The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-26
AMERICAN HUSBANDS.

prepare for it by saving any considera- ble portion of his ante-nuptial income. When he marries it is usually on short notice, and because he has fallen very desperately in love with someone and cannot find it in his heart to wait until cold caution declares the venture advis- able. Even when an engagement is a long one he usually squanders so much lon gifts and entertainments for his fiancee that there is only very mode rate amount to begin housekeeping on. Thus before his marriage the young American of the middle class begins to give evidence of what is to be his chief national characteristic as a husband his unfailing, unselfish and almost i'm provldent generosity. For the Ameri- can has this universal characteristic. He is liberal to the point of extrava- |gance in his money relations with his wife.
 To the young man in the large cities |of America, whose income is between thirty and fifty dollars a week. mar riage offers a somewhat perplexing eco homie problem. From comfortable bachelor quarters, where he is entirely Tree from household cares and within |easy walking distance of theatres, safes and other places of amusement. he is forced to move to the small house in the distant suburb, but still well away from his business and pleasure. Which ever way he chooses he finds many diff iiculties. A suburban home is generally hot in summer and cold in winter. He Icomes into town primed with houshold commissions. and he goes out weighted With household burdens, the joke of ev- cry comic paper. As compensations he has more room in the suburb and an op- portunity to own house if he is willing to save. With all their drawbacks the suburbs are havens of refuge for the young married man whose earnings do not exceed fifty dollars a week. As an alternative place of residence he has lonly the flat advertised as s'six rooms and bath but consisting in reality of l series of highly decorated closets Here he is not only in the closest rela- tons with his own family, but with all the other families in the flathouse as well, although he may not be, and usu- (ally IS not, acquainted with them per- sonally. For either of these homes a. monthly rental of from thirty to fifty dollars, or onefourth of the entire earn ings of this middle-class husband
 would be paid. This estimate is of New
 York and the vicinity. In the other cit les and towns of the United States
 where rentals are cheaper, salaries are
 proportionately less
 Havlng secured the home the young
 husband takes great interest in fur.
 nlshing 1t. He is not usually possessed of good taste or good Judgment in
 house-furnishing, and his ideas are ex-
 travagant in this direction. as in many
 others. He admires handsome showv furniture, and crams his little rooms full or pieces that are all unfit for their inoaest circumstances. He inyariably
 submits with pleasure to his wife,s sne- eestlon that he should have a den, of
 ms own. The smallest closet of the se-
 rles IS devoted to this den and supplied With an abundance of Oriental draner-
 les and ornaments of the least Aneri- can make. Here he is supposed to re- lcelVe his men friends in grat privacy ! ana luxury, the privacy being sugges-
 ted by the thin portiere which is oil tbat kluts him off from the rest of the house
 hold. As for the luxury, tnhere is SO inucn or that that he cannot breathe after the smoke of one cigarette hos 1 taken up the little air left by the dra- peries. He makes his guilty way to tha Kitchen, where he and his friend have
 their smoke out. Of course, if he lives In the country his den may be larger
 put, city or country, it is never any, thing but dreadful.
 | Whether his income be thirty or one
 hundred dollars week he is eager to
 have the latest mechanical innrove-
 menus m his house, and in the cities at
 least he insists upon electric light. steam heat, modern plumbing, the latest
 Improved gas range and similar lux,-
 ries. The middle-class husband in America rarely interferes with the af- 1airs of the household. He hardly
 knows the cost of staple articles of food. lie seldom examines the accounts of
 butcher and baker. being content to
 knowionly so much of the domestic economy as is necessary in filling the family purse. As a rule he does not make his wife regular allowance eith-
 CT for household or personal expenses.
 put gives her as much as he can snare
 freely, but with lack of system that IS not conducive to the best outlay of
 their income Although the petty de- tails of household management do not
 interest the American husband. he is
 not at all averse to lending hand }when crisis in the domestic arrange ments, frequently brought about by the servant famine, makes his help desira- ble. '' very large proportion of American n
 men are clever about cooking. and thev
 seem to take to it more readily than their wives. Knowing that her husband Will be willing to come to her arescue if
 necessary, the American wife is fre- quently able to see her one servant de-
 part in peace, and take upon herself the
 entire honlsehold labor with eouanini- ty. The young American husband ex-
 pects to provide well and liberallv for ms household. He is also very ind,,I- lgent to his wifes fondness for fine clothes. He would far rather have an lextravagant wife than a dowdy one
 and although he grumbIes occasionally
 at millinery bill in reality he glories
 In the resplendent appearance of his ! r hoy F,aa coo+ |,