The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-23
THE ExTRAvAGANCE
OF WOMEN.


Dorothy Dix in the New Orleans Pic
ayune, has long been the scapegoat
on which many a mans failure in
business is laid. Recently this ancient
libel has received a new impetus from
the statement of a warden of one of
the Northern penitentiaries that 81 per
cent. of the inmates of that institution
We're there because of the extrava-
gance of their wives, and that millin-
cry bills ruined more men than drink.
The testimony of a felon as to the
cause of his downfall may we'll be
ance but ii is no new thing for the
man who goes astray to lay his
trouble to women. The first man got
out of the first scrape on that plea,
and every other man has used it ever
since. The woman thou gavest me,
|. she did it, has been the excuse Of
fered by every succeeding son OF
Adam.
Whether the warden was led to make
this charge against women by his own
wife's millinery bill or not is not
known, but the sweeping accusation
will be Indignantly resented as well by
liiGn DIS ny WOiuGI. ne llAdJpiAAS OA
husbands will bear willing testimony
that their wives are not running them,
but that as a general thing they are
the more conservative of the two, and
not infrequently are the Yale lock on
the family purse that keeps the pen
mics in.
No one will deny that some menhave
been ruined by the extravaganza of
their wives. but such instances are
rare. Indeed, one might we'll claim
that a man so weak that he would
commit forgery or embezzlement to
crafty the vanity of his wife is so
feeble-minded that he would be sure
to go astray anyway. All he needs is
a chance to go wrong, and he is sure
to find it, and he is the kind of spine
less creature who would be sure to
lay II on his wife and try to shelter
himself behind her petticoat.
That many women spend far more
than they can afford: that many men
are harassed by domestic bills. and
embarrassed by overdue accounts is
also true, but this is not necessarily
the woman's fault. More often than
not II is the simple result of her igno
rance. Indeed. wives have no more
Just cause of complaint against their
husbands than in not being treated
fairly or with candor about money
matters, for when the business fails
1t is the woman who suffers most. The
majority of American men tell their
wives absolutely nothing about their
business. Not one wife in a thousand
knows whether her husbands trade or
profession is prospecting or not, wheth-
er his income is greater or larger,
whether he speculates or not, or in
what stocks or bonds or property he
invests.
How can a woman so treated know
| what she can afford, or that she may
indulge herself one year in what she
must do without another? In many
families the wife never handles any
money, and has no more idea of how
to cash a check than she has of how to
| steer an automobile. She buys on a
bill that is paid with more or less
| grumbling that in time she comes to
believe a part of the transaction, but
| as for actual cash in the hands she
never sees 1T, and, as a matter Of fact,
has no idea of the value of money.
One woman 1 knew, who insisted upon
buying an iRported wrap because it
was so cheap at $500, was effectually
cured by her husband bringing the
money home in half dollars. When
she saw the pile of silver 1t made, she
was appalled, at the idea of giving so
much for so little a garment. why"
she cried, lis $500 that much money?
| 1t doesn't look like anything on a
| check" But If a woman is not taught
about money, how, without miraculous
intervention, is sh@ going to become a
| financier?
Nothing has died more lingering
death than the theory that women ara
incapable of understanding anything
about money. They don't know much.
| ~ &c fr,,o h11f a. Ia haaa1iea thaV haVa
had no. opportunity to learn. 1t has
been part of the misplaced kindness of
fathers and husbands to keep women
kind in complete ignorance of all such
matters, with the result that the, wom-
an who would have died to save a
man q minutes pain was frequently
his undoing, and that the man who
! shaved himself to death for a woman
left her so ignorant and so helpless
when he died that she was the victim
| of the first rascal who came along and
| got hold of her money.
The prosperity of the French nation
| Is built up on the fact that every wom-
an is her husbands business partner,
| and our domestic system has no weak
err point than the fact that the Ameri-
can woman has no part In her hus-
bands business affairs and Is pro-
| foundry ignorant of them. The Ameri-
1
| financiers, and 1t is simply idiotic to
say that she cannot understand bust
ness proposition. Let the husband ex-
plain his difficulties to her. and nine
| ty-nine times out of a hundred she
will be the one who will help him out
of them.
In most cases her love for him will
make her save him the worry OF debts
he cannot pay. If 1t does not, her
fear Of the sheriff will, for women
dread bankruptcy as they do death.
Somehow, although money necessar-
lily plays the star role in our lives,
we have a curious delicacy about dis
cussing 1t frankly between men and
women The young man who Is in love
with a girl seldom has the honesty to
tell her exactly how much he is max
ing and what she will have to spend
IL she casts in her lot with his On
the contrary, he speaks in glittering
generalities. and is so anxious to APP
pear well in her eyes that he spends
more than he can afford. In the days
of courtship he lavishes books and
sweets and theater tickets on her, and
she argues from this that they are
to live In a kind of fairyland, where
everything comes with the wishing.
Perhaps she desires a swell wedding.
He groans at the thought Of the ex-
pense of carriages and flowers and
souvenirs, but he lacks the courage 20
tell her frankly that he cannot afford
It. and will not go in debt for such
extravaganza.
This does the girl an injustice. In
ww an WA %