“_Chasing the penny to its lair is the housewife’s favorite indoor
sport._”--H. C. OF L. PROVERB NO. 9.
A refreshing breeze floated into the dining-room window of Mr. and Mrs.
Larry’s apartment. It passed Teresa Moore’s competent square shoulders
and touched Mrs. Norton’s sleek hair and Claire’s pale clear skin.
It played on Mrs. Larry’s sparkling face. It made the men, including
Jimmy Graves, who had come all the way from Kansas City for the great
occasion, sit up a little straighter. It quickened Lena’s steps, as,
with crisp little cap and apron gleaming white in the dim room, she
brought in the coffee service.
“For winding up adventures in thrift, I should like to remark that it
was _some_ dinner,” said Mr. Moore, smiling at his hostess.
“I was thinking the same thing,” commented Mr. Norton, “and wondering
whether Mrs. Larry has spent at one fell swoop all she has been saving
in the last few months.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Larry, “I’m going to tell you what it cost.
Four months ago this dinner would have made a shocking dent in my
housekeeping allowance. Now, let me tell you the difference in prices:
“First course, iced melons, three for a quarter, if I had bought them
at Dahlgren’s Store. In the ‘Home Hamper,’ three for ten. Saving,
fifteen cents.
“Cold consommé; a ten-cent can of soup and enough gelatine to make it
quiver. In the old days I would have bought a soup bone at fifteen
cents, soup greens, five cents, and used gas for the slow process of
simmering. Of course, this process would yield more stock, but in
hot weather it might not keep. So we’ll say at least ten cents saved
and just as delicious, too. I’m learning how to utilize standard,
factory-made food.
“Chicken, four and a half pounds, at twenty-two cents, including
parcel post. I used to pay Dahlgren twenty-seven cents, so saved on
four and one-half pounds, twenty-two cents. We three women have made
arrangements with a certain farmer in Connecticut to supply us the year
around with eggs, chickens and ducks. We have agreed to take a definite
quantity each. He receives a little more than he would from the
commission men, and we pay a little less than we would at the market.
“These fine new potatoes were bought by the bushel, enough to last the
three of us for the year. The farmer keeps them for us in his cellar
and ships them, a barrel at a time. We paid him cash for our year’s
supply of potatoes, at a dollar a bushel. We’ve been buying them here
in New York at the rate of two dollars a bushel. So I saved fifty per
cent. on the potatoes you ate.
“Corn, at Dahlgren’s, sells at three ears for ten cents. Figuring up
the contents of this week’s hamper, the corn I served to-night cost
only a cent and a half an ear.
“The tomatoes, lettuce, parsley and peaches all came out of the Home
Hamper at half the price asked at a city market. Even those stuffed
dates represent thrift. I used to pay eighty cents a pound for them at
Dorlin’s. Lena stuffed these, and they are just as good. A pound of
dates at ten cents, the same value of nuts, and a little powdered sugar.
“Summing up the menu, it cost at least one-third less than it
would have cost before I made my investigations. We must take into
consideration, also, the better food value given for the money
expended. There is absolutely no waste to the vegetables, which come
directly from the truck garden to our table. Every leaf of lettuce
counts; every bean, every pod of peas. In addition to the waste in
fruit and vegetables, which lie from twenty-four to seventy-two hours
on the docks or in commission houses, dry withered vegetables are not
so valuable to the human system as the fresh vegetables. I am receiving
two hampers a week now, and serving less meat, because Doctor Davis
says that we do not need so much meat in warm weather, and we ought
to make the most of the fresh vegetables and fruits while they are in
season.
“Twice a week Mrs. Norton, Teresa and I go to the city fish market very
early and buy enough fish--that has been caught during the night and
brought up the bay--to serve for two meals; first, boiled, fried or
broiled, and then for luncheon or breakfast the next day, creamed or
baked au gratin. When I buy meat I now know the economical cuts, how to
get the most proteids for my money, so to speak. Just by knowing how
meat is cut up, I have reduced my meat bill one-third.
