Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-10-11

4 HARDSHIP OF MARRIAGE.-Colone
I. w. Higginson in the IK0man,S journal
says: We are told that the life.work o
u 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 10 study metaphysics Or te
pu. a slip of paper into ballot box
| think it was the conservative DR.. Edward
H. Clark who declared that the duties o.
the mother of family required as much
toll OF brain and body as those ofa captain
of ship, Grant it all; grant that she
works rs hard as her husband does. II
so, 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 fami-
Iy, that is all; and he has no more right
than any other treasurer to take airs upon
himself and talk nonsense. When he pays
out money to her, it is not n gift, but as
earnings.
In many cases the money all came as
her dowery to begin with In many other
cases she does her full share in the direct
earnings Of the in ONE. AS rule, am
told, actrt sses and women who sing in
public support their families, including
their hust ands.
In our New England farming regions
the wife's work is not only as hard rs the
husbands, but Il considerable share of the
direct money-getting comes upon her.
for farming in New England, while yield
ing = comfortable support, yields but
little in the form of money; and in many
cases the greater part of the actual cssh
receipts during the summer months comes
through the energy of the wife in taking
city noarders. Ina farm house near my
summer abode, cook is hired at four
dollars week, while the boarding season
lasts, and second girl" Mt three dollars
and half In an other farmhouse near
bv, the young wife of the farmer does
all this work herself, with tho assistance
of q little girl of twelve; and she does it
as we'll 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 probably
three times that. Yet probably the pay.
ment is generally made through her hus-
band as treasurer, and whatever money
she spends would be regarded by the
uelSuDOTs aS SVeh not Wy ht'i' Auu
if the farm is paid for by their joint accu.
mutations, 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 large majority
of cases where the wife is kept, during
her whole life, in false position from
a false theory of treasurership. There
are no doubt cases where man earns
great frtunc, while his wilc's existence
is that Of butterfly. These cases are
rare; taking one family with another, the
wife works as hard as the husband and
the fact hat his share involves the hand
ling Of the money does not make it his
money. 1t belongs 10 both, and what be
pays over to her is not q gift but Il matter
of light. This was a present TO me
frou my wife" said rich man showing
an ornament. Bought with your moneyW
said a frieni iocosely. "No!" he said,
"out Of her own hard earnings. She keeps
house for Il man of your acquaintance"