The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎637r] (164/239)

THE EXTRAVAGANT ECONOMY OF WOMEN.
133
Who of us has not come across a gorgeous establishment where it
takes three footmen and a butler to serve a tough chop of Canter
bury lamb. The presiding goddess afterwards drives out in the
park in an equipage magnificent with coachman and footman, and
horses shining like satin with care and good feeding. No, they
are not fed on Canterbury lamb !
For some people it is a wildly extravagant economy to ride in a
bus ! I know of a family of girls who pine for a ’bus ride as we
poor things do for a chariot and four. They can’t afford it; it would
ruin the family credit, which is only kept up by a magnificent
carriage—unpaid for—and a superb coachman and footman whose
wages are owing. If one of these girls were to be seen in a ’bus it
would mean their downfall in the eyes of the confiding tradesmen
No, not everybody can afford to ride in a ’bus. After all it is only
the rich and great the world permits to be shabby.
I heard of a nice girl who “ slums ” and who lives in the East
End, having shaken the dust of Mayfair from her feet. She has
reduced self-sacrifice to a science, and her life is an orgie of self-
hndv ’ 7 d IS a hollow - e y ed ’ haggard young martyr, and keeps
f ' d , 80ul together on five shillings a week. My only criticism
is scheme of altruism is that every once in a while she neglects
hacW M S f i D t° “ aWfU ‘ fi ‘ ° f illneSS ’ and has t0 be taken
back to Mayfair and brought to life, and then the good physician
sends a thumping big bill to her parents, who never get any credit
or charity. No w I think even a modern martyr ought to have
just a gram of common-sense.
There is a certain intellectual town where tramears still issue
return tickets at reduced rates. How well I remember two dear
maiden ladies armed with principles, walking up and down in the
snow and sleet of a winter’s night one whole hour waiting for the
particular tram which would accept their tickets. They let un
numbered other trams jingle merrily past, while they paddled
about in the slush strong in their sense of economy. They each
saved three ha’pence, and one nearly died of pneumonia.
wonder how many of us die because of our reckless economy?
Arc we not for ever doing things for which we have neither the
strength nor the capacity, just to save a few pennies, and do not
many of us repent all our life long? I well remember a lady who
I saw herThe 3 haT’ ^ Pian ° * 0 Slip * rUg under ’ ' Wh ™
saw her, she had, in consequence, been a helpless invalid for
years with an incurable spine complaint
have^e 04 CheaP S ,T antS an ° ther faV0Urite female economy? I
have seen a sensible woman rejoice because she had captured a
cheap servant as if, what with aggravation of spirits and broken
crockery, a cheap servant does not take it out of one in nervous