The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-20


1t has been recently said that the.
only successful business men in the
Philippines are those who put their
affairs in the hands of their wives.
We are left to conjecture why this
state of affairs is confined to our for
eign possessions, or whether the cli-
mate units men to be strenuous, but
the fact remains that report says the
above, and all the women's page editors
in the country are probably rising to
remark, '.I told you So" But here Is
a woman's page which doesn't agree.
Here and there you may find a woman
who has business ability and mayhap
she may be married to an incompe-
tent man who is artistic or poetic, and
she is better able to be the business
man of the family. But these are eX-
ceptions, and as rule there is no more
reason why a woman should run her
husbands business than there is for
her to ask him if he thinks Friday or
Saturday the better sweeping day. Say
what you will, business is not a Woms
ans province and when she is an able
financier as she sometimes is, 1t is
the exception, and in mild way a
freak of nature.
This is not saying that all men are
good managers; far from it; but 1t is
the natural thing for a man to take
the financial responsibility and for the
woman to attend to the house. OF
course, woman may be very charm
ing and not spend her life cooking and
busting. Indeed, according to Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there is no
more reason why a woman should
make her own clothes than a man. But,
of course, we cannot all be as advanced
Dx.J h. 10 roll
husbands and much experience. How
ever, the home is primarily a woman's
special sphere, and what a good house.
keeper would say if her husband should
stay at home some morning and order
the meals and give her advice about
her gowns can be imagined. The COM
petent, tactful woman might smile and
not let him know she was annoyed,
but size would ask herself why in the
world he did not go down town and
attend to his business. No man could
be blamed if he did not care to have his
wife telling him how to conduct his
affairs and reasonable, broadmind-
ed man will let her run the house with
out interference. Of course there is no
reason why husband and wife should
not talk over his business and her
housekeeping in a friendly manner for
the mutual benefit of both, but that is
Stunning management of what properly
belongs to the head of the house. How
funny it would sound to Mrs. Perkins
Gilman to hear me call a man the head
of the house. She and a few other adj
vanced women act as if man was not,
and for some of them he is not for
obvious reasons. See photographs.
Many men rely upon their wives for
sage advice and wise little hints about
business, for be it known, and it is
known to men, that women have
flashes Of intuition by which strange
feminine mental process they find out
in minute what a masculine mind
reasons laboriously about and gets to
after awhile. Consequently, as a judge
of human nature, man often values
highly his wife's opinions and has rea-
son many times to be glad that he took
some man at her valuation. But, gen
orally speaking, it is best for the hus-
band to be the business man of the
family and for his wife to manage the
house. and bring UP the children. In