! will give tho, he will never pay.
A woman reverses the process She
Will pay, even if she never gives
Colonel Bluster always heads the pub
lished subscription list of all the Boor-
fboola Cha charities in town; he filings
| IS bill down on the bar and invites
all the loafers to come up and take a
drink; he contributes to the campaign
fund, and spends money like water to
ward, even IL his family have to go on
short rations, and inch and pinch to
pay for it.
| Mrs. Colonel Buster is accounted a
close woman. She takes no stock in
any such liberality. An unpaid bill is
to her like a nightmare; Mrs Jones
might go on without soda water for
ever II she waited for her to treat,
while Mary needed a new frock, or
| Johnny lacked shoes. Furthermore
If candidates election to office in a
twoman's club depended on her friends
| putting up money for it, she would
never get into the presidents chair in
| the world.
| frrY ~
whether liberality is crime or a vir-
| tue, depends altogether on circum-
stances How often do we celebrate
| the generosity of this or that young
man! He never asks the price Of
things, he never neglects to send flow
ers to his hostess or bonbons to the
debutantes, and he insists on paving
| everybody's way on an excursion. How
parsimonious beside him appears his
sister, who counts every penny. and
| washes her handkerchiefs in her room
and dries them on the mirror. and
who lets her friend pay her own street
car fare!
Then some day we hear that in his
expensive way of doing things. the
open hearted young man has en-
braced the contents of his employers
cash drawer, and is fugitive from
justice. and then we wonder if there
are not times when honesty is as good
as iberality.
When It comes to real generosity
the generosity that means self-de-
NAL and self-sacrifice-the very fines,
flower Of 1t may be found amone
women. A woman may insist in hav-
ing the worth Of her money, she NAV
refuse to treat, or pay the way OF
those who are perfectly able to pay
for themselves, but when it comes to
a question of real want her hand is
the quickest and first to give. 1t II
the mites that women save by scrimp.
ing here and pinching there that build
the churches and sustain the charities
4 Behind the apparent stinginess OF
many a woman lies pathetic little
story that the world never knows
Sometimes she Is a well-to-do woman
who is cloaking her husbands miser.
illness to her Sometimes We see hel