“These are actual figures. For nearly a month I have been transferring
money from the envelope marked ‘Food’ to the envelope marked
‘Recreation and Improvement,’ I have charged up all the car fare,
postage, etc., incidental to our adventures in thrift, and still have a
good balance in favor of the investigation.”
“Then what do you consider the secret of thrift in food buying?” asked
Mr. Moore.
Mrs. Larry shook her head.
“I can’t tell you that until Larry has reported his interview with the
postmaster of Brooklyn, on the parcel-post system.”
“All right, Lena, bring on the last course,” said Mr. Larry.
And Lena brought from the living-room a great sheaf of pamphlets,
newspaper clippings and illustrated circulars, which she placed before
the master of the house.
“Exhibits A, B and C,” explained their host, as their guests looked
with interest at the collection.
“All _that_ about parcel post?” inquired Mr. Norton respectfully.
“I felt the same way when I left Postmaster Kelley’s office,” said
Mr. Larry, as he sorted the collection. “I don’t suppose one-tenth
of the practical housekeepers in America realize what Uncle Sam is
trying to do to reduce the high cost of living. And it should be most
important to the wives of men like ourselves, in moderately prosperous
circumstances, who know the importance of good food to family health
and who, therefore, deprive themselves of many advantages and pleasures
that their families shall have wholesome meals. These are the women
who resent most deeply the rise in food prices; they pass resolutions
in their clubs; they demand that we men legislate--when they ought
to appoint practical committees to investigate and work out direct
connection between producer and consumer.”
“Hear, hear!” cried Teresa Moore. “You’ll be talking before the
Federated Clubs next!”
“Well, if I do,” said Mr. Larry, “I will first tell them what a clever
wife I have.
“The parcel-post system is democratic. It was designed largely to meet
the needs of the farmer or producer. To ship by freight or express, he
must go to the nearest town. For parcel-post shipment, Uncle Sam, in
the form of rural free delivery, passes his door each day, sometimes
twice a day.
“But the government soon discovered that it must educate both the
producer and consumer if the value of parcel post was to be raised to
the _nth_ power.
“So, in March, 1914, the Post-Office Department at Washington
started a campaign of farm-to-table investigation and education. It
selected certain cities for its experiment--Washington, St. Louis,
Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Birmingham, San Francisco, Rock Island
(Illinois), Lynn (Massachusetts), La Crosse (Wisconsin). The reports
of postmasters in these cities have just been received and present some
interesting facts.
“In spite of the fact that much perishable material was carried, damage
to shipments in transit is reported as less than one-tenth of one per
cent., due almost entirely to improper packing. The shipment of butter,
dressed poultry and other perishable things fell off during hot weather
because of lack of refrigerating facilities. This is now being met
partly by cheap containers devised on the line of thermos bottles,
while in the larger post-offices ice boxes are being installed to hold
perishable shipments that must be kept overnight.
“Postmaster Bolling H. Jones, of Atlanta, co-operated with the Office
of Markets of Agriculture, which sent out Guy B. Fitzpatrick to our
contributory territory with rural mail carriers. He met the farmers
personally, and gave them and their wives practical demonstrations in
proper methods of packing the articles most in demand among city buyers.
“In the neighborhood of Washington, four hundred and forty-five farmers
sent their names to be placed upon the list of producers which the
postmaster circulated among Washington consumers. Of this number,
three hundred and thirty-four farmers offered eggs; one hundred and
seventy-six, butter; one hundred and eighty-nine, poultry; two hundred
and two, vegetables and fruit.
“E. C. Marshall, the retiring postmaster of Boston, offers a comment
worth reading.” Mr. Larry picked up a clipping:
“‘One of the striking features which has come to my attention in making
this campaign to bring the producers and consumers together is the fact
that some farmers have been charging top prices for their products.
It was assumed when the plan was first broached that the consumer
would get the benefit of low prices as a means of reducing the cost of
living, and that the producer, by sending direct by parcel post, could
afford to sell at rock-bottom prices. This, however, has not proved
generally to be so, and if the plan for bringing the producers directly
in touch with consumers is found to be unsuccessful, it will be due
largely to this fact.’
