Show SPEXDTIIRIFT WOMEN A Growing Movement Among Mil llonnlren to Teach Daughter the Value of Money It is so thoroughly unfashionable throughout this country to be economIcal economI-cal that the American woman doesnt seem to realize that she has become a spendthrift Not only are the mass of girls of marriageable age quite innocent of any knowledge > of household economies or frugality in personal expenditures but the advanced woman and the fin de siecle production who may be willing to wed have any number of expenses that women never used to have Alphonse Karr wrote The prodigality pro-digality of woman has reached such proportions that one must be wealthy to have one for himself Few young men are to be blamed if after a study of possible wives they decide matrimony is too expensive for their incomes It is said that so well established is the spendthrift trait in our women that no matter In what part of the world they appear the natives look on the average American woman as a princess of prodigality and the extortionate prices foreign shopkeepers name to our compatriots are well known MRS ASTOR AND HER DAUGHTER INLAW Rich young women have the instinct of money spenders naturally because they never know the value of a dollar by earning it So generally accepted is this fact that when matrimony was suggested as young John Jacob Astors intention it was insisted that his mother would never approve any engagement en-gagement until he chose a fiancee of financial prudence When his engagement engage-ment to Miss Willing of Philadelphia was announced It was agreed that just such a woman had been found No one could blame Mrs Astor for her satisfaction Young Mrs Astor has proved an eminently happy choice and while she is popular lovely and has even added to the Astor prestige it is well known that she is thrifty in a sensible fashion that is worth thousands of dollars annually an-nually If Mrs Astor with her position as leader in New York society can afford to be known as an exponent of thrift and prudence and Mrs J J Astor can practice the same doctrine certainly the great mass marriageable young women can afford to adopt similar ideas Yet not even the Astors can make thrift fashionable Nor can Mrs Cleveland Women who are anxious to imitate the presidents presi-dents wife would do well to follow her practice In financial matters From many sources I hear she Is unusually prudent In expenditures of all kinds and considering her private income the wealth TMr Cleveland accumulated and her position she dresses very moderately moder-ately and doesnt even disdain to wear a madeover dress To be sure among the most opulent circles there is now a tendency to encourage young girls to learn the value of money The cashier of the bank of New Yorks 400 where very young girls of millionaire families follow fol-low the fashion and keep an account says that some of these girls are developing unusual prudence and thrift in handling their allowances But this small grain of leaven has not spread any into the lump The edict In general society is go abroad and economize Come back to the United States and cut a wide swath Fashionable women are willing will-ing to be known as following those laws but economize at homenever MOTHERS CRITICISED Next to fashion mothers are the mischief makers In our great prospering pros-pering middle class as soon as a girl is born her mother begins the struggle strug-gle to dress her better than the other baby In the block The strife goes on as she grows up and there is no class distinction hereto here-to frown on the impulse to rise higher in fashion or teach the mother the good sense of cutting her aspirations for the girl to fit the family income The girl grows us with her desires foolishly granted She spends money without looking at it twice Instead of saying Ill save so much money when she has her own little allowance allow-ance she tries to get more than the money will pay for By the time she is ready to marry she is grounded in spendthrift ways and intends to give up nothing but to gain by marriage When a young man would like to endow en-dow her with his name and a fair share of his salary lightning calculations calcula-tions decide him that she is too expensive ex-pensive and hasnt any characteristics that are likely to develop his income and make It big enough for two So he cuts off his courtship with the lovely spendthrift whose parents are not too rich nor yet too poor but in just that state denominated middle but aspiring I dont see how a young man can be blamed in these cases Its the girls own parents If prudence could be made fashionable fashion-able it would certainly have good effect ef-fect in families whose heads have incomes in-comes ranging from 1500 to 5000 per year It is in this grade of society that young men must plead that they cant afford matrimony Girls in these families fam-ilies are not taught these mysteries of househbld economics or general frugality fru-gality that are daily taught In German and French households Many of them live and die without ever realizing the heights and depths of the purchasing value of 100 cents How women of this kind can bring up daughters endowed with more thrift than their mothers is a problem EXPENSIVENESS OF THE ADV AD-V WOMAN I firmly believe that the advanced woman or she who is truly finde siecle is one of the most costly wives ever known The man who takes one to himself must make allowances for many expenses ex-penses no woman used to have This advanced woman who tries to keep up to the age has as many club dues as most men and a great many more than the average one She outdoes out-does him on his old exclusive territory She has to pay for club and society suppers to distinguished women and now and then to a man She subscribes to all sorts of entertainments I enter-tainments courses and classes that her feminine predecessors never dreamed of and that are quite as expensive ex-pensive as anything men do in the same line She is continually taking up new charities of whose invention her grandmother grand-mother never dreamed and most of them come hitrh Radical movements and those for the amelioration of sociological evils have to be followed up Every movement and most of the clubs that are worth anything have to have conventions which cost good money The woman with modern improvements improve-ments insists she must have all these I things Therefore when she weds man must add her club dues to his club duesWomen Women used to think men were the only spendthrifts but they have caught up bravely themselves Meantime matrimony i mat-rimony doesnt I become any cheaper I |