e world, is to place
them in the first class and soon render them independent of our
material help." [2]

{113}

A characteristic of the second class is the habit of buying on credit.
The book at the corner grocery not only tempts the purchaser into
buying unnecessary things, but the prices are higher than the market
rate for inferior goods. A student in a university laboratory, who is
also a friendly visitor, had occasion to use some sugar in one of his
experiments, and, being hurried, purchased it from the nearest corner
grocery, paying more than the usual price. It proved to be badly
adulterated, and the user has been more careful since in advising his
poor friends about purchasing provisions. The credit system is the
natural outcome of uncertain income, and for that reason is hard to
avoid, but in a number of instances it is continued long after the
necessity that caused the buyer to ask credit has ceased to exist.

Another and less excusable form of the credit system is buying
household goods on the instalment plan. The poor are often teased into
this by glib agents. An old woman, whose income was not sufficient to
keep her alive, contracted to buy a clock on the instalment plan for
$8.00 because she needed one when she {114} occasionally had a day's
job of cleaning. When her visitor remonstrated that a dollar clock
would have done quite as well, she replied triumphantly, "Yes, but this
one is only 25 cents a week!" When payments cannot be made, and the
purchaser is threatened with the loss of the goods, it is possible to
be too hasty in rushing to the rescue. The Fifteenth Report of the
Boston Associated Charities records such an experience. "A family had
purchased furniture upon the instalment plan, when the husband was
suddenly deprived of his job. The furniture was about to be seized,
when generous sympathizers came to the rescue, and redeemed the
articles. Scarcely had the donors time to realize what a financial
relief they had been able to give to the troubled family before the
same bit of folly was repeated, and 'parlor furniture' was added to the
inventory of goods and chattels to be paid for by the week." [3] When
instalment men threaten seizure, it is well to find out whether they
are acting within the law. They have been known to take advantage of
ignorant clients. But the system {115} itself is bad in that it
encourages the purchase of unnecessary things, and at a great advance
upon ca