The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-05-09
DOMESTIC FINANCES.
Why May Not the Wife Be a
Bread Winner
Margaret Il. sangster Discusses question
Pertinent to This Day and Generation !.
Suggestive Reading for Thought
less II usbands.


HUSBAND, loq.-"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 tseem
TO be great Hardship. | wouldn't
mind asking for money, if l was sure
ofgetting 1t without any further exer-
ton
All! wouldn't you, good sir? Sup
pose yourself in the place Of a'wife,
who, however pottod and INDUCED, is
expected toreHder a strict account of
every trihe she buys, or rather fancy,
yourself telling her, because compelled
cent you spend on personal luxnriesp
She may dip into her purse for cara
mels, perfumes and flowers; your
cigars, 1uncheons 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
bread-winnerp"
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
onougK TO warrant the sty1e assumed Or;
attempted, or else husband and wife do
not agree perfectly y about the spenalng
OF it,.or again, there is lack of open
ness about the resources OF the married
partners.
Among wage-earning classes this
d feILoe cilr@Mhe re@fhe
husband quite often puts his week s
salary without reserve in the hands of
his wife, taking what she chooses to
give him Tor spending-money, and
leaving to her the disposition of what
ever his hard hand labor has gained.
Where, however, there is "A fuctu-
ating income, and a man desires that
his home shall present brave front
to the world, making, for business rea-
sons, or those of personal pride, a
goodly show in the eyes of his towns
people and acquaintance, there is
often great injustice done to wives.
Their extravagance is taken for
granted by the uniformed. How
shallthe wife of a 1awyer@docto or
business man know precisely how to
arrange her expenses, If she is treated
: like child or petted dependent
told to buy whatever she pleases and
send the bills to her husband, she, in
the meanwhile, uneert ain how far she
maySgo, till some day there is NUT
ter, a rumble, or a storm, when pay
ment is asked; or, whena crash comes,
she finds that she, has been walking
heedlessly on lava crust. with ruin
seething under her feetp
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
common-sense way, would relieve a
great deal of embarrassment and pre-
.-.-Yent no end of annoyance and pain.
The most considerable, of husbands do
not dream, dear, generous SOULS of the
dislike which the most trustful and
loving wives feel when obliged to ask
for money, unless IL be directly for
purposes of household economy. 1t is
the exception that proves the rule,
whom, even after years of happy mar
rage wife is found who owns to no
dread in this regard, is conscious of no
reluctant aver5ion-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
man has~said to pe:
IF could earn few dollars year
OF my own to do as / please with
should be perfectly happy.
Another, married for many years
to Il merchant of -farge- means, com
fesscd to a relative that she had taken
a heavy cold and incurred the risk
and agony of pneumonia, with the
expense attendant upon physician
and trained nurse, because she had
imprudently taken long walk on a
windy day, when she was already
overtired.
xsA,z. Could you not have called cab,
: 3zsr gone in the carsp' was the natural
inquiry, -..s.....4=s.===s-
=. hadn't car farein was the amaz
;n,, ra,l,y 8. And IL E,,uana can No,