The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-05-31
DOMESTIC FINANCES.
Why May Not the Wife Be a
Bread Winnerp
Margaret r. Sansster Discusses n Question
Pertinent TO This Day and GeEorstiou
Suggestive Reading for Thought
less Il usbands.


Suggestive Reading for Thought
less II usbsnds.
HUSBAND, l0q.-'.I buy every thing
that is needed in the house, and you
have only to speak to me if you are in
want Of pin-mOney. That doesn' t seem
10 be a great hardship. / wouldn't
mind asking for money, if I was sure
OF getting it without any further cxer-
ton
Ali wouldn't you. good sir? Sup
pose yourself in the place of & wife,
who, however petted and INDUCED, is
expected to render strict account of
every triile she buys, or rather fancy
yourself telling her, because compelled
by the necessity Of the case, of every
cent you spend on personal luxurics?
She may dip into her purse for cara
mels, perfumes and flowers; your
cigars, luncheOns and other marginal
expenses foot up far larger bill. But
this is all apart from the question with
which we begin: Shall the wife be q
bread-winner?'
First and last, in many otherwise
happy homes, there is a good deal of
friction and consequent discomfort
with regard to the management of the
finances Either there is not money
enough to warrant the style assumed or
attempted, or else husband and wife do
not agree perfectly about the spending
of it, or again. there is q lack of open
ness about the resources of the married
partners.
Among wage-earning classes this
does not so often occur, where the
husband quite often puts his weeks
salary without reserve in the hands OF
his wife, taking what she chooses to
give him for spending and
leaving to her the disposition of what
ever his hard hand labor has gained.
Whero, however, there is a fuctu-
ating incor-a, and man desires that
his home 1 present a brave front
to the world, making, for business rea-
sons, or those of personal pride,
goodly show in the eyes of his towns
people and acquaintauces, there il
often great injustice done to wives.
, Their extravaganza is taken for
granted by the uninformed. How
shall the wife Of lawyer, doctor, or
! business man know precisely how to
arrange her expenses, if she is treated
like a child or petted dependent,
| told to buy whatever she pleases and
! send the bills to her husband, she, in
/ the meanwhile, uncertain how far she
| may go, till some day there is a NUT
! ter, rumble, or n storm, when pay
ment is asked; or, when a crash comes,
she finds that she has been walking
! heedlessly on lava crust, with ruin
| seething under her feet?
Entire and candid explanation of the
| finances of the business firm, in which
! husband and wife are partners, and
! the management of home affairs
! according to business methods and in
a common-sense way, would relieve a
| great deal of embarrassment and pre-
vent no end of annoyance and pain.
The most considerate of husbands do
not dream, dear, generous souls, of the
dislike which the most trustful and
I loving wives feel when obliged to ask
| for money, unless it be directly for
! purposes of household economy 1t is
the exception that proves the rule,
I when, even after years of happy mar
! riage, wife is found who owns to no
dread in this regard, is conscious of no
! reluctant aversion-feels about her
husbands purse as she would about
her own.
Within the past year the wife of a
man who spends thousands annually
in the elegant and lavish support Of
his family, gratifying their tastes in
the most delicately thoughtful man
ner, and furnishing the home in the
most sumptuous style-the wife of such
a man has said to me:
IF 1 could earn few dollars n year
OF my own to do as l please with
should be perfectly happy"
Another, married for many years
to merchant of large means, con-
/ fessed to a relative that she had taken
heavy cold and incurred the risk
and agony Of pneumonia, with the
! expense attendant upon a physician
and trained nurse, because she had
imprudently taken a long walk on a
windy day, when she was already
! overtired.
could you not have called a cab,
or gone in the cars?" was the natural
| inquiry.
~ hadn't car farer' was the amaz-
ing reply. And if Eugene can not
divine when L am out of money, 1
will never stoop to beg for it. l never
have asked him for money, and l
never willr'
Absurd HlogicalI Utterly un-
reasonable and sillyi OF course, and
on no ground which the observer can
| discover in the least defensible.
| Nevertheless, there hundreds and
thousands of women, happy, petted
and adored in their wifehood, who
thoroughly understand the case. They
know that to them, easeful and
beautiful as their outward lives ap-
petr, it would be a luxury untold
could they but subscribe for a maga.
zine, contribute TO charity, take q
| la .l-s