The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-03-14
MONEY RIGHTS.
The Housewives Right to an Equal share
Ofthe Income.


The Housewives Right to an Equal share
ofthe Income.
A year or two before l was married.
writes Zenas Dane, in Union Signal, 1
boarded one winter with q very excel
lent family in Western village. The
husband and father was good man. but
he had what his wife called his "touchy
points," and, good and honest man
though he was, some of these "touchy
points" were lifelong source of actual
sorrow to his wife, who was a good and
faithful wife and mother, tidy, thrifty,
and ever watchful of the common inter
ests Of the family. She was economical
to the last degree, and most Industrious.
She seemed to me to be q model wife.
Her husband thought so, too, and would
have angrily resented any imputation
to the contrary. He taught his children
to honor and love their mother, although
failing, as it seemed to me, in manifest
ing love and honor for her himself at all
times; but these times were only when
his TOUGHEST point" had been pressed
upon.
One day accidentally heard the wife
say to her eldest daughter: mo. dear,
can not ask your father for money for
new hat for you. You know how very
touchy he is on that point. l sometimes
lie awake half the night trying to de-
wise some method of scrimping or saw
ing so that l need not say the word
money to your father. Nothing hurts
him so much as to be asked for little
money. l dread to think of asking him
for any thing"
l was engaged to Mrs. Dane at the
time, and l made a solemn VOW that she
should have purse of her own. and that
it should never 60 empty IL had any
thing to put in it. We have now been
married six years, and l have faithfully
adhered to that resolution. And there
is no fixed sum" about it. Household
expenses vary at different seasons of the
year and under various circumstances.
Ten dollars will, perhaps, cover all ex.
penses one week, and the next may be
canning" or company" week, and
several extra dollars will be required.
In any case, / resent the idea that my
wife is mere pensiOner on my bounty;
l reject the imputation that she has not
common sense enough to know the value
of money, and dare not be trusted with
it. / am not a woman's RICHTER" in the
popular sense of the term, but thank
the Lord that am man enough to rec
ognize the fact that my wife. as my wife
and the mother of my children, has
rights, money-spending rights, that /
have no business interfering with.
Every good wife should have this right
as royal marriage prerogative. l re-
rard Mrs. Dane as an equal partner in
Une contract unuer which we became
firm for life. We share profits and losses
alike. There is one money drawer to
which we both have free access. | have
not the inclination or the right to limit
my wife in her daily expenditures so
long as those expenditures are within
reason. Most wives and mothers hon
estly earn all they spend. A woman
who does her duty as wife
and mother earns more than money can
pay for. 1t must be very humiliating to
a woman to have to humbly and trem-
blingly ask her husband for the money
she must have for her actual daily ex-
penses. Any sensitive, womanly woman
must feel it something of a degradation
to have to thus ask or even coax for
money given grudgingly and complain
ingly at last.
Women are often compelled to prac-
tice mean. niggardly, cruel economy in
order to make their expenses come with
in the limit fixed by memorable hus-
bands. who would furiously resent any
with their own expend-
lures.
believe that this simple question of
the wife's allowance has wrecked the
happiness of many a household. Men
are so often blind and unfeeling and I'M
in this matter. The majority
of women can safely be trusted. Let the
husbands of wives thus worthy trust
them and this trust will not often be
abused.
My own personal experience has been
that money is safer with women than
with men. Most women can beat a man
"all to pieces making bargain, and
the marketmen and grocers seldom get
ahead of them, whereas most men are
careless purchasers. 4