Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-09-23
A Hardship of Marriage.
THE LIFE WORK OF A wIFE-HER-
SEVERE LABOR.

oE4f A-uL 4AiSOAss
Colonel T. W. Higginson in The
IYonan's Journal, says:-We are con-
stantly told that the work of a wife
is as arduous and as absorbing as that
Of her husband We are told that if
she does her duty to her family she can
have no time to study metaphysics or
to put slip of paper into a ballot box.
| think it was the conservative DR..
Edward II. Clarke who declared that
the duties of the mother of family re-
quired as much toll of brain and body
as those of the captain of ship. Grant
it all; grant that she works as hard as
her husband does. If so, the inference
is irresistible that she earns her share
of the family income. The fact that
he receives the money and pays the
bills makes him the treasurer of the
family, that IS all and he has no more
right than any other treasurer to take
airs upon himself and talk nonsense.
When he pays ont money to her, it is
not as gift, but as earnings.
In many cases the money all came as
her dowry to begin with. In many
other cases she does her full share in
the direct earning Of the income. As
q rule, | am told. actresses and women
who sing in public support their
families, including their husbands. Iu
our New-England farming regions the
wife's work is not only IS hard as the
husbands, but a considerable share of
the direct money-getting comes upon
her. For farming in New England,
while yielding a comfortable support,
yields but little in the fo1m of money;
and in many cases the greater part of
the actual cash receipts during the
summer months comes through the
energy of the wife in taking city boarders.
In farmhouse near my summer abode,
a cook is hired at four dollars a week,
while the boarding season lasts, and a
"second girl at three dollars and a
half. In another farmhouse near by,
the young wife of the farmer does all
this work herself, with the assistance of
a little girl of twelve; and she does it
as well and for nearly as many boarders.
Considering merely the wages she saves,
her work is worth nearly dollar day !;
and considering the profits she brings
to the establishment, it is worth prob
ably three times that. Yet probably
the payment is generally made through
her husband as treasurer, aud whatever
money she spends would he regarded
by the neighbors as "given her by
him. And if the farm is paid for by
their joint accumulations, the neighbors
would consider-and indeed the law
would assume-that it was paid for by
him, and belonged to him.
am perfectly willing to admit that
in the majority of cases this whole
matter settles itself but there is a large
majority of cases where the wife is kept,
during her whole life, in a false posi-
tion from false theory of treasurership.
There are 10 doubt cases where man
earns great fortune, while his wife's
existence Is that of a butterfly. These
cases are rare; taking one family with
another, the wife works as hard as the
husband; and the fact that his share
involves the handling of the money
does not make it his money. 1t belongs
to both, and what he pays over to her
is not gift but matter of right.
This was present to me from my
wife, said a rich man showing an
ornament. Bought with your money q
said a friend loosely. "No" he said,
"out OF her own lard earnings. She
keeps house for man OF your ac-
quaintance -