A Brilliant Idea

1895

A German paper tells an amusing story of Cumberland, the thought reader. On a journey from Vienna to St. Petersburg he entertained his fellow passengers by guessing their thoughts. One of the travelers, a Polish Jew, who took the whole thing for a hoax, offered to pay Cumberland the sum of 50 rubles if he could divine his thoughts. Visibly amused, Cumberland acceded to his request and said: "You are going to the fair at Nijni-Novgorod, where you intend to purchase goods to the extent of 20,000 rubles, after which you will declare yourself a bankrupt and compound with your creditors for 3 per cent."

On hearing these words the Jew gazed at the speaker with reverential awe. He then, without uttering a syllable, drew out of the leg of his boot a shabby purse and handed him the 50 rubles, whereupon the great magician triumphantly inquired, "Then I have guessed your thoughts, eh?" "No," replied the Jew, "but you have given me a brilliant idea."


Trivia

Several flutes, still perfect and capable of producing musical tones, have been taken from the Egyptian catacombs.

New London, Connecticut, was at first called Tawagog.

Dollar Rules in Finance

1916

Paris, Sept. 19. — Max Hoschiller, in an article in the Temps, contrasts America's financial position now in respect to foreign countries with what it was before the war. The article says:

"Then the United States was sending to Europe from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 in interest on its borrowings, $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 spent by tourists, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 to expatriates and $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 in ocean freights.

"Since the war the United States has imported $730,000,000 in gold and has paid back a considerable amount of its previous borrowings, has increased its foreign trade by $2,250,000,000 yearly and has loaned to foreign countries $1,470,000,000 so that the dollar now has replaced, to a considerable extent, the old sovereignty of the English pound abroad.

"Whether the United States will retain, with her deficient financial organization, the position recently won, will depend upon American financial and commercial policies. The arrival in France of an American commercial mission is an indication that Americans are realizing they must follow the law of exchanges between countries, buying in general, as much as they sell."

An Authorized Statement of President Wilson's Plans

1916

L.' Ames Brown in Collier's.

No sane man doubts that the coming of peace in Europe will modify profoundly the present conditions of business enterprise in the United States.

Among economists, as well as publicists, opinions differ as to the extent to which the industries of the nations now at war will be re-energized when peace makes them again our competitors in business. Some of our prophets have broadcasted the prediction that European manufacture may then be so speeded up that the resulting flood of products will swamp our industries unless they are protected by a solid tariff bulwark. Others, including President Wilson, hold that America, having husbanded and conserved her great resources while other nations were passing through the travail of a great war, is better able than ever before to meet the pace of her international competitors.

President Wilson believes that the American position is sound, not only because our resources have not been impaired, as have those of the European belligerents, but because our manufacturers have been stimulated and trained by new demands the war has made upon them. They have learned to meet, not only the war needs of Europe, but also those wants at home which heretofore foreign industry satisfied for us. Finally, the President attaches great importance to the fact that the United States has become, by reason of the Federal Reserve Act, the great financial power of the world.

Keen-minded men of every viewpoint are agreed, however, as to the imminence of severe new tests for American industry and as to the necessity of preparation to meet these tests. A period of intense competition looms up ahead of the nation — a competition of peace times which probably will not be comparable to any international industrial competition the world has ever known.

President Wilson believes that preparation for national defense is the first and most essential requirement the Government is called upon to meet. This he regards as a sort of insurance against an irremediable conflagration. But once our house has been put in order, it becomes the paramount duty of the Government to see to it that the most efficient preparation possible is made for the peace which will liberate the energies of the European power for industrial activity. Mr. Wilson already has looked ahead to the manner in which this primary duty of the American Government is to be performed, and he has evolved a comprehensive plan of preparation. It is the privilege of the writer of this article to present from intimate knowledge the views President Wilson has formulated with the object of giving a new and fuller meaning to American efficiency.

