Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-07-26

Dut suppose tnaC, TOT any reason, the wife can
not convince her husband that this theory of an
equal partnership is a just one, she has perfect
right to put the matter in another way eff am
not partner she may fairly say, II have just
right to be regarded as an employe. If am not
partner, at least render certain services to the
household, and I can claim as Of right-not by
'giving'-whateyer compensation you would pay to
any third person for the same services. Put it as
q matter OF equal partnership or of employment,
whichever you please, only do not evade the obi
cations Of both Surely this demand at least is
reasonable. 1t the wife is simply an official, let
her be paid for the official work, and call the COM
pensation her own. II she keeps house, she is at
least entitled to what you would pay house.
keeper; if she does the duty of a governess let
her have the compensation of one; if she does the
duty of a cook, she earns a cook s wages. Do
not regard all these economies simply as sonle-
thing saved to the husbands pocket; the saving
has no place in his pocket, for belongs in that of
his wife. You do not expect any one else to keep
house, or teach the children, or cook the dinner
merely for her board Or lodging; why should you
ask the wife to do it? II penny saved is as good
as penny earned he's saving should count as
earning.
1t is not enough to say, "But we do not wish to
complicate matters with these technicaites. -
(Observe, that it is always technicality when it
is question of moneys going to the wife, but it
is vast and simple business principle whenever it
goes to the husband "When my wife asks me
for money, l give it to her." But is that the kind
of relation you like to have with your own en-
ployer-one of "asking" and ''giving?, You
prefer to feel that you earn it, and the very mo-
ment payday comes it is yours, and there is no
ssgiving about it. From that moment, the law it
self makes it yours. If men, who are trained to
rough it in the world, feel this shrinking, women
cannot escape it. Only long and patient observa-
ton, suppose, can enable any mere man to un-
derstand the continual and unjust humiliation un-
dergone by mutitudes of admirable women-the
pinching and contriving and patient enduring they
will undergo frst-because of this perpetual ordeal
of ''asklng' their husbands for money. The hus-
band may be the best-natured man living the wife
may know that asking means receiving; but that
which annoys her is the asking itself. In many
many cases the money is paid without it, know,
as an "allowance but in that case the word is
still one which implies favor given and received;
it is not an ''allowance," properly speaking, but
is simply her share of the income, If you regard
her as partner; or her salary, if you view her as
an employee
Why does she need this sense of independence
in her possession of what is due her? She needs
it in many ways First that she may feel that she
is woman, not child; that she Is of age, not
under tutelage. Secondly, that she may feel free,
as her husband would feel, to subscribe for such
charities as may seem to her desirable. AS it is,
any subscription agent will tell you that the hus-
band puts down his dollar or his ten dollars with
out hesitation, on his own judgment; while the
wife rarely ventures on subscription even to the
Missionary Society or the Seaside Home for Sick
Children, without requesting the agent to call
again, that she may have an opportunity to ask
her husband. Thirdly, that she may make pres
ents, and feel that they come from money that is
justly hers, and which she is not merely requiring
Of her husband to give something to Cousin Sarah
to whom he is quite Indifferent, or to Aunt Mehlt-
ohol who onna broadly hintpd that he was not