St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-02-23
YOUNG WIVES SECRETS.
Hidden from Husbands, But
Learned by Ladies' Maids.

Hidden from Husbands, But
Learned by Ladies' Maids.
Philadelphia Times.
No women In the world are so careful
to keep secrets from their maids as are
the English, but the American woman
seems just as anxious to go to the OPP
posite extreme, and her maid too often
has access to her writing desk;
hears the story Of any little
pleasure or woe she may have,
gradually becomes acquainted with
the inside history of her mis-
tress' life, and then madame or madem-
Oiselle is quite in her power. Some day
the maid does not do her duty, gowns
are not properly taken care of, or she
has gIowD careless in her arrangement of
her hair, and she is discharged.
Usually she goes off quietly and waits
little; then she suddenly appears, must
see her former mistress alone, and then
tells her what she has and what she
intends to do unless a certain sum
OF money is given her. Now is the
time when the police ought to be called
in and the whole thing ended;
but the average woman is super-sensi-
tive, has deadly horror of getting
GENTLY advanced in her knowledge of
the world to realize that little courtesy
on her part to the powers that be would
result in quiet extinguishing of the
niSchief-maker. The maids often gain
possession of letters that contain the
family Or personal secrets of their mis-
tresses; again, they have been known
to have an exact account of every dollar
that madamme owes, and the threat
made was that the story of her enor-
nous dressmaker's bill would be told to
the husband.
Again, things are worse than this and
letters from some man admirer are in
the poSs ossion of a maid who, usually,
is drawing two salaries, one from the
man who wrote them, the other from
the woman who received them. They
may have been letters that were merely
foolish, not necessarily those that meant
falsehOod and wrong. but the effect of
foolish letter is just as bad as if it
were wicked one. One woman whose
maid had been her confidante
for nearly five years found that
she had been regularly stealing from
her and so she was discharged. Two
days later she wrote to say that unless
five hundred dollars were given her she
would inform the husband of her mis-
tress of the fact that she had received
several thousand dollars from a man
friend of his. Curiously enough, this
was absolutely true, but it had come
about in this way: The fair lady had
been smitten with desire to gamble in
stocks and these were her earnings,
sent by her broker. She was woman
woman OF spirit. so her only answer to
her maid was verbal one, that she
would let her know in the after
noon; down she went to her lawyer,
told him exactly the position and let
him write to the blackmaliing
woman. She was informed that for
that letter alone she could be sent to
the penitentiary for ten years, and that
she was at perfect liberty to tell the
gentleman all she knew about the
money if he would listen to her, which
they rather doubted, as he was already
acquainted with the story. This was q
bod stroke, but it answered.; the end
was gained, and madame had not put
the first nail in her own coffin, because
once these greedy creatures get a little
unless, indeed. your purse becomes
empty OF you grow courageous enough
to submit the matter, not to arbitration,
but to the masculine members OF your
family.
AprOpos of women getting money that
men know nothing about, their latest
fad is to obtain it, or try to, at roulette.
The ball that is so capriciOus, the green
cloth, with its mysterious numbers. and
the clinking of bright-colored chips are
wonderfully fascinating to femininity.
The roulette table did not use to be
known outside of Monaco to women,
but now one is possessed in almost
every fashionable house in New York,
aud it is quite the thing to have
a few turns of the wheel after
dinner. 1t will be announced by the
hostess that she is not going to have any
real gambling, that the chips are only TO
be 10 cents apiece, but after one has
played awhile it is discovered that a
great deal of money, comparatively, can
be lost or won even with 10-cent chips
Sometimes, as the players grow little
bit excited, an effort will be made to
increase the value of the worries, and
thebl ue and red ones will represent so
cents and 81.
Women are natural gamblers. They
adore anything that seems like chance,
and one has only to watch them at the
races OrarOund the roulette table to
perfectly UNNECESSARILY HOW clitiT0Iy QC
graded they might become if permitted
to indulge in this passion to its extreme
limit. Asa rule they are tucker than
men; the show positive preference
for betting on thirteen, thirty-one sew
enteen, nineteen, twenty-One. three and
seven; they care nothing for the dOubIa
zero, and, unlike a man, never risked
big stake on the color. The day
of the month influences them, the
rings they wear may be chosen for their
fav0rite number. and l have seen
woman put chip after chip on thirteen,
losing round after round, but believing
"that all things come to her that
knoweth how to watt" keeping at it
and then have the so-called unluckY
number turn up five times in success
sion. A few play out system with a
bit of paper and pencil to keep count,
but after while they discover that no
system was ever invented as strong as ,
that backed by the bank.
Few women care to eat or drink any
thing while they play, though occasion
ally a hardened little sinner, with the |
face of an angel and gown conceived !
and developed by Worth, will keep
glass of brandy and sofia just beside her |