The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-02-21
The Unraitbful stewardess.

The Unfaitbful Stefardess.
Few things come more easily to any
woman to do than to spend money which
does not belong to her. This seems, at q
superficial glance, an extraordinary and
exaggerated statement, since the greater
part of us assume to be honest, and that
with the strict uprightness of action
which does not claim and will not receive
q penny beyond our due; for the women
who unblushingly steal, who help them.
selves to change out of their husbands
pockets and excuse the act under the
plea that whatever is the husbands is the
wife's also, who tell deliberate untruths,
or who are guilty of planned and palpa-
BILE deception, are very few when compar.
ed with the main body who would scorn
themselves to death for any part Of such
conduct.
And yet look at the fatal facility with
which the best of wives will run up bill
at the grocer's or the dry goods shop, if
having bills there, procuring this, that,
and the other, articles that could be dis
pensed with, even if doubtless thinking
them needed at the time, but articles that
occasion second thought and possible
self-denial we're it necessary to open the
purse and pay for them on the spot;
and meanwhile it is not the personal purse
OF the wife at all that is to be opened, but
of the husband, which may be declared
by sophistry hers as we'll as his, but
which the sterner logic Of facts pronoun.
COS emphatically his. That, however, is
question open to some dispute, as the
bill is perhaps as apt to be run up when
it is the purchasers private purse from
which it is to be paid, and where there
is no husband in The case. The way in
which the money that does not belong to
her is spent by careless or extravagant
housekeeper is the point We would EN-.
phasize, and that is point of everyday
occurrence in multitude Of families.
The wife who looks carefully at the
daily expenditure of the household,
turning scrutinizing eye upon minute
particulars, who keep herself thoroughly
informed as to the contents of the cellar
and psntries, and knows not only just
how much there is of every article, but
just how long it ought to last, and does
not hesitate to make inquiry and research
if it has not lasted long enough; whom.
spects the accumulations of the refriger.
ator, and allows nothing to be wasted
there, to be given away or thrown away
or left to spoil, that can possibly be used
to help out meal; who has no happy.
go.lucky way: with her if the servants
break the dishes which her husband has
supplied, SO that they feel no great harm
is done, and worse things might happen
than to break cut glass and French china
again who scrupulously requires ac-
count of the servants, too, in the matter
of these breaksges, 80 that it is impossi-
BILE for them to put her off with the famil.
lar statement that certain thing was
broken long ago; or, ifnot, hardly worth,
in view of its prolonged non. existence,
scolding for now; who eyinces enough
solicitude to make the servants them.
selves feel solieitous as to the nicking of
the cups and saucsrs and plates, and not
put them all in the dish.pan together and
not wash and wipe them while looking
the other wsy--the wife who does all
this, and does the correlating inspection
and supervision besides which are natural
to one who is careful in few things and
is made ruler over many-that wife is
one who has nothing to do with our SUBJ
iect matter, and is indeed more than
careful as to the spending of money that
does not belong to her.
It's the wife who does none of these
things; who takes no heed of remnants
in the refrigerator that could be warmed
over into stew or pie or other savory
compound, or made into nourishing fam
lily soups, but has the fresh roasts ordered
in spite Of them; who let's the crusts
become mouldly in the bread chest
without troubling herself to think of
pudding or brewis or powdered crumbs
for poultry dressing; Who takes no pains
to have the dripping saved for Shorten
ing" but allows butter to be used right
and left instead I; who.never condescends
to make inquiry as to what becomes OF
dishes that leave the table hardly touch.
ed; who sees whole sections of pie, frag-
ments of pudding, heels of loaves and
well.coyered bones, that could be turned
to the advantage either OF the household
or poor, thrown into the swill pail-it is
that wife who by extravaganza, and by
her want of care amounting to positive
unfaithfulness, who has grown into the
way Of spending with perfect ease money
that does not belong to her. When the
table clothes are worn, they are not
darned and kept along, saving new
outlay; the ends are not cut off and the
web shortened for an occasional cloth, or
joined to another fragment for one that
can be used every day for some time to
come, but it is torn into tumbler clothes,
or given away, or put into the rag.bag,
or rolled up in heap and thrust away
among old pieces; and the same is the
fate of the sheets under such care, and
the pillow cases, instead of undergoing
repair, are turned into mops and lamp
rags. This being the treatment of the
household gear, memory and imagination
pause before the condition of the family
c,.., - Jon.,J, oy, &t;c