Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-24
WINIFRED BLACKS
w SPECIAL ARTICLE
MISS BUSYRODY'S BUSINESS
1888. By Nswsp.psr ys..urs ssv.o.

Dear Winifred Black:
| read your article, "The Foolish
and Blind" and somehow [ can't resist
telling you what happened to me.
I am %, very happily married, have
the dearest three-rOom apartment, with
large rooms with plenty Of sunshine
streaming in all day long. Why, my
bathroom is as large as the bedrooms
il some apartments! It's all white tile
with a large window opening right on
the outside-nO air shafts.
My husband can't do enough for me.
He cleans the bathroom and kitchen
floors for me, Keeps the other floors
oiled. Dries the dishes and does every
thing to make life easy for me.
/ have always had a good position,
and when / married | felt that I ought
to keep it and try and help the bank
account grow, and besides, | really like
to go out every morning. At night
after a day in the office ] just love to
go home. On account Of his helping
me, going to business and keeping
house is not hard at all.
Whose Business But Yours
Well, to get on with my story, q
distant relative who means nothing to
me wrote and asked if she might come
md see me. | answered that she
might. Well, she anne. She had to
say my home was lovely. She couldn't
say otherwise, but she made a couple
of nasty remarks about men marrying
who couldn't support their wives. This
made me furious. My husband makes
SD a week and I make $50, and as you
know there are lots Of people with
families that get along on a whole lot
less than $45 a week. At last she
came right out and said / was q fool
to go TO work, and then | spoke my
little piece and told her in A nice way
that it was non of her business.
This particular woman has a hus-
band who is a cripple. He has not
worked in years and she has steadily
refused 10 go to work to help. They
live Of their wits. b~luffing their way
through wherever they can. She pays
the highest rent she can possibly af-
ford. and IN order to get in a good
neighborhood she always lives on the
top floor. and that crippled husband
has to climb up and down four flights
of stairs every time he goes out.
Don't you think / did right in ito
use a slang expression( not letting her
get away with it? Why should she
hurt my feelings as much as she likes
and expect me to consider hers? [
didn't ask her to come back and see me
because | don't want her. Why Is It
that some people are always trying to
make others disconnected?
ONE OF YOUR READERS.
Did you do right, little Mrs. spitfire?
Well, yes, I think you did.
The only way to stop meddling peo-
pie from trying to NEEDLE in your
affairs is to give them a dose of their
W medicine-and be done with il.
You didn't invite this person to visit
you anyway and, even if you had in
vited her, your invitation did not carry
with it any right to criticism.
OF course you visitor was entitled
to her own opinion about you and yoiir
husband, and your home and the way
you live. But equally of course, she
hadn't the slightest right to say one
word to you about it.
You don't approve of the way she
lives, but you didn't think it your affair
to tell her so-that's where you showed
not only your good sense but your good
breeding.
So you work. instead Of staying at
home and doing all the housekeeping
Yourself, do you?
The Ideal and the Real
Whose business is that but your
husbands and yohrs?
Nobody pays much attention to the
old-fashioned idea that it is better for
a woman to half starve ct home and
keep her husbands nose to the grind
stone all his life than it Is for her to
help out and make some money and
put some of it away SO that in their
middle life the couple will have some
thing real and substantial.
Thousands of girls who couldn't
marry at all unless they went on work
ing for a year or so, do marry and
they make good wives and happy ones,
too.
Of course, the ideal marriage is one
where the wife can stay at home and
take care of the children.
But If you haven't children and want
to work, who has any right to say one
word to you about it or ever to lift an
eyebrow as you pass? Your life and
your husbands life belong to you and
to him and to nobody else on earth.
I'm glad you gave Mrs. Busybody a
piece of your mind. l hope it will do
] her good.