As soon as industrial preparedness is mentioned the mind of the American business man turns to the tariff. The tariff is the first line of trenches of American industry, our business men believe, and the first duty of the Government officers at work upon an adequate preparedness policy is to consider the question of tariff revision. Neither the President nor the well-informed business man has ignored the lesson contained in the announcement that Japan already has revised her tariff to meet new conditions; that England is preparing to enact prohibitive duties upon the products of her enemies and moderate duties upon the products of neutral nations at the close of the war; that Germany will revise all of her commercial treaties in 1917; and that a strong sentiment exists in England, France, Russia, and Italy for the negotiation of a commercial alliance.

The Tariff Must Be Revised.

President Wilson considers himself bound by no commitments save to a competitive tariff policy. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff Law embodied his ideas of the competitive needs of our industries at the time its schedules were framed — when pre-bellum industrial conditions obtained. His mind is entirely open as to the extent to which competitive conditions may have been modified by the European War. He does not need to be convinced that these conditions may be altered. He is prepared to act upon the facts as they may be gathered and their value impartially assessed through the instrumentality of a nonpartisan tariff commission. He considers that an earnest of his open-mindedness on tariff revision has been given in his support of the measure adopted at the present session of Congress to levy higher duties on dyestuffs as a means of securing necessary industries in the United States. The President considers his position, as here outlined, to be in the strictest accord with the avowed principles of his party.

The Tariff Commission is the instrumentality through which the President expects the Government to gather the facts needed for guidance in adjusting the tariff schedule. That would be perhaps the chief purpose of the Tariff Commission's suggested journey to Europe, though that would be only one phase of its inquiries. President Wilson is now as thoroughly convinced as anyone that America is not at the period of her destiny when free-trade ideas can be applied in our tariff making consistently with the necessities of revenue. It is an obvious fact, to which a section of the Democratic leaders, not including the President, persistently has closed its eyes, that all tariff duties in some degree protect the industries concerned. Tariffs protect, whether drawn with an eye to protection or to revenue, and the wisely drawn tariff law — the competitive tariff law — is that which balances revenue features with the nicest sensing of the needs of developing commerce and industry. It can be said that the President will study the report of the Tariff Commission with the view of formulating an adjustment of necessary tariff levies which will effect the fullest measure of development.

"There are many paths which lead up the mountainside, but when we reach the peak the same moon we shall see," says a proverb of Old Japan. How applicable it is to the present tariff discussion! Some one has called President Wilson's attention to the fact that fully 50 per cent of arguments among individuals about the tariff grow out of misunderstanding of isolated facts and not out of differences on fundamental principles. He does believe that a clear presentation of the facts relating to the conditions of competition between the United States and foreign countries will go far toward weeding out differences of opinion attributable to lack of information; so far that it will be possible to formulate a tariff policy for the United States which will command the support of an overwhelming majority of the people of the country regardless of partisan affiliations. The possibility of such an approximate agreement on a subject that hitherto has divided the electorate into two antagonistic sections is attributable in large measure (the President considers) to the development of independent thinking among the voters.

The great body of the people (Mr. Wilson believes) have made up their minds that the industries of the country ought not to be hampered by a too strict adherence to abstract tariff theories, but that the fullest measure of opportunity should be opened to them so long as the conferring of special privileges is avoided. On the other hand (as the President understands the public mind) there is the conviction that our industries ought not to be fattened to the point where apoplexy is threatened; but again, the conviction is just as clear that it would be the height of national folly to lower the entire range of tariff duties to such an extent that, coincidentally, the Government would be deprived of an important part of its accustomed revenue and the industries of all of their accustomed re-enforcement. So much for the President's views on the tariff, which relate solely to the defensive preparation of American business for the tests to come at the end of the war. The President believes that the aggressive and buoyant spirit of American business is such that it will be more concerned with offensive measures, with preparation to wade into the markets of the world, and to establish American supremacy there.

The President's policy includes numerous legislative and executive steps through which this preparation is to be accomplished. Most important of these is his plan to procure definitive authorization for American firms to co-operate for foreign-selling operations without regard to the provisions Of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The President recognizes that in the past the American Government has been somewhat provincial in its attitude toward this need of our export business. The war and the vigorous investigation by the Federal Trade Commission have orientated the President and the Government, however. Now it is realized that the great competitive strength of Germany and the other industrial nations of Europe in the past has been due in large measure to the freedom with which their industries were permitted to organize for purposes of foreign trade. In Europe individual companies of one nation did not need to meet ruinous competition of other nations. They could present a solid national front. This was accomplished through the organization of syndicates and cartels which have flourished for decades in every great industrial nation except the United States.

