Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1894 — Bargains. [ARTICLE]

Bargains.

Harper's Bazar. .s To the average woman the bargain counter presents a very great attraction, almost a temptation. Here is an article of use or beauty marked down a few cents, or it may be a few dollars below its usual price. The matron, intent on a shopping expedition, has carefully made out her list, and fancies that she knows precisely what she wants. Her lack of the thing which is on sale “at a bargain” has not been manifest to her mind, but the sight of it, displayed in all its cheapness, fires her imagination. It is a divan, one-third less in cost than the divan she has been intending to set in a special corner of her drawing-room. She purchases it at a bargain, and sends it home triumphantly, forgetting that the spreads and the pillows it will require to make it complete will bring it to a point far beyond the original cost, and beyond the modest sum she had set aside to -cover the entire outlay for this article. This is only one case among many. A bargain in it first estate may be cheap, but in its last it is generally dear. The exception is when bargains are bought, not on impulse but of set purpose, as, for instance, when a woman buys clothing for her family at the turn of the season. It is surprising what a difference in cost there is sometimes found in the same grade of goods, the difference being in the fact that the merchant does not wish to carry his stock over from one season to another. But this is not strict bargain-buy-ing, It is merely purchasing with forethought, and belongs in the category with the thrift that saves for a rainy day: