| Show WHO SHALL HOLD THE PURSE are vt not women more to blame than wen in the matter of money talk about german women being oppressed and said a daughter of that nation wo we may black cw hu husbands bauw shoes now and then if there Is no servant to do it but in one thing if 1 I have been informed rightly we have greatly the advantage of american women it is taken for granted with us that the wife must have the spending of the main part of the income for all the family needs that is ia her part of the work I 1 this view has been always held so far as I 1 know and I 1 assure you that tyrannical husbands find some other way of making their power felt than by holding back the money for daily necessaries why the bills must be met the family must live in the style decided on as proportioned to the income why haggle about it but I 1 am told that in america wives rarely hold the family purse and unless a woman has money in her own right she ehe must ask often beg for every penny ehe has why a german woman would wo ua d feel degraded with that sort of treatment besides how can she wisely plan unless she can know mow how much money she has to use during the month orthe or tho quarter what one can afford is au all a matter of comparison and proportion it is the most common thing in our lower and middle classes for the wife to draw the pay keep the bankbook and order the expenditure of every penny of the income even to buying the husbands clothes the reason why the married woman in 0 our ur country does not have as a matter 0 of f course more mora power over the income seems to be partly her own fault does she start out right in the very first year Is she imbued with th the e idea that she ehe and her husband are founding a family whose prosperity and whose standing in tho the community is ia their common interest does she feel that in this matter there is no and andt eum that all plans and sacrifices must be bernade made together there are plenty of cases where a selfish or thoughtless yong g man has been brought to this view oz of things by a clever wife and thenceforth they v were ere equal partners partner with equal rights but let a woman once begin that childish teasing for a new gown or new furniture re and suspicious suspicions are aroused in the mind of the money earner that it if will be hard to allay if he is a man of any character ho will feel that he be must protect bis family as to the essentials a safe surplus p ins in the bank account and a growing fund for old ago or emergencies he begins to prefer fer paying bills bies whose items item he can scan to giving ready money into the hands of his wife she will mako mistakes now and then but if instead of owning them up and taking counsel as to better ways she deceives and conceals she is sealing her fate he feels if he does not know this concealment and now and then hamill know it and the painful result is well enough known to us it would bo be interesting to hear from every woman who finds herself in middle life lacking the confidence of her husband in money matters whether the fault is entirely his or if she does not in looking back find grave mistakes on her own sido side mary mar H abel in st louis Re republic |
