Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-03-02
Poor Rich Women.

FOOT hlCH WOIll6llo
There is a class of poor rich wo-
men in the country | would like to
speak of. Women who are rich be-
cause they live in fine houses, and
have husbands with large purses and
influence, but poor because among it
all they have not a dollar to call
their own.
"What care l." said one of these
one day when wanting to use few
dollars which she had not and could
not get, to help needy relative, ''for
all our finery while l cannot command
a single dollar myself" She was
well dressed-it was fitting that "his
wife" should be in harmony with the
establishment-but her purse was al
ways empty. And this woman had
helped her husband to rise. She had
worked in poverty with him-made
his shirts and stockings, and her own
and children's dresses and other cloth
ing, had washed, scrubbed, baked
and boiled-now past the meridian of
life, when their labors had been
crowned with such abundant success,
it was all his to command. This was
told me long years ago, and l watch
ed the career of this pair with great
interest. At last the husband began
to see that his wife should have some
cash her very own and when she was
over sixty years old he generously
gave her $3.50 a week. "That's
enough to fool away, as pay all the
bills for needful things" he said.
How a big ''I'' shines in a little
world. He paid the housemaid So
each week. Which was the richer,
the wife or the maid!
This man long since passed away;
his two sons destroyed themselves in
dissipation, and daughter married
a fortune hunter who makes her life
intolerable; but the widow, now past
four score, still lives on, and her gen
erous hand is found in many good
works, as it never could be while her
''lord and master lived.
In the country as well as the city
this condition of family life exists.
All about may be found the wives of
rich farmers enduring hardships and
toll, the wives of laborers know not
of We do not have 10 go back to
the historic homesteads of Mount
Vernon and Monticello to find exam
piles of busy women. The wives of
Washington and Jefferson, looking
after their households, teaching their
slaves to cut and sew, and trying to
bring order out of chaos unpaid, IT.
responsible servants to promote, were
scarcely so busy as the wife of the
owner of a large farm nowadays,
who, with the help of half-grown
girl, or woman with child. or no
help at all, spends her days in cook
ing for workmen and her evenings in
darning and patching their clothes.
to say nothing of all the requirements
that fall to her lot. Where much is
given much truly is required, and
only those in the harness know just
how much.
The larger the farm the more help
is employed outside, and the harder
the work for her to feed them all and
keep her house and table and general
surroundings tidy. There are num-
bers of rich farmers who employ
plenty of help for themselves, and
have leisure to 60 and come, and pur-
sue outside objects that attract them,
whose wives are tied closer than any
hired help would endure. The indoor
help is not in proportion TO the out
door help on any large farm that
know of.
The lonely wife is expected to get
on with the same amount of help as
women on small farms with only one
hired man or none at all, and it often
occurs in these days since farm prod
ucts are so reduced in value, that she
has to do almost entirely without
help. As charity begins at home so
economy begins in the house.
If, at the end of the year the farm
er finds there is no balance in his
pocket, as is frequently the case now,
even by those out of debt for their
farms, it is she, generally, who first
discovers that some retrenchment
must be made, and tries to keep the
ends meeting by working harder her
self, and by giving up her help and
all social enjoyments.
"We can't have any pies and
strawberries and such nice things to
eat" said the mistress of the large,
rich farm house, where from eight to
ten men were constantly employed |
(nOt employed aroundD, "because we
can not get such tedious things ready |
for so many" 1t is needless to say /
that there was bad management on
the outside. The men were not only
depriving the wife of all leisure and |
enjoyment, but they were eating up
the farm profits as we'll. This woman
had a fortune of her own, and her |