The economy meetings brought out some quaint speeches. No wonder!
People were taken unawares. We were unprepared for war, and the
changes it had brought;--we were as unprepared as the woman who said,
in speaking of unexpected callers, "I had not even time to turn my
plants." There was much unintentional humor. One lady, whose home was
one of the most beautiful in the city, and who entertained lavishly,
told us, in her address on "Economy," that at the very outbreak of the
war she reduced her cook's wages from thirty to twenty dollars, and
gave the difference to the Patriotic Fund; that she had found a
cheaper dressmaker who made her dresses now for fifteen dollars, where
formerly she had paid twenty-five; and she added artlessly, "They are
really nicer, and I do think we should all give in these practical
ways; that's the sort of giving that I really enjoy!"

Another woman told of how much she had given up for the Patriotic
Fund; that she had determined not to give one Christmas present, and
had given up all the societies to which she had belonged, even the
Missionary Society, and was giving it all to the Red Cross. "I will
not even give a present to the boy who brings the paper," she declared
with conviction. Whether or not the boy's present ever reached the
Red Cross, I do not know. But ninety-five per cent of the giving was
real, honest, hard, sacrificing giving. Elevator-boys, maids,
stenographers gave a percentage of their earnings, and gave it
joyously. They like to give, but they do not like to have it taken
away from them by an employer, who thereby gets the credit of the
gift. The Red Cross mite-boxes into which children put their candy
money, while not enriching the Red Cross to any large extent, trained
the children to take some share in the responsibility; and one
enthusiastic young citizen, who had been operated on for appendicitis,
proudly exhibited his separated appendix, preserved in alcohol, at so