Show E domestic blunders BR lu ders of women 0 en T my ea A R mar marj NA A N j WOMEN S IGNORANCE OF THE valice VAL E OF MONEY N THE last chap ter I 1 spot e of the absolute tri capac ity of women to do their market ing on anything an thing III e commercial and economical I 1 nes I 1 think thin I 1 proved exclusive ly to the minds of all men at least that any business run on the same lines as a home is conducted would result not only in bankruptcy but in the man mail ager being censured by the courts for hazardous speculation and reckless ex trava gance I 1 anten I 1 now to review the financial capabilities of the feminine gender I 1 have shown that women have no idea how to spend money I 1 shall now show they have no capabilities tor for money this is the root ot of the whole evil but it has many de as I 1 shall show the woman who asks her husband for house I 1 beeping money simply obtains money under false pretenses for there Is such a thing as criminal neg degli 11 gence Is it in the experience of any man that having given five dollars to his wife he has ever seen an equivalent value tor for if in the first place Is it ever possible nos sible to get a proper esti estl mate for the things which are to be A woman says she wants some money you ask her how much 7 she says she can t tell ex acely supposing iou her to make out a list and supposing aou ou get it ask her how much it will all cost she has not the least idea ask her how much each item costs she can not tell you anxious to get to your business you say how much about will they bea she says about 8 75 and adds it may be a little under and it may be a little over in despair you give her ten dollars intent on getting her into business habits when you return you ask her for the change or perhaps you wait till she wants some more money in the first instance she says she re to when she was out that she owed a little bill and thought she had better pay it or that the sauce pans wanted renewing oh those saucepans or she saw some very cheap window blind muslin or stock ings for the children oh those chil dren drent but did you ever see those sauce pans or those stockings I 1 never did in the derond instance she says the things came to a little more than she anticipated if aou ou have kept or can recall the list and try to get the price of each article out of her she will get as far as accounting tor for 8 25 or 8 75 but farther than that she cannot remember if you really want to get to the bottom of the whole business you should say you must have lost the change an accusation of losing money a woman moman always resents with the idea of such a thing she next recollects that she bought herself a pair of gloves if you suggest she bought gloves a week ago or that she has her dress allowance she says of course it if you want me to walk about without gloves you should ay so As your saying so would mean a row you suggest that one dollar could not be better spent than on gloves and you mark off your dollar like the iron cable in the english admiralty report eaten by rats but supposing sip s ip posing your wife asks tor for five dollars and it not bearg coave nieam to g ve her more than 2 50 you again ask her for a list of the things which are required for the house if you get it ft ou will find that more than halt half the items are not pres pressing bing and so you give her 2 50 and tell hir she must make ll 11 go as tar far as she can the next day she asks you for the other 2 50 to mal e a long story short you will find that she has bought all the things which were not pressing and that she has left all the things that were among the former are halt half a dozen boxes of S 9 soap and when you emphasize halt half a dozen she says we canerot have the house without a bit of soap oh that S soap they give a coupon with each box and tor for so many coupons they give the children a set of brown paper toys I 1 live in a a year house and I 1 have bought enough saucepans what is the attraction about sauce pans pansa and S soap to stock the white house it might be going a little too far to say women are absolutely dishonest about money but it is rot going a bit too far to say that they hane no idea how hard it is to am earn that they have no idea of its value that tl ey cannot save it that they have not the remotest notion how to spend it prop erly and that therefore they should not be entrusted with either its saving or its spending pending the real tact fact is girls are not brought up either to have or to do without money they cannot esti mate the value of anything not even their own clothes they cannot keep accounts of money and are really as mach afraid of it as they are of a loaded pistol it seems like a mere paradox to say women are afraid of money but their acts suggest this for or their natural inci nation seems to be to empty heir their purses and a worn wom an is never so happy as when she is spending money not necessarily on ar cles she wants or even on her self she will mill buy anything lend or give away any sum as long as she can get rid of money there are worn wom en on who would not r in into debt for worlds who would not part with any of their possessions but who will get anything foi themselves or give an any y thing away to their acquaintances so sc long as they can get rid of acqua money which they hae have in their pock ets and nothing is so common as to hear a woman say I 1 thought I 1 might as m well ell buy so and so as I 1 had the money in my pod poel et women are divided into two classes the woman who never pays for nee es saries and the woman who never buys anything unless she can pay cash from the financier financiers s point of view one system is as bad as the other women not only dissipate men mens s money but they destroy their credit I 1 am tall ing of course of 0 7 V 1 I have bought enough amp to stach the white wade fisun middle class women wilo marry mid die dle class men who earn their living from week to week month to month or year to year every man of busi bust ness is a man of credit tho perhaps only having in his bank his bills tor for 5 running over three six nine and twelve months are readily accepted and handed on as cash in france this system prevails even in the home owing to the fantastic finance of women no such thing ex ests here and the result is a man has to keep money for weekly books which would be much better employed in his business the result is long credit and ruinous prices with shop I 1 deepers or a constant drain of ready money to the detriment of credit women w 11 not understand understand this I 1 will explain I 1 was a bachelor I 1 seldom or never paid cash if I 1 wanted clothes or even wine or cigars I 1 sent out and ordered them when the bill came in I 1 always paid something on ac count the result was my credit was excellent that Is to say my tradesmen always trusted me and said ot of me he alm always ays pays and besides this I 1 was never without mon ey in my pocket and if I 1 were a bit short nobou was frightened since then I 1 have married my wife haa has always insisted on paying her weekly bills regularly on saturday she said it was her way she considered it disreputable to run bills and said that if she sent a check on account people would think we could not pay and would not trust us and worse than ail would talk so far it has not mattered but supposing I 1 sud denly wanted all the money I 1 could lay hands on for a business specula tion do you suppose tor for one moment that my wife s twenty years of pay ing the bills weekly would mould give us a f mortn s credit for a box of matches or that our tradesmen would accept such a new departure d ep arture as a small check on account 7 I 1 say emphatically no having been paid weekly they would dimmed abely suspect that I 1 was broke and as sure as my name Is what it Is I 1 should receive a dozen or so D strict court summonses it must be clear that since this absurd system of paying ready money and getting no dis court count pervades the entire ranks of the m addle class omen aie aze rot on conniving at the robbery of the r bus hus bands hands but are ruining the r cred t I 1 have already shown that no woman ei eich or gets a d for ready money it day way be aid caid that they do not know that they could it would require very I 1 atle common sense for them to find it out they must know they do know that their cooks get it on ei ederith erl th eg rg that goes into the I 1 atcher and that their nurses get it tor for tha e very milk that goes into their nur series it if they only looked at their dressmaker dressmakers s bills they would see A discount of 5 per cent allowed for cash stated in red letters yet it Is to people who cannot put two and two together who cannot leep 1 beep money who keep no record of what they re cehe and have no knowledge of what anything should or has cost to whom we entrust the finances of our homes are wp we not bigger fools and more to blame than they are area copyright bv funk Wag nalls co col j |