Set Business Free.

The President's understanding of prospective post-bellum conditions holds up to his mind the probability that hereafter American industry may have to compete not only with those solid national organizations, but with international organizations. It is because he faces this prospect that the President believes it is high time for the American Government to strike from our industries some of the shackles in which they have labored because the Sherman Law failed to authorize the needed and wholesome processes of co-operative business organization.

President Wilson's attitude toward business organization as a principle for domestic as well as foreign application is different from that which has determined the policy of many Governmental officers in the past. Then the Government was so much concerned with eradicating the flaws in our business structure that it gave no large measure of thought to developing business opportunities. Under the President's inspiration the Trade Commission idea has been evolved, whereby the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice has been prevented from flourishing its sword over the heads of business organizations, merely because of the size of these organizations. Mere bigness is not held to be cause for suspicion by the Trade Commission, which is now the chief instrumentality of enforcing the anti-trust laws.

The Trade Commission has encountered little difficulty in straightening out kinks in commercial organizations which involve violations of law because business men have been made to realize that the main concern of this body has been the promotion of growth and the development of opportunity.

The Tariff Commission will find many ways of being useful to the business world if the plans President Wilson has formed for it are followed. The war has developed new industries in the United States, notably the dyestuff industry. Great benefit can be conferred on industries of this character, the President believes, if the Tariff Commission studies their methods of operation and subsequently the methods of operation and the economies which obtain among the European nations, where these industries have been longest established and are most efficient.

The President expects the Commission to go into the field of foreign tariff duties and to convey to American export organizations complete data as to the existence and effects of discriminating duties, commercial treaties, and preferential rates; the effects of export bounties and preferential transportation rates; and the effects of any special or discriminating privilege that may be used against the United States.

The scope of the Trade Commission's activities, according to the policy in the President's mind, includes the development of plans by which American business firms may best prepare themselves for the plunge into the international markets. For example the standardization of materials, manufacturing methods, and products, so that a uniformity of quality and price may be maintained in foreign markets, will obviate many of the difficulties experienced by American exporters in keeping up their historic endeavor to compete with one another. Another measure approved by the President is the development of a system of accounting which will enable the American business man to tell more accurately what it costs him to turn out his product. The President was surprised recently to learn from Federal Trade Commissioner Hurley that, whereas 50 per cent of German manufacturers can compute the exact cost of their products, only 10 per cent of American manufacturers can do so.

In general, the President intends that the Trade Commission shall apply itself vigorously to methods of reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of production.

The President is wholly committed to plans for maintaining and developing the transportation facilities at the disposal of the nation's business. His views on the need for an American merchant marine such as will assure American manufacturers means of conveying their products to foreign markets without depending on other nations, are now well known, and the shipping bill which embodies his ideas is now before Congress. The public is not so well informed, however, as to the President's attitude respecting the conservation and development of our domestic transportation facilities, namely, the railroads. With a view to obtaining the real facts about the difficulties confronting our great railroad companies the President has brought about the creation of a Congressional Commission to make a thoroughgoing inquiry into all phases of railroad problems. The President does not ignore the fact that in many instances the State Railroad Commissions and the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission have worked at cross purposes, thereby seriously retarding the development of the roads as national utilities. The President's mind is open on the subject of Federal incorporation and he will embody in his constructive business policy the conclusions which may seem justified by the investigation of the Congressional Commission.

Welcomes "Dollar Exchange"

There are many other phases of the railroad problem, however, regarding which the President desires the public to be better informed so that the Government may be enabled more fully to do its duty by the roads. These relate to credits and methods of expansion, as well as to schemes of regulation; and most important of all, to the spirit in which the public is to approach all questions relating to the welfare of the common carriers.

Another phase of the President's plans centers around his desire to provide means of assuring to the country the most efficient exertion of its great accumulated financial strength at the end of the war.