“In the smaller cities, like La Crosse, Rock Island, etc., the parcel
post shipment from farm-to-table were proportionately smaller, because
the truck gardeners quite generally drive to such cities and sell their
produce either at a public market or by peddling from door to door to
regular customers.
“The post-office authorities then selected other representative cities
in different sections of the country in which to continue their
investigations. Brooklyn was included in this second list, and the most
interesting corner of the big post-office I visited the other day was
that in which parcel-post shipments are handled.
“On November first of last year, the postmaster of Brooklyn issued
two pamphlets. One, a Parcel Post Information circular, was sent to
every farmer on Long Island whose name could be secured. The other, a
list of Long Island farmers, was mailed to fifty thousand residents of
Brooklyn. The farmers were urged to notify the post-office in Brooklyn
as to the products they wished to market by parcel post. The residents
of Brooklyn were urged to communicate directly with the farmer.
“Within twenty days after the service was established many farmers had
written to Postmaster Kelley that they had made from forty to fifty or
sixty dollars on eggs, poultry and Brussels sprouts sold directly to
consumers.
“Next, Postmaster Kelley opened an exhibit of containers, which are
a vital factor in the success of the plan. I found this exhibit most
interesting. It ranged from a hammock egg carrier for a dozen eggs
to steel-crated boxes, with ice box attachment, for shipping butter,
poultry, fruit and vegetables. Postmaster Kelley invited all the
farmers whose names were on his list to visit this exhibit, and the
postmasters in all Long Island towns were asked to notify the farmers
in their section. The result of this educational campaign is a daily
increase in the volume of business done by parcel post, and Postmaster
Kelley considers it a feasible method for reducing the cost of living.
“The point on which I could not satisfy myself, however, was this: Does
the farmer demand the top notch prices asked by the high-grade city
grocer and poultry dealer, thereby forcing the consumer to pay the
full rate of commission charged by the commission merchant, or is he
willing to split this commission with the consumer? If the latter is
done, then parcel post will reduce the cost of living for the consumer,
and still pay the producer a better profit, by eliminating the
middleman. But, unquestionably, the individual consumer must have some
understanding with the farmer she patronizes. Moreover, the government
will have to follow the express companies in the custom of returning
containers free.
“There is no doubt in my mind that when the government has followed
up these investigations with practical improvements in the service,
and with parcel-post education for producer and consumer, we will find
parcel post a big factor in thrift for the housewife. At present, in
almost any of the large cities, the housekeeper can secure a list of
farmers in her territory who will supply her with produce by parcel
post, if she will apply to the local post-office. She must then drive
her own bargain with the farmer, and study producers as carefully as
she studies her city markets.
“Aside from the saving in price, you must consider, as Mrs. Larry said
a few moments ago, the superior freshness and nutritive value of the
food bought in this way.”
“To sum up the situation,” said Mr. Norton, “you do not consider that
parcel post to date is a big aid to economy in marketing?”
“That’s about it,” assented Mr. Larry, “and it will not be until the
farmer and the housewife establish an amicable understanding as to
prices.”
“And now, Teresa, for our department-store experiences,” said Mrs.
Larry.
“Our first lesson in department-store sleuthing was the fact that the
bargain counter is the natural enemy to thrift; the second, that the
woman who buys, not for to-day alone, but for next week, next month,
next year, must demand standardized goods.
“First, as to bargain sales: If a merchant announces silk gloves at
seventy-nine cents, formerly sold for one dollar, one of two conditions
exists-either he overcharged his customers when he sold the gloves
for one dollar, or he is losing money on the gloves at seventy-nine
cents. Men are not in business to lose money. We, therefore, conclude
that the gloves at one dollar were overpriced, so we are getting no
bargain at seventy-nine cents. None of the prices in such a store are,
therefore, reliable.
