The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-11
A WoMAN.s ALLOWANCE.

A WOMAN'S ALLOWANCE.
A year or two before / was married
boarded one winter with very excellent
family in Western village. The husband
and father was good man, but he had
what his wife called his "touchy points"
and, good and honest man though he was,
some of these "touchy points'were life
long source of sorrow to his wife, who
was good and faithful wife and mother,
tidy, thrifty, and ever watchful of the
common interests of the family. She
was economical to the last degree, and
most industrious. She seemed to me to
be a model wife. Her husband thought
SO too, and would have angrily resented
any imputation to the contrary. He
taught his children to honor and love
their mother, although failing, as it
seemed. to me, in manifesting love and
honor for her himself at all times, but
these times were only when his stouch-
lest points had been pressed upon.
One day accidentally heard the wife
say to her eldest daughter, "No, dear;
cannot ask your father for money for you
for new hat. You know how very touchy
he is on that point. sometimes lie awake
half the night trying to devise some
method Of scrimping or saving so that 1
need not say the word money to your
father. Nothing hurts him SO much as
to be asked for little money. I dread
to think of asking him for money for any
thing" How many wives who read Good
Housekeeping suffer this same injustice
and notification"
was engaged to Mrs. Dane at that
time, and I made solemn vow that she
should have purse OF her own, and that
it should never go empty if I had any
thing to put in it. We have now been
| married six years, and I have faithfully
adhered to that resolution. And there is
no fixed sum about it. Household ex-
penses vary at different seasons of the
year, and under various circumstances.
| Ten dollars will, perhaps, cover all the
a canning" or company" week, and
several extra dollars will be required. In
| any case, resent the idea that my wife
is mere pensioner on my bounty; I re-
ject the imputation that she has not COM
mon sense enough to know the value of
money and dare not be trusted with it.
am not "woman's RICHTER" in the pop.
MAR sense of the term, but I thank the
Lord that am man enough to recognize
the fact that my wife, as my wife and the
mother Of my children has rights, money
spending rights, that l have no business
interfering With. Every good wife should
have this as royal marriage prerogative
regard Mrs. Dane as an equal partner
in the contract under which we have be-
come firm for life. We share profits
and losses alike. There is one money
drawer to which we both have free access.
[ have not the inclination nor the right
to limit my wife in her daily expenditures,
so long as those expenditures are within
reason. Most wives and mothers honest
ly earn all they spend. A woman who
does her duty as a wife and mother earns
more than money can pay for. It must
be very humiliating to woman TO have
to humbly and tremblinely ask her hus-
band for the money she must have for
her actual daily expenses. Any sensitive,
womanly woman must feel it something
of degradation to have to thus ask, or
even coax, for money given grudgingly
and complainingly at last.
knew of woman who said once that
the only way she could get money from
her husband for other than her actual
household expenses was by watching
her chances and slyly extracting bills
from his purse when he was asleep or his
coat was off. Imagine wife forced into
such degrading act as that Women
are often compelled to practice mean,
niggardly. cruel economy in order to
make their expenses come within the
limit fixed by memorable husbands, who
would furiously resent any interference
with their own expenditures.
believe that this simple question of
the wife's allowance has wrecked the hap
piness of many household. Men are SO
often blind and unfeeling and unreason-
able in this matter. And of course there
are women who must have tight rein
kept upon them because of their tenden-
cy to wilful and woful extravaganza.
There is, fear, little chance for happi-
ness in home having such mistress
over it. But the majority of women can
safely be trusted. Let the husbands of
wives thus worthy trust them and their
trust will not often be abused.
My own personal experience has been
that money is safer with women than
with men. Most women can beat man
"all to pieces" making bargain, and the
marketmen and grocers seldom get ahead
of them, whereas most men are careless
purchasers.-Zenas Dane, in Good House
keeping.