Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1887 — WOMAN GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

WOMAN GOSSIP.

Ladies, Pay Your Bills. The fact that womenkind ever neglected to pay their bills had never entered my benighted mind. It may show my indigenous rusticity that no acquaintances, with whom I am sufficiently intimate to speak with authority, think of allowing personal expenses to go unpaid. I am aware some of them never bother their brains with paying bills or informing themselves how they are paid. They are butterfly creatures who provide themselves with all they need, and their husbands and fathers attend to the rest of the business. Again, some, who are lurnished a certain allowance for such expenses, find the quarterly amount inadequate, and they are forced to borrow on very poor security from headquarters, but that don’t count. Indeed, one young lady had gotten herself into such a dilemma this holiday time there was danger of her being closed up by the Sheriff, and having a receiver appointed to administer upon her business affairs. This was only avoided by members of her family, conversant with her condition, giving her generous -Christmas presents of hard cash. She is thus enabled to resume with the new year on a new financial basis, not to mention an enormous capital of experience. Yet again, I hear many ladies lamenting they must do without certain most coveted things they cannot afford. They think it horrid to be so poor, and one, most exasperated of all, was heard to declare she would marry a man without arms if he was very, very rich, because she did not now have all the money she thought she needed. But among them all there is not one who does not religiously pay for all she purchases, consequently I was shocked to read in one of our great dailies an appeal to ladies from One of their dressmakers, to pay their bills of long standing before the first of the year. It ran something like this: “I trust this notice may reach thebeart of every lady who has adopted the method of allowing bills to stand. Pay us, for we earn our money, and remember we must pay our bills if we wish to keep our credit good, and you can help us to do so. “Being the last of the year we need all which.is due us, and I appeal to all those to help us in a struggle for an existence. At least I think it high time somebody should have the courage to speak on so delicate a subject, so as to keep the wheel moving.” The appearance of this card shows a depravity that is startling and worthy of investigation. A pleasant little woman, who is carrying on what is apparently a successful business, was approached. She is almost worked to death designing and fitting, keeping a large number of girls and machines busy from daylight till late at night. In answer to the confidential. question: “Do your customers pay their bills?” she stepped to a drawer, drew out a bunch of paper slips neatly covered with itemized accounts, all she could hold in one hand, and said: “There, all of that is due me, and yet I had a very difficult time to pay my rent this morning. There is one bill aggregating nearly one hundred dollars that has been running since last June. The greatest trouble is, I have to provide and pay for so many of their trimmings, linings, etc., that I am greatly out of pocket. “Notv you wouldn’t suppose a lady living in such grand style on the boulevard would let such a little bill as this, only twelve dollars, stand for three months, would you? But she does.” When you ask, “Do you urge them? Do you ever threaten them?” she continues, “Oh, I can simply repeatedly send the bill with a polite request to pay. It wouldn’t do to try anything else. I should only lose their custom, and other ladies learning of it would be frightened away from patronizing me.” Other modistes approached on this subject had the same story to tell. Such a state of things is deplorable. It is as hurtful to the moral condition of the debtor as it is to the financial condition of the creditor. It is probably only another manifestation of the awful mania of these times to make a show of splendor far beyond your means. It leads to most deplorable results. We should always remember the laborer is worthy of his hire, and not engage services we are unable, or unwilling, to compensate. It is a duty we owe ourselves as well as the community at large.— Annie E. Myers.