“Next we trailed a ribbon sale. Here we found one lot of ribbons
offered at twenty-one cents, usual price twenty-five cents; and another
lot at eleven cents, usual price fifteen and seventeen cents. We
secured samples of both lots and then sleuthed. We found that the same
quality and design employed in the twenty-one-cent lot was actually
to be bought at the regular counter at twenty-five cents a yard, but
with this difference--the bargain-counter ribbon was three inches
wide, the ribbon at the regular counter about four inches wide. In
other words, the bargain-counter ribbon was priced at just what it was
worth--twenty-one cents. It was not worth twenty-five cents, because
at the regular counter the twenty-five-cent ribbon was nearly an inch
wider.
“The ribbon at eleven cents was such in name only. It was the flimsiest
sort of cotton, almost transparent, wiry and highly mercerized. We
duplicated it at a near-by five and ten-cent store for ten cents a
yard, one cent cheaper than it was offered at the big department store.
“The lure of such bargains lies in the cleverly worded signs, fancy
articles beautifully made up from the ribbon by women expert in
securing effects, and in the wonderful mass of blended colors which
blind women to quality.
“At another store we saw a crowd of women buying upholstery goods,
specially priced and heavily advertised. The sale included couch
covers, fabrics by the yard, and squares for cushion tops. The couch
covers, marked as having been sold at eleven dollars, now reduced to
five-ninety-eight, were worth just that, five-ninety-eight. The really
good values had evidently been used for window display and were faded
in streaks by the sun. The fresher covers were in fabrics and designs
now out of style. The firm was either unloading for itself or for some
jobbing house a lot of couch covers that were out of date.
“Among the cushion tops we picked up three real bargains, evidently odd
pieces that had sold in the piece at a much higher rate. But mixed in
with these desirable squares were hundreds of others, plainly cut off
the bolts we saw later in the regular department, and priced higher
than they could be bought at the counter, by the yard.”
“Isn’t that universally true,” asked Mr. Norton, “that merchants cut
off unsalable stuff and offer it as ‘remnants’ when it does not sell
from the bolt?”
“Not always,” replied Teresa Moore. “Many sales are bona fide. A
jobber or manufacturer overloads with certain fabrics or products,
and is forced to raise cash. He prefers to get rid of his entire
overproduction at cost, than to lose in the long run. The merchant who
secures these big lots for cash can give his customers the benefit
of a bona fide sale, and he does this in a legitimate way entirely
satisfactory to the customer.”
“Which means that a woman must know what she is buying,” added Mrs.
Norton. “I saw two women fairly quarreling over some shirts which each
wanted to buy for her husband. The woman who finally won on the score
that she had picked them up first, was opening her purse, when she gave
a little cry: ‘Oh, I can’t take them. I don’t know his number,’ The
other woman did know her husband’s shirt size and carried them off in
triumph.”
When the laughter had subsided, Mrs. Moore continued her story.
“At another bargain counter we looked at silver-plated breakfast
knives, as I needed to renew my set. Half a dozen knives put up in a
fancy box, lined with cheap, cotton-back satin, were offered to us at
one dollar and ninety-eight cents. I looked at the mark, ‘Superfine,
triple-plate,’ That was all. In the regular silver department, we
asked for and were shown, at three dollars and ninety-eight cents per
half dozen, breakfast knives made by a responsible firm which spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars every year advertising its wares.
There was no fancy box, no showy silk, but a trademark. The salesgirl
explained that, while no actual guarantee went with the knives,
they were supposed to last fifteen to twenty years, with reasonable
treatment. If within a few years after the date of purchase the
customer returned a knife in bad condition, and could prove that she
had not used scouring soap or strong cleansers in polishing it, the
damaged knife would be made good by the manufacturers. The difference
in price of two dollars no doubt represents the better wearing value of
the standard metal, and at least it protects the purchaser.
“In our shopping investigations, which covered four mornings, we found
that almost invariably the goods pushed by the salespeople or shown
most prominently were not standardized wares; they were imitations
of standard goods, often so flimsy as to betray the adulteration. By
asking for standardized goods, we could secure them. Now there must be
a reason for the prominence given the unstandardized goods, and we have
decided that the stores make a bigger profit on them, even though the
price is less, than on the standardized goods. Therefore, we are not
getting so much for our money.”
