SAFETY LAST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 18

SAFETY LAST

INCAUTIOUS ECONOMY

At a recent lecture on pottery in England, the speaker invited his audience to inspect the specimens used for illustration, adding, "Don't be afraid of handling them. The best way of handling good pottery is to treat it as though it didn't matter," states an exchange.

The advice is borne out by common experience in the home. Often a favourite piece of china is broken after but a short life, whereas that uninteresting jam-dish given by Aurit Jemima, which we are too conscientious to throw away, has not even the decency to get itself cracked, and so give us the opportunity pf discarding it. Possibly the reason is that the favourite piece of china is used seldom and is then handled too delicately, whereas the jam-dish is handled with a careless but assured touch.

In other ways caution often \ proves to be bad husbandry. The chronic um-brella-loser decides to minimise the expense of repeated forgetfulness and buys the cheaper sort of umbrella. The result is that the number left behind somewhere or other increases. It is sometimes a better economy to buy a good umbrella which is a decorative accessory instead of a tiresome addition to an outfit. One risks more money at the outset and saves it in the end.

Some business and professional women suffer from the malady known as handbag-bulge. Regarding the unshapely bundle that was once a slender handbag, they decide that it will be an : economy to buy a larger but cheaper one. But the new purchase grows shabby is next to no time, and, like its predecessor, it is stuffed to its utmost capacity. One "bag-bulger" has solved the problem by buying. a handbag that is smaller, flatter, but of good quality. It is so flat that it is not usable unless it is cleared of odds and ends at least once a week, while its quality rebels against rough usage. Here again the seemingly incautious course has proved the wisest.

To curl ginger or brandy snaps, roll them round the handle of a spoon after they are baked.