p. 15 | The Unnecessaries

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 21, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 28.

The Unnecessaries

We have reached an era when what-nots, woolen pincushions, horn cornucopias and shell-boxes are put away in boxes with hair flowers and the stuffed redbird. Women will have knickknacks in spite of everything on earth, but every year brings something new. Ages ago the lone women living on the seashores of foreign countries made fancy work from the dried entrails of whales and pounded metal or tiny seashells. Later the Indians showed their ingenuity with threads colored with the juices of berries and vines, which looked only too resplendent with brilliant beads. Peasants have shown great ingenuity in making fancy articles from almost nothing but the most plebeian objects around their humble homes, but Americans take the palm in having their houses filled with trash, truly an up-to-date state of affairs that has Dickens’ Curiosity Shop outdone by a league and a half. But it is ending—that is, it is drawing to a close in some homes. Get rid of your extra trash this spring, burn it, hide it, give it away, have a bonfire or collision—anything to get rid of the worn-out cushions, old pictures and unsightly hand-made articles that can’t be cleaned in any possible manner. Do it for appearance’ sake, even tho you may have no regard for your own health in trying to clean those articles every day of the week to keep the house presentable.—Woman’s National Daily.