Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1860-11-21
A Whisper to A Newly-Married Pair.
A WHISPER TO THE HUSBAND.
on EXPENDITURE.

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A WHISPER TO THE HUSBAND. !!
ON EXPENDITURE. a
In pecuniary matters, do not be penurious, !
or too particular. Your wife has an equal :
right with yourself to all your worldly pos :
sessions. with all my worldly goods thee :
endow,'' was one of the most solemn VOWS ;
that ever escaped your lips; and if she be a
woman of prudence, she will in all her ex-
penscs be reasonable and economical what
more can you desire? Besides, really, a wo-
man has innumerable trifiing demands on
her purse, innumesable little wants, which
it IS not necessary for a man to be IN
! formed of, and which if he even went to the
trouble Of investigating, he would hardly I'M
derstaEd.
You give your wife a certain sum Of mon
-~~-~An- of nrndence. if your
/ hold managed with economy and reguIarTy,
| really cannot see the necessity Of obliging
her to account to you for the exact manner
in which she laid it out. Pray, do allow her
the power of buying a yard of muslin, or a
few ~pennyworth Of pins, without consulting
the august tribunal ofyourj judgement wheth-
or they shall be quaker-pins or minikins.
/ have often with wonder remarked the
indifference with which some men regard
the amiable and superior qualities of their
wivesl | by no means intend to say that eve
nv wife possesses those qualities | only
speak of description of females who are, in
truth, an ornament to their
who would go the world over with the hus-
band they love, and endure, without shrink
ing, every hardship that world could infict.
Is his income stinted ? With what clever
ness will a wife of this description act, and
economic, and endeavor to abridge her ex-
Ill J---
to her scanty meal, suffering privations that
probably she never was accustomed to, con-
cealing their poverty from the world, and
endeavoring to gid it over with a genteel
and respectable appearance; nursing and
educating her children, and assuming, per
haps in the same day, the varied character
of gentlewoman, ~preceptress, and housewife
and yet insensibility to her merit, ofttimes
unkind language, is perhaps the return she
receives from her unworthy husband.
How often is a woman grieved by the
foolish extravaganza finer husband Among
other absurdities, will he not sometime
give for a horse or dog, or spend at a tavern
or club, a sum of money absolutely wanted
for the necessary comforts of his family thu
souandering, in a moment of simple folly
what perhaps has cost his wife many a har
: effort to save.
When once a man has entered the mai
rage state. he should look on his property a
belonging to has Jamily, and act and econ'
/. mize accordingly. | remember being a.
unainted with a gentleman who was col
. stantly saving, 1T is true, my property
y large. but then it belongs not to myself alon
op f.,'goI agent for them. 70 my ny wife,
20 well as these children, | feel accountal
- either for economy or extravaganza" A
o esssassSn e msaSseT ora SrGodssiss;ftsn cez v
forts, even a glass of wine after dinner, so
er than infringe on what he used to call
nix chiLdren'S bErHright
of The three follawing remarks, from the I
III of the excellent Mrs. Taylor, are we'll wol
:. attention: 'To what sufferings are tn,
III wives exposed, who are not allowed a su
ne cheney to defray the expenses of their est
"a llshment, and whe are never to obtain eV
their scanty allowance, but at the price
peace! Men who act in this way often
hu feat their own intentions and by const
JUS opposition render their wives lavish and
lie proyident, who would be quite the reve
where they were treated in a more libe
" manner. Wherever it is adopted, 1t is
ers terly destructive of %connubial confidence
ust often compels women to shelter themsel
no under mean contrivances and low art
You complain that your wife uses maneuv
as and efforts to get money from you: be g
erous to her, treat her as a wife ought to
the treated, and l venture to affirm you 81
have no further cause of complaint.
man who supplies unavoidable and necess
expenses with a pa~rsimonious hand,
nay rarely be attentive to the extra calls of s
ness, or cndeavor to alleviate, by his k
ness, the sutferings of constitution perh
wearing out in his service. 1t was obser7
all upon the subject Of cruelty to animals.
Al. many hana1ca 4hau mould -oA l.o.-- l.
lin or scourge a poor animal to death. til
- themselves sufficiently humane, though t
suffer them to famish with hunger; and
the not the conduct of many husbands sugge
to a similar idea? They imagine that if t
provide carefully for the maintenance
their families; if their conduct is moral: lift
neither beat, Starve, nor impriSon their /
lilies; they are all that is requisite to col
tute good husbands, and they pass for S
. among the crowd: but as their domestic
Is tues are chiefly of the negative kind.
.ife, happiness of her whose lot it is to be un
20 to such an one for life, must be of the S
,.,o description. Even the large allowance, Il
what you like is insufficient to satisfy
feelings of many a woman, who would
more gratifed by the presentation of a f
for er, accompanied with expressions of ten
ness, than by the most costly indulgence
could procure for themselves"
wri-
CONCLUSION.
-. And now, proud lord, farewell! nv "
per is nearly ended, and l am very Gel
anu my silence will not grieye you. But er,
he finally part, do allow me to call to your
for objection that most important period of
b;s life, when, at the altar of your God, anc
the presence of your fellow-creatures,
nc sOlemnly vowed to Loce your uite, to com
her, to honor and keep her, in sickness
resh IN health, Jor better for worse, in pouert
riches, and Iorsaking all others, to cleare
,. unto her, as long as goa both shouM hv
'seu' Let me ask, have you kept this solemn v
rico- Commnnn with ron. an -. -