New-York tribune., 1908-03-01
YOUR WIFE'S MONEY.
Hoe You Feel after Losing 1t
IN Speculation.

To bnv stocks on a margin IS an ordinarily ad-
venturous sport, not without excitement ana plua
ure when during the course of an ORDINARY i'le-
time YOU have earned the money yourself 10 loSe
vo;,r money under these circumstances Is now
ever dull and uninterestms affair having
earned yourself there is no special merit IN per
mtting pass away, and If one Is OF d cleeIAui
disposition quickly recovers-
This is A common privilege. But to get out OF
such an occupation genuine zest you should hFs'
borrow the money from your vile. 49,
No one indeed. but your wife. who dwells with
Won in the secret recesses of your home knows or
realize for instant what master OIL hhihSe
YOU have suddenly become 1t is delightful &c nave
her believe in you so implicitly you explain TO
her how with a doube-riveted caution, inherited
from vanishing line Of ancestors, you nave peeh
waiting for months until things had touched pea
rock" And then. with loving, trusting shie
she hands YOU over the faded old Gilt-edged set
of bonds have been in her family for TWO gen
crations YOUR eyes almost fill with tears TO THINK
how soon it must be when you Will pay her-per-
haps tenfod, perhaps hundredfold. Tor thls heau-
tiful confidence.
Forthwith YOU enter into intimate relations with
q broker a person whom you have heretofore re-
oarded as being a menace to the state, but whom
YOU now come 10 view as your most intimate
friend: indeed, you can scarcely think OF MIN at
all without lump in your throat
You hand him the good old bonds and request
hin, IN huv the sure thing you have been watch
ing 60 slowly down for months, and as much OF 1t
he can.
Later on when the peanut crop is threatened
when the Paris Bourse has convulsions, when that
hitherto irreproa achabe institution, the Bank OF
England begins to go back on its best friends,
when there are rumors of between Patagonia
and Crete-when, IN fact, certain things happen
that the very ablest. asutest, fUrthcSt-SeenS ha-
ciers in the whole country Gncluding, of course,
YOURSELF could not possibly have foreseen, ana
those good old bonds begin to grow dim and
misty in your memory then the real sport begins
You are plunged at once into all the ntrlcacles all
the vicarious complications of double life. Filled
with secret shame, you are coihpeAeu ~ PoSe as d
master of money.
If Won had Your own way about il, you would not
be cheerful. You would. indeed take certain
amount OF comfort in not being so. Even this,
however is denied you. For it is really necessary
70 be a little more cheerful all the time than you
have been for there is your wife, who thinks You
are making money, and there is your distinct pride
in having her keep up this feeling
Fortunately she is u person somewhat uncurlous
You congratulate yourself upon the fact that she
believes in you so implicitly. and come at last TO
look upon this as an asset itself. Thus. in addi-
ton to being the ablest fnancier Of modern times
YOU become also an accomplished actor There is
another name for this. but you refrain, out of
courtesy for yourself. from using ii.
This art indeed, is the only bright spot left
The consciousness that you have acquired 1t with
out previous training is the thing left TO con-
sole you.
out the slightest warning says abruptly:
What have you been worrying about? l can tell
by your manner that something is on your mind
Never felt better you assert, Stoutly. But
your voice dies dimly out toward the end, and YOU
realize with painful consciousness the supreme diff
Guilty OF being able TO look her in the eye.
She realizes it at the same time. Hitherto person
of considerable and continuous volublity, she now
wastes words:
Those bonds"' she sasps. Where they:
Have you lost them?"
With a show of cheap bravado you reply with an
attempt at br;stlng which only half succeeds that
YOU have done this very thing. You explain that
every one else has done the same Indeed the
absolute proof that you the able you have
stated you lies in the fact that you too have
been fooled along with all the other able
But your explanation does not explain. Hence
forth you are a changed man. And the worst Of il
is that Just because YOU have been unfortunate
and there is real why certain economies
should be practised-alI this in unaCCountabe
manner, only makes your wife feel that hereafter
she is privileged TO be extrayagant as she
pleascS-Iife.