Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-04-18
DOMESTIC FINANCES.
Why May Not the Wife Be q
Bread Winner?
margaret Il. sangster Discusses n Question
Pertinent to This Day and Generation
Suggestive Reading for Thought
less III usbands.

Pertinent to This Day and Generation
Suggestive Reading for Thought
less III usbands.
HUSBAND, toq.-"1 buy ev cry 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
TO be great hardship. / wouldn't
mind asking for money, if l was sure
OF getting it without any further exer-
tion."
All! 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 tritle she buys, or rather fancy
yourself telling her, because compelled
by the necessity of the case, of every
cent you spend on personal luxuries?
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 a
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
enough to warrant the style assumed or
attempted, or else husband and wife do
not agree perfectly about the spending
of 1t, or again, there is 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 week S
salary without reserve in the hands of
his wife, taking what she chooses to
give him for spending-money, and
leaving to her the disposition of what
ever his hard hand labor has gained
Where, however, there is huctu-
ating income, and 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 extravaganza is taken for
granted by the uniformed. 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,
tod to buy whatever she pleases and
send the bills to her husband, she, in
the meanwhile, uncertain how far she
may 60 till some day there is NUT
ter, rumble, or storm, when pay
ment is asked; or, when crash comes,
she finds that she has been walking
hecdlessly 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 aud pre-
vent 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,
when, even after years of happy mar.
riage, wife is found who owns to nc
dread in this regard, is conscious of nc
reluctant aversion-feels about her
husbands purse as she would about
her own.
Within the past year the wife of q
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 me:
IF could earn a few dollars year
of my own to do as l please with
should be perfectly happy"
Another, married for many year:
to a merchant of large means, con.
fessed to relative that she had taker
heavy cold and incurred the risk
and agony of pneumonia, with the
expense attendant upon a physician
and trained nurse, because she haG
imprudently taken long walk on 1
windy day, when she was alread!
overtired.
"Could you not have called a cab
or gone in the cars?n was the natura
inquiry.
Il hadn't car farer' was the amaz
ing reply. And if Eugene can no
divine when / am out of money,
will never stoop to beg for it l never
have asked him for money, and
never will"
Absurd Illogical Utterly un
reasonable and sillyl OF course, ant
on no ground which the observer cal
discover in the least defensible