Cheap Jewelry | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1871

Cheap Jewelry.

It is wonderful to see the immense amount of cheap jewelry which is displayed in our city stores; and now, indeed, we can hardly find a store in a country village, which has not some small case in a conspicuous place, filled with fifty-cent breast-pins, twenty-five-cent ear-rings, and bracelets, necklaces, and studs, at the same low prices. No wonder that these paltry ornaments become great temptations to simple-minded shop-girls, and to all the young misses of our seminaries and boarding-schools, and the girls in our kitchens.

My attention was called to the subject of “cheap jewelry,” by a short conversation I overheard between two school-girls the other day, about twelve years of age. One of them was dressed very fashionably, with ruffles and trimmings enough for a lady, long pendants hanging from her ears, and her collar ornamented with a highly colored brooch; the other child was simply dressed, her only ornament a bow of plain ribbon under her chin.

“Why don’t you wear jewelry, Lizzie?” said the most gayly dressed of the two. “You would look very pretty with ear-rings, and I never saw you even with a breast-pin on.”

“My mother says she does not like to see little girls wear jewelry; and she would not be willing to allow me to waste money in buying it either,” answered Lizzie.

“Nonsense! they don’t cost much. I have seven sets; and some of them were only two shillings a set; and half the people would not know but that they were real. I think we ought to look as pretty as we can.”

“Mother says,” answered Lizzie quietly, “that it is ‘acting a lie’ to wear ‘make-believe things;’ and I do not think you would like to have any of your seven sets spoken of by their right names, ‘brass and glass’—for they are nothing else.”

I heard no more, but I felt that these two children unconsciously had laid bare the root of the evil. This wearing of much jewelry leads to a love of display and fondness for dress, and is one of the great temptations of the day. The fatal love of adornment has led many a fair and innocent young girl, step by step, down the broad road that leads to utter ruin both of body and soul.

An immense amount of money is wasted in this cheap jewelry traffic, hard-earned money, too, which might be laid aside against a dark day, or given to those in need. And then does not this love of display divert one’s mind from seeking for the “hidden treasure,” “the pearl of great price”? While adorning ourselves with these frail and worthless trinkets, are we seeking for “goodly pearls,” the glorious gospel which will make us wise unto salvation?—Am. Messenger.