"It is true that the smaller the income is, the harder the task of spending it to best advantage becomes...
"Whatever way you may have found to stretch a too-small income, I am sure the majority of you see little romance in it...It is no disgrace to be poor, only mighty uncomfortable. It is honorable to plan and save and make things do a little longer if we make it so; it is noble to do any work if we do it in a noble way and live up to high ideals.
"The bald fact [is] that more than one-half of the adult males of the United States and Canada earn less than seven hundred dollars per annum, and that two million of our railroad employees average six hundred and fifty dollars a year, and many of our clergymen and teachers live on much less than a thousand dollars a year, shows us that we can live on a little less if we must. [Editor's note: !!!!]
"There are many pleasures that only money can buy, and to see the dollars we would like to spend for music and art broiled up in steak or baked into bread is temper breaking. But let us cultivate a sympathy with the other members of the great army of average wage-earners...Until things change for the better, try to be prudent and rational."
...from the December 1914 issue of Modern Priscilla magazine,
excerpted in 'The Art of Thrift' special issue of Good Old Days
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