The United States has more gold than either group of the European belligerents and her financial position is incomparably stronger than that of any European nation with which we are shortly to engage in competition. But the President faces the fact that this new and happy condition has been created by the war and that plans must now be evolved for expanding our credit structure if the nation's industries are to reap the full benefits of our great financial strength when peace comes. The President believes that one of the measures which should be taken toward this end is the establishment of joint agencies of the Federal reserve banks in Europe as soon as sufficiently stable conditions are restored there. He also favors the establishment of such agencies in South America. It is his policy further to encourage American banking institutions to establish foreign branches in South America, where American trade is endeavoring to establish new footholds, and in general to adopt the most liberal attitude permissible while observing the spirit of the Federal Reserve act. The development of "dollar exchange" he contemplates with real enthusiasm.

The Government Must Help Business.

The President's policy may be summarized in the statement that he desires the Government to assume the role of the vigorous and robust friend of American business men in their endeavors to cope with competitors from other nations. This general statement covers not only the measures which have been discussed in this article and the holding of financial conferences between the United States and countries with which our trade may be expanded, but other concrete ideas for legislative enactments and executive acts which will promote the same purpose.

The President believes that the measures which his administration has taken for conserving and energizing American labor are part and parcel of the policy which I have been permitted here to set forth.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.

How the War Is Paid For

1916

"It is only true in a limited sense," observes one English financial critic, "that a nation can pay for war out of its accumulated wealth, and its ability to do so does not alter the fact that the war is actually paid for, by somebody, as it proceeds. In so far as we pay for the war by borrowing in America, we hire Americans to pay for it now and promise to repay them some day, so handing the debt on to the future. American investors who buy our bonds pay American producers of munitions for the goods they sell us now, and we shall be taxed after the war to pay the investors when the bonds mature and to pay their interest in the meantime.

"In so far as we pay for the war by selling securities back to America, we pay for it out of accumulated wealth. American investors who buy back Pennsylvania bonds from us pay the munition makers. Both these processes we are employing. The extent to which we are making use of the latter is known only by the authorities, but we may fairly hope that it is not greater than the extent of our loans to our allies and Dominions. If so, our capital resources are not being diminished."

There Always Comes a Settling Day

1920

By W. D. Boyce (W. D. Boyce's Talks)

A few days ago leading bankers of the United States were approached by confidential agents representing bankers who had invested in Russian bonds to the amount of $300,000,000. It was a feel-out to determine whether pressure could not be brought upon Congress to recognize one of the factions in Russia which is fighting the Reds, or Bolshevists. I believe they were pretty plainly told that it would be useless to introduce such a bill, that it would get nowhere.

Now a bigger and wider scheme is proposed (no doubt a bill to that effect will be introduced in Congress) to send to "starving" Europe three hundred million dollars and not to collect the interest on European bonds which our Government took during the war. The balance due is going to be $1,500,000,000 (one billion five hundred million), and the Secretary of the Treasury further is quoted as stating that he had not the heart to ask the European Governments to pay what they owe us. That does not sound very good, specially as the United States Government has the heart to ask everybody to pay four times the normal taxes. We spent our money to send our boys to Europe to fight for the freedom of the world, but we never agreed to finance and set on their feet again the countries at war. We had nothing to do with bringing the fight on in the first place, and we should not be punished for the lack of foresight on the part of the Allies in not observing that Germany had been preparing for forty years to establish a Middle Europe, a German country from the North Sea to the Gulf of Persia.

I cannot understand why we should, keep on adding to our taxes in order to quickly establish Europe as our competitor in the markets of the world. If the other countries would go to work like England did they soon would be on their feet again. England exported and imported during the last twelve months $1,000,000,000 more than did the United States, yet England had been at war far more than four years. Talk about "starving Europe" can hardly be true for the war has been over now for fourteen months and Europe has had time to grow a crop. If she could live without starving for four years and at the same time keep millions of men fighting she ought to be able to get enough to eat in times of peace.

I get tired, too, of hearing and reading about the debt we owe to France. During the American Revolutionary period France sided with us, it is true, when we revolted against England. But it was because France was having trouble with both England and Germany at that time and England had a German King on her throne. The only reason France sided with us was because she wished to help rob England and Germany of prospective colonies and thus weaken her own enemies. Some of the educated French may have sincerely wished us well, but ninety out of every hundred of them didn't even know there was such a thing as the United States. Few of them could read or write and their minds were taken up with the sole objective of earning their daily bread and sour wine. France at that time was a monarchy and as a political unit had no love for republics.

