Year: 1875

Choosing Husband.


A local correspondent of the Boston
Transcript writes in this strain hap
pen to know woman, now more than
sixty years old, who was taken from an
honorable business avocation, in which
she had been eminently successful, to
become a wife. Like many others of
her sex, she was mistaken in her hus-
band-not that he had what are called
vices, for of these he had none. He
neither drank, gambled, nor frequented
clubs, nor had he any immoral procliNi


ties. But he did not believe that wife
should know anything of her husbands
business affairs, which idea also compre.


hended that he did not believe she
could understand them The truth was
that he did not know his wife. 1t hap.


pened, however, that he went to hel


whenever his affairs became desperately
straitened, and, by means of her severe
economy, often managed to extricate
himself Once when he mad foolishly
exhausted his income in building addi.
tions to old houses, or in expensive re-
pairs for exacting tenants, for which his
bills came in fast, she patiently showed
him how to manage certain investments,
proposing to take stores in lieu of those
absorbing houses-a successful change.
She gave up valuable servants, and exc
cuted an amount of work with her needle
which seemed almost incredible, besides
drilling in raw people at low wages to
take partially the place of those she felt
obliged to relinquish. She instituted u
kind of domestic economy, than which
nothing could be more admirable and
praiseworthy. And yet, with all this,
she never gained her husbands regard
or confidence. He would come to her to
get him out of his tight pieces, as he
called them. but when he had gotten
out, and was doing apparently well
again, he ceased to consult her, never
telling her how far his income ought to
go, nor whether he had anything left
after paying general expenses.


He chose to relinquish business after


some years-an ill-judged step under


the circumstances. He had some small


capital, however, and his wife ventured


to suggest certain purchases of real es-


tate, but he disregarded her advice.


She mentioned to him four different


chances for investment, all of which have


since doubled or trebled in other hands,


but he would not listen to her. Much


against her wishes he purchased an old


fashioned house for his family to live


in, and spent more on its repairs than 8


new one would have cost. He sold il


subsequently at a. price that would


scarcely meet the original outlay. He


agreed to sell valuable pieces of prop


erty, while she was positively refusing


to sign her name to the transfer, ani


was afterward compelled to give her sig


nature on being told that " the property


was his, not hers, and he would do wha


he pleased with his own Still her worl


went on-mending, patching, going tC


market for frugality, keeping her house


clean and neat, and her children clothed


with her own handiwork. Certain prop


erty was under mortgage 4; she hopet


to save something to pay this, and neve


took sugar in her tea, hoping to make
even that an item in her rigorous econ
omy. But, though his wife's influence
was of so little consideration, he gay'


his confidence to an intriguing man o


no honor and little credit, who had be
come known to him through some for
mer business connections. This NAL
beguiled him made him assume tn
very investments against which the wifi
had demonstrated borrowed money from
him which he never intended to repay
almost entangling this weak-minded hus
band in network of bankruptcy.


So years went on, the poor wife ex
pecting sanguinely that the time woul,
) arrive when she would be living upon a
} assured income and see the reward O
her hard and unremitting labor in a
y easy old age. Alas such was hi


promise and such her hope. But hop


is delusive. He had broken his promis
> and deceived her in all his transactions
= his whole income was pledged to pa
, notes on bogus stock and other fame
, investments against which she had be
q fore strenuously protested, and woul
& still have warned him had he confded t
9 her what he was about. 1t was foun
9 by careful calculation that if he ha
+ placed 500 which he had receive
! by inheritance, into such estates as sh
9 had proposed, he would have been wort
in less than six years more than doubl
e the amount of the legitimate investmen
4 Nearly thirty years had this caref,
p woman been wife, assisting iudiciousl
in the education of her children, stud,


ing character, and the vast intern
: growth of our city-capable of bein
4 the adviser of her husband in all thing
q pertaining to domestic and fnanci
! economy. "What am IL" she said
4 me one day, in the agony of her hear
r 81 am only "a hewer of wood and
II drawer of water in my husband hous
: when l wanted to be his true and faitl
Il full partner, tightening his cares and al,
v ing him by service and counsel" Th
n man cherished the idea that no woma
d had right to know her husbands a
q fairs. This is what many man HI