i
“Pounds! I never weighed them”ii
ADVENTURES IN
THRIFT
By
ANNA STEESE RICHARDSON
ILLUSTRATED BY
CHARLES S. CORSON
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
iii
Copyright 1915
The Crowell Publishing CompanyCopyright 1916
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
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PREFACE
The incidents, the stores, the organizations andthe individuals described in this book are real, notfictitious. At the time that this book goes to press,each one of the societies mentioned is actively engagedin the task of reducing the cost of living for its members.The National Housewives’ League has itsheadquarters at 25 West Forty-fifth Street, New YorkCity. Mrs. Julian Heath, a real flesh and bloodwoman, is president of the organization. The Housewives’Cooperative League is still working activelytoward cooperative buying and no doubt for severalyears to come can be reached through its efficient secretary,Miss Edna O. Crofton, Norwood, Ohio, asuburb of Cincinnati, from which city the organizationdirects its work.
The Cooperative Store at Montclair is a flourishingreality. The Experimental Farm at Medford,Long Island, is still encouraging local farmers to selldirect to the housewives of Greater New York andvicinity by parcel post and express. Even Mrs. Larryand her friend, Claire Pierce, exist under othernames, and they participated in the adventures hereindescribed.v
This explanation is given because when the chaptersappeared originally in the Woman’s Home Companion,the author received many letters containingqueries of this nature: “Is there such an organizationas the National Housewives’ League, the Housewives’Cooperative League, a Cooperative Store inMontclair?” “Is there such a farm as you describeunder the title of the Experimental Farm at Medford?If so, I want to get in touch with its superintendent.”
The material in this book, which is of profoundinterest to all home-makers present or prospective, ispresented in fiction form because the writer, beinga housekeeper, realizes that household routine is somuch a business of facts and figures that studies inthrift are more acceptable to busy women whenbrightened by the little touch of romance that goesso far in leavening the day’s work of the home-maker.
ADVENTURES IN THRIFT
CHAPTER I
“Luxury is attained through thrift.”
Mrs. Larry folded her veil with niceexactitude and speared it with two invisiblehairpins. Then she bent her hat one-fourthof an inch on the right side, fluffed upher hair on the left and tucked her gloves underher purse. These pre-lun