“Just what do you mean by standardized goods?” asked Mr. Norton.
“In fabrics, those which have the name of the maker woven in the
border, or printed plainly on the board or carton in which the
materials are offered; in china, cut glass, silverware and writing
paper, a trade mark blown, stamped or woven in the article; in hosiery,
underwear, corsets, shields, ready-to-wear garments of all sorts, the
stamp of the maker. To sum up, generally speaking, wares that are made
by a well known concern willing to put its name on them and thus to
stand back of them.”
“But how can you be sure, even with a trade mark, that these goods will
wear satisfactorily?” asked Mr. Larry.
“We don’t _know_ anything,” said Mrs. Larry, “but it stands to
reason that a man who spends thousands to make his goods known to us
women will not give us a chance to say to our neighbors that what he
guarantees is unreliable. In every case where the goods were made by a
reputable firm and bore their trade mark, the salespeople told us we
could bring them back if they were not satisfactory. This, because the
merchant knows that he can hold the manufacturer for any faulty output
of the factory.
“Take, for instance, dress shields; if they bear no firm name and go to
pieces in the first washing, they must be thrown away, but a washable
dress shield, bearing the name of the manufacturer, can be taken to
the store and exchanged for a perfect pair, without any question as to
where it was bought or what price was paid for it.
“Adulterated, unstandardized drygoods represent the same waste in the
household budget as unstandardized, unlabeled canned goods.”
“This is all very well for you women who live in the city and can pick
and choose among stores, but how about the small city or town woman?”
said Mr. Norton.
“She is quite as independent as we are,” replied Teresa Moore.
“Consider, as an example, the small town or suburban woman and her
corset. She has been to the large city store and found a corset made
by a standard firm, which suits her figure. She need never wear any
other kind; she can order it by mail, or she can insist that the local
shopkeeper handle that make of corset or lose her trade. This is true
of any other standard article that she wants.
“You sometimes hear people say that when articles are so much
advertised the consumer must pay the price of the advertising. This
is ridiculous. My cousin, Wilbur Stanley, who is an expert in such
matters, says that it has been proved over and over again that
advertised goods cost less than the unadvertised goods, because the
selling expense of unadvertised goods per unit is higher than the
selling expense of advertised goods; because advertising increases the
sales so much more than they can be increased by any other method of
selling that the cost of advertising in reality pays for itself by the
economies it effects.
“As for gloves, hosiery, underwear, sheeting, pillow casing, etc., we
can buy them labeled or unlabeled, just as we choose to give time and
thought to our shopping.
“Substitutes are seldom if ever as good as the trade-marked, advertised
brands. When you buy reliable branded goods, you are guaranteed
satisfaction. Many substitutes that are offered the purchaser as
‘just as good’ do not carry any manufacturer’s label, so if you do
not like the goods, there is no known person from whom you can demand
satisfaction. If you do like the goods you have no way of knowing how
to reorder and be sure of getting the same quality. Goods that do not
carry the name of a reputable manufacturer are often ‘seconds’ gathered
from various sources by jobbers. They have no steady dependable
quality, since no one person or firm is responsible for them.”
“An interesting report,” said Mr. Norton, “and it reminds me of a
little experience which bears out your theory. I lost my fountain pen
last week, picked up an unknown make at a shop in our arcade, and
promptly soaked one of my pockets with ink. When I stopped in with my
complaint, there was nothing doing. The pen carried no guarantee. Two
dollars wasted!”
“And now,” said Mrs. Larry, “for the summing up of our experiences.
Thrift for the home-maker to-day means, first, knowing how to buy,
and then how to utilize to best advantage what she has bought. In our
grandmother’s day the housewife was not a purchaser. Her husband raised
and supplied what was needed for the family; her economy consisted
of using the supplies to best advantage. To-day she spends the family
income and kitchen economy is without value unless she knows her market.
