Year: 1876

Under this caption the London Times
has the following editorial. 1t will DE
found OF especial interest to our numer-
Gus lady readers:


1t must always be with pain and del
icacy and hesitation that we make any
allusion to those who are supposed TO
be less able to defend themselves, and
the more under just authority, as well,
it must be added, as also the most sin
ned against. But one remark must be
made. Even on the most superficial
survey of society, whether in the great
furnace of the metropolis or in the les
ser fires of provincial and rural life, who
can shut his eyes to the lamentable fact
that the gentler aud kindlier sex have a
very great deal to with that boundless
ard ruinous extravaganza which intro
duces all the vices and disables all the
virtues, even to decay and extinction :
1t may be the necessity or the duty of
some to spend princely pomp and lux
ury if so, they are only to be pitied for
the difficulty of doing it gracefully, and
redeeming material waste with personal
refinement But in this great town,and
each season more than the last, there
are thousands and thousands who are
manifcstly spending far more than their
circumstances will allow. For very
much of this deep, widespread, and still
spreading evil, the women are answera-
bic. 1t is they who dress at rate far
beyoud their income; they who insist
Oh the best houses in the best neighbor-
hood; they who must have equipages
for all uses, times and places; they who
cannot abate their manifold require
ments, even when the family increases
and nobly cares should take the place
of childish things.


Of course, the men have their beset
ting sins and their pet extravagances,
sometimes very cost y; and they have
often the still greater fault of not ex-
planning their pecuniary affairs to their
wives with manly candor of common
business-like accuracy. They do not
make the wife contidant and fellow
counsellor. But there cannot be a doubt
that in the great majority of houses the
lady knows quite enough to see, with a
very little reflection, that she is driving
her husband aud family into straitness
and embarrassment, with the risk of
ruin. People must have very many and
good acres, of very good investments
indeed, to be able to apend often the
rental of good estate in single enter
tainment, dressmakers or an uphol-
sterer's bill, house at fashionable
watering place, a prolonged continental
tour, a necklace or some other toy. Yet
women are such creatures of rivalry and
display that they cannot help a sort Of
triumph over those who are less fortu.
nate or less spirited, and so are contIn-
ually the foremost to infame perni-
cious rivalry. What can their hus-
bands do? They submit, perhaps They
sulk, perhaps. They more commonly
cast about for ways and means, and as
they hear and learn more,they are more
apt to take counsel from despair, and
give themselves up to the stream in
which they are already floating help
lessly. They cannot be worse than they
are; they may be better. So they spec
ulate-tbat is, they gamble. They soon
find they are victims, and set it down
to their simplicity or their scruples. BY
and by they make the discovery that in
such an affair it is better to be at the
head than at the tail; better to be on the
right side of the wall better to be in
the ring than an outsider. So they
press inward, give and take condolences,
and in time are milliOnaires, or bank
rupts and exiles.. a 10