In considering that the cost of living is now an all important topic for discussion, it is most essential that everybody, especially the younger people, be advised in a degree, at least, as to how, where, and what to buy in the furnishing of their homes.

Commodities, on an average, are today little, if any higher priced than years ago, but the public demands better things and when an analysis is taken, it will be found that the high cost of living is not so much a matter of the great increase in prices as it is a growing demand for the best; not a question of the high cost of living, but as some one has said "The cost of high liv-ing."

When any article is purchased nowadays it is usually found that the quantity received is much less than in previous years, but an attractive transformation will be noticed in that the article is encased in an elaborate carton, or wrapped in tissue paper and perhaps bound in ribbon; all of these things are summed up and called "Service."

Education Is Important

Education, therefore, menu as indispensable when it comes to the important matter of furnishing a place where one expects to spend, perhaps, the rest of one's life, as it is along any other channel. The matter of educating the public in the economical buying of furniture, that is, to use better and more serviceable furniture, has been sadly neglected. It has been stated that the annual expenditure for furniture in the entire country at the present time amounts to only one dollar and fifty cents per capita, while the amount spent for cigars tobacco, and coco-cola is something like eight times that amount Whether this he true or not, the indications are that the furnishing of the home, so far. has not entered into the high cost of living; instead, the money that should go into the home is spent for things that appeal to and attract the pleasure loving.

A Little Advice To Beginners

But very little has been offered in really good all-around advice to beginners as to how to go about the furnishing of their new home, and yet there is nothing in the whole curriculum of commodities of which there is as little known as the buying of household furniture. The reason is easily seen, for if a girl has been properly trained, she has, by the time she reaches a marriageable age, become somewhat proficient in cooking and sewing, in the selection of her clothes, in the management of a home, hut she knows least of all relative to the furnishing of the same, while the young man knows much less. His time has been occupied in gaining his education, or if a laborer or a tradesman, his schooling and his work have occupied his time. At the time of their marriage the furnishing of a home enters abruptly but surely into their life and they together are compelled to figure out something entirely new and foreign and in most cases without the aid of even having previously visited a furniture establishment.

To Buy Wisely Is To Buy Economically

Young people would be better pleased with their purchases if they would make their own selection, but they are sometimes inflenced by their friends or relatives against buying what they wish. Many a couple, when starting to furnish their home, has made the huge mistake of buying a quantity of the cheapest goods they could find, with the idea of purchasing a better grade later. After a few years of wear and tear they find that it would have been economy to have purchased goods of quality rather than quantity. "More quality and less quantity," therefore, should be the slogan of every purchaser.

Quality, it must be understood, should be considered in all phases. Quality of material, quality of workmanship, quality of design, quality of finish and appearance.