“I would, therefore, say that the housewife must know food and fabric
values--what goes farthest in the home. Second, knowing these values,
she must seek the markets where they are offered at the lowest figure.
She will make her biggest saving in cooperative buying. I believe that
in time every community will have its association like the Housewives’
League of New York, and the National Housewives’ Cooperative League in
Cincinnati, or its cooperative store, such as we saw in Montclair, New
Jersey. This will save on groceries alone at least ten per cent.
“Next in importance to cooperative buying is the establishment of
direct communication between the producer and the consumer through
the parcel post. We know that if the housewife gives the farmer to
understand very clearly that she expects to split the middleman’s
commission with him, she will save ten per cent. on her poultry, eggs,
vegetables and fruit, and have better food on her table in the bargain.
“Third, she must consider the wearing qualities of drygoods first, and
their attractiveness second. As to telephone ordering, that’s largely
a question of the intelligence of the housewife and the honesty of the
butcher and grocer. Many a woman can get what she wants at the right
prices, simply by using her mind a bit before she gives her order. Also
she _must_ check up her bills afterward. If sugar or coffee or smoked
meats are cheap, as the result of certain wholesale conditions, she
will know this by reading reports of the papers or by inquiry at her
store or market. If she finds that her tradespeople are dishonest or
careless, she can change. The woman who is firm and intelligent can,
without haggling, get full value for her money, whether she orders in
person or by phone.
“Before I undertook adventures in thrift I expended all my energy
trying to stretch as far as possible the groceries and fresh provisions
which I bought extravagantly through the order clerk or telephone. Now
I concentrate on buying intelligently, and I have reduced our table
expenses thirty-three and a third per cent. by cooperative buying,
farm-to-table marketing, and the personal purchase of daily supplies. I
do not think I am less intelligent than the average wife of a salaried
man, and I hope, by becoming more and more familiar with market
conditions, to reduce the cost of setting this table and buying our
clothing even further. My goal is fifty per cent. But I realize that I
can not accomplish this without unremitting effort and concentration
on my duties as the head of the purchasing department of the House of
Larry.”
Teresa Moore spoke quickly.
“I know you all feel like crying--‘Three cheers for the House of Larry
and more power to it,’ but do not be misled by Mrs. Larry’s practical
way of summing up the situation. She has not mentioned what these
investigations have represented to her personally. She has been their
real inspiration, our unfailing, unflagging and ever sympathetic
leader. If the rest of us have less anxieties and more luxuries
through the year to come, we will owe it to the little woman who never
would admit discouragement or exhaustion.”
Gay applause swept round the candle-lighted circle. Mrs. Larry sat with
her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her lips quivering and something
very like moisture blurring her vision. Why--she had never dreamed--
And what in the world was Jimmy Graves trying to say? He was looking at
her--too!
“The rest of you men may feel a debt to Mrs. Larry for leading your
wives to the well of thrift, but my debt is one that can not be voiced
in mere words. Mrs. Larry has made it possible for me to claim the
greatest happiness within the reach of man. Claire and I were married
this afternoon in the Little Church Around the Corner. Mrs. Larry, all
unknowingly, has supplied our wedding feast.”
On the amazed silence which followed this unexpected announcement, Mrs.
Larry sprang to her feet, flashed round the table and clasped Claire in
her arms.
“Oh, my dear--my dear--” was all she could say. “And I expected to be
matron of honor!”
“And so you should have been, if you hadn’t been so busy with this
dinner,” whispered Claire. “I hadn’t the heart to interrupt--and it was
all so sudden. Why should we ask mother, who did not entirely approve,
to have a gorgeous wedding that we did not want? And why should I ask
my lonely man to wait when in all things essential I was prepared?”
“Well,” exclaimed Mr. Larry, his hand gripping that of Jimmy Graves,
“who would expect adventures in thrift to lead to the altar--where they
usually start?”
“I think,” said Teresa Moore very gently, “that Claire has chosen the
better way--she has learned first. She takes no chance with love.”
THE END
[Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]
End of Project Gutenberg's Adventures in Thrift, by Anna Steese Richardson