The subject is
fascinating and inexhaustible. One gets tired of most things, but there
has never been a time in which the cost of shoes and stockings has
failed to appeal with peculiar force to me. My odd moments on the train
have as a rule been taken up with that question. If you have ever
thought upon this subject, you must have been struck with the fact that,
putting food aside, shoes and stockings constitute the most permanent
and persistent human need. They begin with the first few weeks of our
life, and they continue to the end; the size alone changes. It is a
subject, too, that opens up such wide horizons. For while a man of
comparatively little leisure can confine himself to the simple topic of
shoes and stockings, he may, if he so desires, widen the field of his
interests so as to include the allied subjects of frocks, jackets,
blouses, caps, and collars, until he has covered the entire range of
children's apparel. Nor is that all. I have spent many an absorbing hour
figuring out the annual rate of increase in servants' wages and rent. Of
late years I have been in the habit of putting in part of my lunch hour
in a study of college fees and tailors' bills.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169