Anna Steese Richardson

“ To those of us who are in the business, the argument against package goods as increasing the cost of living is absurd. Goods must be prepared for delivery, either in the factory or in the store. The factory, with its labor-saving machinery, can do up dry groceries more rapidly and less expensively than our fastest clerks in the store. Perhaps there was a time when the housekeeper paid extra for containers. To-day she can buy certain package goods as reasonably, and sometimes more cheaply, than bulk goods. ”

“ When the American woman knows as much about feeding babies and children under three years of age as she knows about mixing bread, polishing furniture, and embroidering doilies, our home economics and domestic relations will undergo a change for the better. Thousands of marriages have been wrecked by the ignorance of the mother in rearing her children, and the subsequent confusion and quarreling. A sickly baby loads the husband and father with harassing expenses. ”

“ Our aim is not merely to transfer to the pockets of our shareholders the small net profits made by other storekeepers, but so to manage the journey of food products from source to kitchen as to cut out certain evils from which the housewife suffers—the cost of duplicate or wasted motion, and the adulteration and unsanitary conditions which surround the handling of products. We eliminate many of the cost items of ordinary retail trade in competition, and we protect the society from loss by doing only a cash trade. ”

“ Most of us can look back to the day when weaning the family baby was almost a domestic tragedy. The mother, more through fear than sentiment, wept and declared that, once her child did not nurse from the breast, life would never be quite the same! ”

“ The progressive mother works with the progressive physician, and the baby profits by the combination. To-day there is little excuse for a colicky, crying, sickly baby in the family circle. Except in rare cases, when the baby’s poor condition does not improve under intelligent mother-care, modern medical science can effect a cure. What generally stands between the sick baby and its cure to-day is ignorance or tradition on the part of the parent, who clings to the belief that strong babies are born to live, that weak babies are born to die, and that the Creator has decreed it! ”

“ You may laugh, but I firmly believe that in cooperation, or, at least, the cooperative store, lies our one sure hope of reducing the cost of living. It works two ways—it actually cuts down the price of foodstuffs, and it teaches the woman thrift through investment in stock. ”

“ Most crying can be traced to physical discomfort which can be relieved, or to spoiling and indulgence which can be checked. In this day of intelligent care and disciplining of children, there is absolutely no excuse for having a screaming baby in the house. The modern mother not only realizes that behind the crying lies a good and sufficient cause, but she traces the cause to its lair—and lays it low. ”

“ Pierce’s idea of the proverbial cottage in which love should thrive among roses, was a Colonial mansion on a Long Island estate, reached by a high-powered motor-car.
In the house of Larry, Claire found not only 182 the sympathy she needed in her lover’s absence, but help in her absorbing task of studies in household economics. Somehow, too, the contentment in her friends’ simply appointed home made her own way seem easier. One could be happy on a small income, if she made the most of little joys. ”

“ Most of us can look back to the barbarous practice of soothing a baby with paregoric and then trusting to nature to relieve the condition which made soothing necessary. We really seemed to think that a miracle would be worked while the baby slept!
If a baby had any terrible deformity or acute disease we turned to a surgeon or physician, but we took long chances when the baby was merely good. We never stopped to figure that a good baby could be made a better baby by intelligent care, a better baby transformed into a well-nigh perfect baby. ”

“ Larry. “The chief trouble I have is in taking care of goods in quantity after I buy them. You have no cellar or pantry in an apartment-house. There are closets and bins enough in my kitchen, but winter and summer it’s too hot, vegetables and fruit spoil.”
“And that eats up what you save going to market. Buying in small quantities comes high. Now if a lot of women could go together and buy and then divide up, they could save money.” ”

“ In infancy the most dreaded disease is whooping-cough. A normal, healthy baby under six months of age can hardly survive this disease; and there is nothing more pitiful than to see the family baby, who has caught this racking ailment from older children, slowly but surely choke up as it becomes too weak even to cough. I regard it as nothing short of criminal to expose a healthy baby to whooping-cough. As many babies die of whooping-cough, in New York City, as from measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria combined. Never allow any child with a cough to come near your baby. ”

“ 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 214 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. ”

“ If the baby is normally healthy and has been made comfortable, it now falls sound asleep. This is nature’s way of permitting the mother to recuperate before nursing the baby for the first time. When the baby wakens, the mother will have regained her strength in that amazing way which is appreciated only by those who have watched her pass from the ordeal of labor into the joys of maternity as through a miracle. The baby should be given the breast when it awakens from its first sleep, and if there is any flow of milk whatever, no artificial food should be supplied. ”

“ Larry lounged in the doorway, watching Mrs. Larry array herself for her next adventure in thrift. Lena, the young maid, similarly occupied, sat on the shirt-waist box with Larry, Junior, and his wee sister snuggling close.
“The money for the milkman is next to the sugar can,” announced Mrs. Larry, settling her hat above anxious brows. “And you may boil rice for the children’s luncheon.”
“There ain’t any, ma’am,” answered Lena.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Mrs. Larry, reaching for her veil. “I didn’t have time to go over the groceries yesterday. When you take baby out, buy a pound package at Dorlon’s.” ”

“ The well-nourished body of a properly fed child does not furnish an abiding-place for disease-germs.
Through watching the conferences between mothers and physicians at Better Babies Contests, I have come to realize that, while 75 per cent. of the ailments from which babies suffer can be traced to some form of stomach or bowel trouble, comparatively few women recognize symptoms of malnutrition or overfeeding for the menace which they really are. Many mothers seem to consider that a slight digestive trouble is almost as casual a feature of baby’s career as teething. ”

“ Larry assuringly.
“Oh, Larry, that’s the very idea! Every day will brings its adventure in thrift. I’ll have my next trip in the morning.”
“Why don’t you start with the open market?” suggested Mr. Larry.
“I thought they were just for the poor.”
“They are run by the city for the people—and we are the people, aren’t we?”
“Well, not just people—when you have the darlingest and most understandingest of husbands—”
“And the most calculating and parsimonious of wives.”
“Now you’re making fun of me. But I’ll try the city market to-morrow. There’s one at the end of the Broadway car line.” ”

“ Science wrangles over the rival importance of heredity and environment, but we women know what effects prenatal influence works in children. And, knowing this, what a mystery that we do not mold each thought and act in the interest of the children whose up-bringing will be our real life-work! How strange that mothers do not realize that the burden of maternal and domestic duties can be lightened by prenatal care and character molding.
Science has done much for the modern mother. ”

“ He believes that cooperative business solves the bulk of our high cost of living problem, and he has developed many good ideas. He has tried out the parcel-post plan of shipment and secured direct dealings with farmers. The 125 store is simply fitted, but immaculately clean, and the white-washed cellar, dry and sweet smelling, is a joy to the women who get a peep into it. ”

“ Many mothers who spend hours embroidering tiny frocks or sewing on yards of lace will hurry through the process of bathing, or be careless in the handling of diapers and other clothing which will chafe the baby’s delicate skin. Love which expresses itself in the overdressing of the child is far less practical than that which expresses itself in cleanliness and sweetness for all that surrounds the child. ”

“ Baby’s comfort, and, incidentally, the peace and quiet of the entire household, may be increased by intelligent selection and care of clothing. Every adult has experienced more or less discomfort from ill-fitting or unsuitable underwear, tight bands and shoes, yet in many homes where babies are deeply and truly loved clothing for the tender little bodies is chosen thoughtlessly and adjusted carelessly. Even the mother who threatens her own eyesight, embroidering dainty bits of linen for the layette, may fairly torture her baby by supplying underwear that irritates the delicate skin. ”