The Bargain Counter 229 



stinct to get something "cheap," that is, to get 

 something for nothing, or, more properly, to get 

 more than we pay for, lies very deep in human 

 nature. Because women have usually lived from 

 hand to mouth, without foresight, it has perhaps 

 been exaggerated in them. There are the 

 bargain -hunters, and there are the bargain- 

 scorners ; both are doubtless equally illogical. 

 When an article is phenomenally cheai^, it is so, 

 usually, either because too many of its kind are 

 on the market, or because the seller is sacri- 

 ficing a normal profit to draw general custom, 

 or because the people who have produced it 

 have done so at less than a decent living wage, 

 or because it is going or gone out of fashion. 

 Good buyers are rightfully suspicious of bar- 

 gains. No one should be willing to buy or use 

 articles which have been produced at starvation 

 wages under wretched sanitary conditions. It 

 is never good economy to buy things which are 

 gone out of fashion unless one is quite satisfied 

 to he out of fashion. If the article offered on 

 the bargain counter be of good quality, and in 

 staple use in the household, it is often well 

 worth buying. Flannels, linens, sometimes 

 woolen dress goods of inconspicuous patterns, 

 may be bought at the end of the season much 

 cheaper than at the beginning, and are a good 

 investment if one has money to spare and is 



