The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-07-09
tFrhn the 'Baltim, re Sum-
FEMALE EXTRAVAGANCE.

! On every hand and In all circles, we
hear complaints of female extravaganza.
| Husbands talk about it and fathers COM
plain of it, the pulpit thunders against
it, newspapers argue and declaim upon
it by turns. Does specie go OFT of the
country? We are told it is because Ia
dies buy SO many laces, brocades, and
other French extrnvagances. Is mer-
chant ruined p? Half the world lays it
to the prod gality of his wife. Young
men shrug their shoulders when advised
to marry, and say they cannot afford to
pay the milliner's bills. Old men rate
their daughters for the sums they squan-
der on French fnery. From all sides,
a fire of wit and objurgation is kept up
upon the extrayagance of women, second
only to the Gre upon Sebastopol the day
| | tho Maia!sr<I was caS tured The anath-
cma maranathn rises Immediately to the
| lips of the men whenever Brussels lace
or brocade, diamonds, India shawl, or
other feminine extravagances are men
toned in th' j. presence.
Yet the fault is not all on one side
If ladies love choice laccs, gentlemen
like fine cigars. From the day laborer,
who will have his beer and tobacco, up
to the rich citizen, who drinks pure
wines or drives fast trotters, selfgratifi-
cation is the rule with men rather than
the exception. Many husband who
sours when he receives his wife's bill
for gloves, spends twice as much on oys-
ters for himself Billiards, suppers and
sporting excursions consume their pro-
portion, at least of the family income.
In justice to woman, too, it must be ad-
mitted, that while her prodigality arises
from desire to look lovelier, which is
but the INSTINCT of her seq, to render her
self more pleasing to man, the extrava-
gance of man on the other hand, springs
generally from selfish desire to crafty
bis appetite or pander to morbid love
of excitement. At most vanity is more
pardonable than gluttony or drunken
ness. Women squander money on show;
| man wastes it on wine and horses. We
rarely hear the stronger sex dennuncing
the weaker as spend without say
ing to ourselves take irst the Beam from
thine own eye."
To what do these words tend !? Not
to the i1crease of recriminations between
man and wife, but to the fostering and
mutual forbearance and self denial. We
wish to impress our readers that there is
no station, however exalted, no condi-
ton, however poor, in which one sex
does not often crafty its vanity or ap-
petite at the expense of the other.
Sometirses it is the wife who is selfish
aud spends more than her share; but
quite as often it is the husband. Gus
tom, however, has warranted the latter
in complaining of extravaganza, while
the same custom has closed the mouth
of the former, till half the world thinks
woman has no cause to complain at all.
We justify neither. We say both, as a
general rule, squandor too much. But
we maintain that if husbands, instead of
swearing at their wives bills, would
shew the example of economy by reduc-
ing their own selfish expenses, the fe-
male sex would not be long in being
shamed into retrenchment, The last
vices a man sees are his own. If some
of US gould look at home, instead of
going abroad, We would prats less about
extravaganza.