Today France is the richest country in Europe, but she is hollering so loud about conditions and whining so much that the yelp of the Daschund can hardly be heard. The United States has set herself back forty years to prevent France from being subjugated by the Boche and if any debt is due now it is a debt of France to the United States.

Always there comes a settling day, and until the United States demands that Europe pay at least the interest on the money we have loaned the different countries over there they will not go to work, either to raise food enough to feed themselves or to make money enough to pay us off. If we extend any further credit we will "bust" Europe.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.

Money Spending a Habit

1908

Spending money is a good deal of a habit, and though nobody need expect to break it off entirely, it can be restricted with much less serious inconvenience than most of us suppose.

It is by no means the only way to have fun. The problems of economy are just about as interesting as the problems of expenditure. It is sometimes so harassing to decide in which of several ways to spend a sum of money that it comes almost as a relief to have the money crawl back into its hole and make a decision unnecessary.

Thrift has great powers of entertainment, especially when it is successful, and relieves the mind of fiscal anxieties without depriving the body of the food, raiment and shelter that are necessary to health. — Harper's Weekly.


What She Said

"What did your wife say when you told her that you had lost your money in stocks?"
"What a foolish question. She said what every other woman would say under similar circumstances: 'Isn't that just like a man?' " — Detroit Free Press.


The Ideal

The ideal man, as woman considers him, is one who can trail around for half a day and not get weary while she stops to price things.

Patriotic Creed of the Good American

1920

Patriotic Creed of the Good American for the Welfare of Everybody

Composite by Federal Reserve Savings Directors

I believe in the United States of America.
My opportunity and hope depend upon her future.
I believe that her stability and progress rest upon the industry and thrift of her people.
Therefore, I will work hard and live simply.
I will spend less than I earn.
I will use my earnings with care.
I will save consistently.
I will invest thoughtfully.
To increase the financial strength of my country and myself I will buy government securities.
I will hold above barter the obligations my country thus incurs.
I will do these things to secure the greatness of America's future.
Let us have no financial slackers in this battle.

Wife of Mexican Millionaire's Curious Hiding Place for Money

1915

Really Odd "Savings Bank"

With the coming of the pay envelope for women has developed the evolution of the broken-nosed teapot as a savings bank. Many and varied are the methods women have worked out to save money, although it is only within the last fifty years that the average woman has had to consider the problem individually. With their "going to business," however, questions of finance and investment have come to them.

Many amusing incidents of the broken-nosed teapot as a savings bank have come to light. There is a story of Pedro Alvaredo, the peon millionaire of Parral, Mexico, whose mines yielded silver so fast that he could not spend it, though he bought pianos and ponies by the carload, and all the metal work in the palace that stood where his old adobe hut had once been built was of silver.

Alvaredo had no faith in banks and kept great quantities of cash in his house. Naturally, much of this came into the hands of Senora Alvaredo. The senora had a special bed quilt which always covered her at night and was never far away in the day time. When the senora died her maid went to Alvaredo and asked for the quilt. But Alvaredo was superstitious and disliked to give away anything to which his wife had been so much attached. He offered the woman money instead and, though dollars were no longer flowing in at the rate of 30,000 a day, he was generous in the matter. But the girl insisted that she would have no memorial of her mistress but the quilt.

Finally Alvaredo's suspicions were thoroughly aroused and he ripped the quilt to pieces. It contained $30,000 in $1,000 pieces. Among them was a letter from the senora saying that she had saved the money for her two sons and directed that it be put in the bank to their credit. And now the young men are being educated in an American college upon the interest of their mother's savings. — From the Business Woman's Magazine.

"Goodbye" to Doctor Costs Polly a Leg

1920

Door Nips It Off and Now Bird Must Wear a Peg

JEFFERSONVILLE, N.Y. — Dr. Cyril Mydole of this village has a parrot. The doctor bought the bird when she was a year old and gave her the real parrot name, Polly. Polly displayed much intelligence from the day he purchased her and in a few months developed startling vocabulary "cuss" words. Today the parrot is using her profanity freely and the doctor says she is justified.

