Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-09-01
The Wife's Share Of the Work.

| scarcely remember any writer who has |
ever ventured to say the half of the work
of the world is actually accomplished by
women and very few husbands who would
be otherwise than greatly startled and
amazed, if not indignant, If not derisive, at
the suggestion of such an idea as that the
work Of their wives was equal to their own.
And yet for my part think it is. So far
as can see, the workingman's wife, who
has to cook and clean and wash and mend,
and do all the primitive services Of life for
her family, has harder and more constant
work than her husband has and, rising
upward in the ranks of life, think the
same balance goes on, at least until the
level of wealth and leisure is reached, at
which the favorites of fortune, like the lilies,
toll not, neither do they spin. But | am
not concerned with these heights. What
dukes and duchesses do and which of them
works the hardest, will scarcely tell upon
the argument; nor am | deeply versed in
the natural history of milionaires. But, so
far as | am acquainted with the facts OF
existence, the womans hands are every
where as full of natural occupation as are
those of the man. The mans work lasts a
certain number of hours, after which he has
his well earned leisure, his evening TO him
self, his hours of recreation or of lounging
but his wife has no such privileged amount
OF exemption from toll. Her work is "never
done" She has the evening meal, whatever
it may be, TO prepare and to clear away, and
the children TO get to bed, and the mending
to do, in the hours when he is altogether
free, and considers himself with justice
to have a right to his freedom. In few
cases does it occur to the woman to grum-
BILE at this, or to wonder why her lot should
be harder than his 1t is natural, it is her
share. The whole compact of their mar
ried life is based upon this, that she should
do her work while he does his and hers is
| the share which is "never done" | do not
say word against this law of nature; but
| | object that, while this is the case, the
poor woman who works so hard is consid-
cred as a passive object of her husbands
| bounty indebted to him for her living, and
with no standing-ground or position of her
own. She is so considered in the eye Of the
law; and, though the foolshness of the SEN
timent is too manifest in her individual case
to be insisted upon, yet she is implied in the
| general swoopius s.Sovi uiVu wl,iSl. ;~-i-1--
| ali married women. Men must work and
women must weep," says the ballad would
like to know what the fisher-women of our
sea-coasts say to this lugubrious sentiment, or
how much time they find to indulge in that
luxury. Which of the two does the reader
suppose has the most TO do,-the merchants S
clerk, for instance, who earns his salary by
six or eight hours work in his office, or his
wife, who has to pinch and scrape, and
shape and sew, and sit late at nights and
rise early in the mornings, in order to keep
a neat and cheerful house, aud turn out the
children in such guise as to do no discredit
to their fathers black coat If | had to
| IL hot tha I oh oh ba
husbands share and not the wifes. The
man is more exposed to outside risks aud
discomforts; ; but the moment he enters his
home he is privileged to rest and be waited
on as much as if he were a sultan. The
same rule exists everywhere. Among shop
keepers of all but the highest class, the
wife in addition to her natural work takes
her share in the business aud such is the
case in great many occupations. She
keeps the books; she makes out the bills
in one way or another, she overllows from
her own share of the work into his. Usually
wealth means cessation more or less OF
labor. But great lawyer or great doctor
for instance, may have reached the very
height of success without having his actual
toll diminished; and his wife in that case
may be carried high up on the tide of hi.
success TO position of ease and luxury
which bears little proportion to the labor
: with which he must still go on, keeping uE
! the reputation and career which he ha,
made Even in that case, she will have
great establishment to manage, servants Il
} rule and social duties to perform aud always
the first and most sacred duty of all, tn
a children to care for, which makes her lif
anything but an unoccuped one. But tn,
wife of a professional man who is strug
Cling into work and celebrity has as tougt
! task as her humber neighbor.-Mrs oil
! phant in Fraser's Magazine.