Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1878-04-03
WASHER WO.HEN AND ORNA.
MENTAL HUSBANDS.

Perhaps no worker of the gentler
sex has harder labor than the washer.
woman or gets better pay for her work.
The reason for her good fortune doubt.
less lies in the fact that she deals di.
rectly with the people who need her
services, and therefore no part OF her
earnings is taken by middlcmen. She
keeps her own accounts by the rough
arithmetic Of the tallystick period,
and marks the various articles of her
customers by strange hieroglyphics in
white, red and blue thread. She brings
back the clean clothes herself and
takes away the work. basket. Her bu.
siness is small, but such as it is she is
mistress of all the details of it, and
owner of the small fixed capital in the
shape of washboard, tub and few
hatirons which it employs. She has
no rival among men except the Chi
nese, who do not in this city Us yet
constitute class large enough to make
their influence felt. On the whole,
therefore, the washerwoman should be
comfortable in moderate way, and
that most OF them are not so is due to
their own extravagant propensities.
Strange to say, tbree-iourths of the
washerwomen in New York are the
victims Of passion for expensive lux,
uries. They do not indulge in silks or
satins or wines; they do not set up a
fast horse or sport diamond rings but
they are very apt to undertake the
more useless and ruinous task of sup
porting an idle husband, q piece of fol-
ly as disastrous to q woman in humble
life as the keeping of fast horse usu-
ally is to young man in business. 1t
is well known that an ornamental hus.
band is creature priced mainly for
bis lazy and luxurious habits, incapa-
bic of profitable employment, proud
Of his position of elegant leisure and
disposed to regard bis proprietor as
designed especially to take care of him.
He is like lap-dog or a parrot or any
other pet, and the more exacting he
becomes the more his owner is dispos-
ed to pamper him. As a natural con.
sequence the demands of the ornamen-
tai husband, even in upper life, for fine
clothes, costly liquors, fast horses and
indulgences of every description gen
orally snrpass the ability Of the wife
to supply them, and the result is inf
dolity or cruelty, ending in divorce. #
is no exaggeration, therefore, to say
that only women of great wealth and
liberal disposition should attempt TO
set up an ornamental husband. None
others can afford the luxury and
some means should be adopted to pre-
vent inconsideratc females incapable
of meeting the responsibility of an ex-
pensive establishment from entering
into wedlock with a male sybarite un-
der the false pretense, expressed or i'm.
Piled, that she will support him in idle.
ness and extravaganza. The present
Legislature, which has distinguished
itself by assuming TO settle everything
else, should frame law on this sub.
ject, wherein money limit might be
established below which no one should
be allowed to attempt the mainte.
nance Of an ornamental husband The
line could be drawn safely perhaps at
an income Of $40, 900 year as mini.
mum, since woman might support an
idle husband on that sum in good style
without doing violence to any of the
finer instincts OF his luxurious and po.
etic nature-if she was herself capable
OF reasonable sacrifices in regard TO
dress, jcwelry and social entertainment.
Why should women possessed of less
amount OF money marry tender and
delicate men accustomed to the indul.
gcnces of bachelorhood, and drag them
down to a life Of self-denial and penu.
Try! Why are they not content with
the ordinary working husband Of com.
merce, the faithful, uncomplaining un.
exacting drudge who will earn with.
out murmur more than his brilliant
counterpart could squander2 The
man who loves horses and lacks means
will be glad to own an honest hack
when an Arabian courser Ia out of the
question; tho girl who cannot buy
rare exotics will cherish q common
rose in the fiower.pot set upon her
windows sill; why, then, should POOR
working women indulge in fancy. for
a gay and festive husband, who,
though be confne his tlpple TO beer
and whisky and restrain his taste for
display to brass rings and imitation
diamonds, can nevertheless spend more
Of the dollars OF our fathers than the
most industrious wife can rub out pi
the friction of soiled linen and wash.
board or all the vices of high lie
transplanted among the poor for their
destruction. we think this habit Of at
tempting TO sustain q purely ornamen.
tai family fgure-head is the worst.
All the evils flowing from such n state
Of things were illustrated in the
Schmidt case, the details Of which con.
stitutes a pitiable revelation Of the ro.
suits Of woman's weak propensity ior
the useless, the luxurious and the or.