Polly has been allowed the freedom of the physician's office. She would follow the doctor to his office door and bid him goodbye. On a recent afternoon the doctor started to leave his office. Just as he closed the door he heard a scream. He looked around and found Polly's leg had been caught in the door. Upon examination he found that the leg was so badly mangled that he amputated it at the second joint.

Polly is now forced to stand on her right leg. She says it is "damn hard luck," and hurls invectives at the doctor. As soon as Polly's injured leg heals the doctor will provide her with a peg leg.


Washboard Salary Halts Honeymoon

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — "On his salary she would have to use the washboard for a piano," said George W. Windmuller, in discussing the suit filed in the Circuit Court by his daughter, Mrs. Georgia Chembra, 16 years old, to annul her marriage to Albert L. Chembra.

She was married to Chembra by a justice of the peace in Clayton Jan. 28 last. He is 20 years old. After the ceremony she returned to her father's home, and he to that of his mother. When the girl's father learned of the marriage through the newspapers he refused to allow Chembra to see his bride.

Mrs. Chembra in her suit says her husband misrepresented his financial condition and his earning capacity.

What Is Due To A Wife

1874

One of the very best wives and mothers I have ever known once said to me that whenever her daughters should be married she should stipulate in their behalf with their husbands for a regular sum of money to be paid them, at certain intervals, for their personal expenditures. Whether this sum was to be larger or smaller was a matter of secondary importance — that must depend on the income and style of living — but the essential thing was that it should come to the wife regularly, so that she should no more have to make a special request for it than her husband would have to ask her for his dinner. This lady's own husband was, as I happen to know, of a most generous disposition, was devotedly attached to her, and denied her nothing.

She herself was a most accurate and careful manager. There was everything in the household to make the financial arrangements flow smoothly. Yet she said to me: "I suppose no man can possibly understand how a sensitive woman shrinks from asking for money. I can prevent it, my daughters shall never have to ask it. If they do their duties as wives and mothers, they have a right to their share of the joint income, within reasonable limits; for, certainly, no money could buy the service they render. Moreover, they have a right to a share in determining what those reasonable limits are."

And I fancy that those who feel it most are often the most conscientious and high-minded women. It is unreasonable to say of such persons, "Too sensitive!" "Too fastidious!" For this very quality of finer sensitiveness which men affect to prize in woman, and wish to protect it at all hazards. The very fact that a husband is generous; the very fact that his income is limited; these may bring in conscience and gratitude to increase the retaining influence of pride, and make the wife less willing to ask money of such a husband than if he were a rich man or a mean one. The only dignified position in which a man can place his wife is to treat her at least as well as he would treat a housekeeper, and give her the comfort of and perfectly clear and definite arrangement as to money matters. She will not then be under the necessity of nerving herself to solicit from him as a favor what she really needs and has a right to spend. Nor will she be torturing herself, on the other side, with the secret fear lest she has asked too much and more than they can really spare. She will, in short, be in the position of a woman and a wife, not of a child or toy.

I have carefully avoided using the word "allowance" in what I have said, because that word seems to imply the untrue and mean assumption that the money is all the husband's, to give or withhold as he will. Yet I have heard this sort of talk from men who were living on a wife's property, or a wife's earnings; from men such as keepers of boarding-houses, who worked a little while their wives worked hard, and from men such as farmers, who worked hard and their wives work harder. Even in case where the wife has no direct part in the money-making, the indirect part she performs, if she takes faithful charge of her household, is so essential, so beyond all compensation in money, that it is an utter shame and impertinence in the husband when he speaks "giving" money to his wife as if were an act of favor. It is no more an act of favor than when the business manager of a firm pays out money to the unseen partner who directs the indoor business or runs the machinery. Be the joint income more or less, the wife has a claim to her honorable share, and that, as a matter of right, without the daily ignominy of sending in a petition for it.

Women and Property – Advice for Handling Estates, 1878

1878

There can be no question that for women good registered bonds are specially desirable, being less troublesome than any other securities. But it often happens that women inherit real estate, and a few remarks on its management may be useful.

