The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-09-07
By HARRIET P. SPOFFORD.

! There may be greater virtues in the
possession of the married woman, but
| there are few greater and more excel
| lent talents than that of knowing how
to spend money, not to waste it, but to
| spend it and be acquainted with its
management.
The wife of one of our foreign am
bassadors, whose husband was about
to leave her on a long journey, was
given a cheque book, which unfor-
| tunately and unwisely she had never
| had before, with a sum of money in
the bank On her husbands return
he asked her if she had had money
enough. ooh, yes" she replied. And,
indeed, I have half a dozen cheques
left" her idea being that each cheque
stood for as much money as she chose
to indicate upon it, without reference
to any specific deposit or anything APP
parently but the capacity of the vaults
of the bank while the bank officials,
who had her husbands greatly larger
account, had suffered her to draw
what she pleased.
This little lady was no more unac-
quainted with business processes than
dllOlHGI, NllO SCClLlS llidt WhCh AACA
husband wanted money, he drew a
cheque, deliberately signed his name
to a cheque-he being absent, and it
being necessary to meet the subscrip-
ton to a charity-and when other peo-
pie were in no end of a scrape in con-
sequence she at once declared that she
had done it as she and her husband
had always had their purse in common.
A very little instruction would have
prevented any such exhibition.
Knowing these instances to be facts
it is hardly necessary to emphasize the
statement that every girl should be
taught the use of a cheque book, even
if she has only single dollar in the
bank.
Where woman can and does have
funds to draw upon, it is inexcusab BILE
that so simple matter should be ne
elected, although it probably is ne
elected just because it is so simple.
Still, one can not help wondering how
a man, who is going to leave his
daughter or his wife many thousands,
does not have her fitted to take care
of it by instruction in the first prin-
ciples of banking, in primitive book
keeping, and in the drawing of wills
and their codicils rs that my hus-
bands will?" said a newly made widow
to the lawyer sitting beside her and
reading the document. IT can't think
he would make such a will as that!
Let me look at it," And, taking it,
she glanced it over, and tossed ii into
the fire, all unaware that she had COM
mitted a felony.
But whether or not one knows the
details of the methods of getting
money into the right hands, it is an
important part of wifes virtues to
know how to spend the money when
once hers. Many a woman buys what
she wants, if she has the means to do
so, without a thought If it be best or
if she could do without it, or if she
could get it at a better price else
where. But, really, the more open
handed a husband is, the more it is
the wifes duty to think twice when
spending. For putting aside any ques-
ton of her equities in the husbands
income, the fact remains that it is
usually in his power, and is under the
province of that law which declares
that might makes right; and if he Is
open-handed that circumstance gives
her double obligation to spend it rea-
sona5ly and wisely.
1t is not a consideration of economy
that is involved of sparing, of unset
fishness, of doing without that another
may have; it is the exercise of a suf-
flcient degree of care in expenditure
and of seeing that nothing be wasted.
And undoubtedly where this case be-
comes habit, other habits of nice in
spection follow in it's wake; and in the
house of the wise and careful pur-
chaser, where the value of dollar Is
known, but not priced above it's value,
for all that, there is nothing left at
loose ends; the meals are all used up,
the fruits are not left to spoil; moth
and rust do not corrupt. And the SER
wants here, who see a trust thus adj
ministered, are quite prepared, when
they have a home of their own, to
make the most of their own properties,
and to practice on a small scale that
leads to larger, the sort of housekeep-
ing in whose lexicon there is no such
word as waste"