Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-11-29

have been given her to cultivate
prudence, wisdom and economy, in
this proof that her husband trusted
her, and acknowledged her his
equal partner in the lifelong home
company.
AS it is, Alexis wonders, with all
his efforts to make Der happy, that
Dovc-eyes should so often look worn
and unhappy. Sickness, the care of
her children, the natural wear and
tear of human life, cannot account
for all the sadness looking forth
from her soft eyes. Dove-eyes is
very much in love with Alexis still.
There are hundred traits in
his character to make and keep her
in this all-suffering state. She new
er misses an opportunity to tell her
friends that he is the ''best man in
the world" She believes it, though
she often makes the assertion with
a little inward sigh, which nothing
outside of her own heart hears
Yet, with all her love and his, there
is shadow on their welded lives,
which justice, just little justice,
added to the love, could lift and dis
perse forever.
Alexis would think it most out
rageous if Dove-eyes were to call
him to an account for every penny
he choosesyto spend for cigars, for
newspapers (whose unnecessary and
unmanageable accumulation is a
household nuisance), for his soda
water, his "treats'' to his friends, in
which she has no share; his hun
dred unaccountable ways Of spend
ing money, in which masculinity
delights and for which it never rem
ders account.
If Dove-eyes called him to ac-
count (Which she never did), how
he would resent it! "Isn't it my mo-
ney? Don't earn it? l shall spend
it as l pleasc!" That is just what
the man in him would say; and in
these words all his mans injustice
to the woman whom he loves would
come in-"my money!" not "our
money" Dove-eyes works. She
works hard, without wages. She
does not earn money. 81 give it to
her." says this muni6cent Alexis
81 mean to be liberal as well as a
loving husband, and gice her all of
my money that she needs. How
much she needs, or for what she
needs it, l am to be the Judge. To
be sure, she cannot judge for me-
how much | am to use as person,
or for what purpose | am to use it.
1t is not her right. am man and
master, and earn it; and shall say
just how every cent of it shall be
spent"
In all that she has suffered and
borne for him, in the constant care
and toll Of years, the wisdom, the
self-denial, the economy with which
she has saved and garnered what
he provided-has she earned less
than he?
Even if this were possible, in Civ
ing herself, her life, her love, her
devotion for all time to him, did she
not relinquish forever the opportu-
nifty to earn or to accumulate for
herself personally in any other pro-
fession? Does he owe her nothing
for that? In choosing the highest
of any profession on earth to women
that of the wife and mother, as
her husbands partner in every
home interest-should he treat her
with fitful indulgence, even in little
things, or with the tender honor due
to an equal? Dove-eyes feels that
her home is cher husbands house."
She doesn't feel at liberty to spend
one shilling out of the common fund
for any charity or any purpose dear
to herself, because she must tell
Alexis, and she is almost sure that
he would find fault, or hint at her
lack Of Judgment, till she would be
altogether miserable, and sure,
Judging by treatment received, that
she was personally little more than
a mendicant in her husbands home
Of plenty.
There are many Dove-eyes. There
is many Grand Duke, whose
name is not Alexis. Yet men mar
vel at the unrest of American wo-
men, and discourse with great
eloquence and ignorance on the sub
ject.
Let me astonish you anew, gentle
men, by assuring you that the lack
of pin-money is at the bottom of
much Of it. Dove-eyes will never
do any such thing; but thousands
of women do. They start off in the
most unthought Of tangents. "Any-
thing, anything" they say, "that
brain or fingers can devise, where
by / may earn a little money that
will be my very own, that can do
as please with, unchallcnged, or
without any man telling me that he
gaze it to me, and that must do
just as he says with it or do with
out it.
Not a man in the world, no
matter how just, or how gener-
Gus he is, can know how much his
wife land the more sensitive and
delicate she is the more SOY must
sometimes suffer through the very
fact of financial dependence. You
may be truly the best husband in
the world; as rule, she may be
glad that all her temporal blessings
flow to her through ycu; and yet
there will be times when she will
suffer through this condition most
keenly-when she would gladly part
with her dearest treasure to possess
a little money utterly her own,
which she might use for some pur
pose dear to her heart, without ask
ing any mortal for it as gift. My
dear brethren of mankind, do you
not see how much misery you can
make or unmake in your own homes?
After all, his use of money seems to
be the utmost test of mans man.
hood. Touch his money nerve, and
you measure him in almost every
other direction. Yet remember, it
is not the amount of money you
share, it is your way Of sharing it,