A very wise man of fifty years' experience in taking care of property, especially for women, once said to me: "If a woman is left with a house at all suited to her condition, I always advise her to keep it. A woman with a house of her own — a home — will usually get along even on a very small income; and she and her family, if she has one, will be much happier if they have a home than they could be without it. Without a home of their own, they are usually unsettled and subject to many discomforts."

And so, if a woman inherits other real estate, and it yields her a moderate income, it will scarcely be wise to part with it, especially if it is situated in a village or city that is growing. The mere retention of real estate in these circumstances has made thousands rich. Avoid incurring a debt for the improvement of such property. A lady recently called on me for advice. She inherited $50,000 of real estate, which yielded her a fair income, equal to every want. But not contented, she borrowed money to make costly improvements and to erect new buildings. Now, with the decline of property, her rent roll hardly pays her interest and taxes, and she is liable to heavy losses by foreclosure.

Of course good securities, of whatsoever sort, should be kept, that is, not exchanged for others for the sake of a little hoped-for gain. While it is not wise to carry all one's eggs in one basket, it should be remembered that eggs are liable to break in handling. It is easy to loosen up property, but not easy to re-establish it. — Bazar.

French Girl Inspects 20 U.S. Suitors

1920

Frankly Admits She Is Here to Hunt Husband — Has Discarded Eighty as Unsuitable

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Twenty times Mlle. Susanne Boitard watched an American officer get down on his knees before her and heard him propose marriage to her.

And just twenty times the chic French girl answered, "Oh, Monsieur, but you must wait! When the war is over we shall see. It may be ——"

All this happened in the battle-scarred days of 1918 at Mlle. Boitard's magnificent home near Amiens, France, wherein many Yank officers were quartered during the war. And now she is in the United States looking over her score of prospective husbands, and has already discarded eight as unsuitable. Mademoiselle frankly admits that she is hunting a mate and that she believes marriage is the greatest ambition that a woman can achieve.

"So why shouldn't I come to America to pick the best one of the twenty who have asked my hand in marriage?" demands the French girl.

Is Pretty, Rich, Educated

It cannot be denied that Mlle. Boitard has qualifications for marriage. She is pretty, perfumed and excessively feminine. She is 24, rich and well educated. She is brilliant and vivacious. She is the picture of health and beauty.

"And I want the best husband in the world!" Calmly announces Mlle. Boitard.

On the subject of husbands, and American husbands in particular, she admits that her U.S. suitors were great fighters, but she has some objections to them as prospective mates. They spend too much, she avers, and they are poor — ah, oui! — very poor judges of good wine.

"All these men who proposed marriage to me," declares mademoiselle, in her charming English, with a trace of French accent, "lived at our chateau near Amiens. They drank our wine and they ate at our table. They were very enthusiastic over the chateau at Amiens and our home in Paris, for they had every possible luxury there. Now isn't it entirely possible that some of these twenty officers may have loved my luxurious home more than they did me?

"It is only reasonable that I should want to see how my American suitors live in their own homes. I do not want to be too critical about them, but I find some faults in the American national character.

"What has displeased me about American men more than any other one thing is that they are so stupid and reckless about spending money. They eat and drink and tip in expensive places as if they were millionaires. I find it very unpleasant. They want to appear rich, and that surprises and disappoints me.

Poor Judges of Wine

"And I do not like the American way of drinking. The men I know seemed to drink just for the sake of drinking, without the least appreciation of good wine. With one of them I am sure that it would have been all the same to him if he was drinking perfume.

"The American business man works too hard. He doesn't take any time for his wife and his home. I want my husband to work, but I also want him to make time for theaters, art, horses and charity affairs. I don't want to have to think in the dollar sign."

Back in New York from one inspection tour, Mlle. Boitard seemed a trifle disillusioned. She had seen and discarded eight of the twenty who wanted to marry her.

"There is one chance in particular, and maybe two or three others, that I may yet marry an American man, in spite of the eight I have discarded," says the French girl, dreamily. "I am thinking of one officer from Kentucky and another from St. Louis. But I will visit these cities and will find out for myself."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.