Show kathleen norris says extravagance in marriage marria 9 e Is a pitfall BU bell syndicate service arv lc 41 1 U k 3 04 b R L t oi I 1 wish you could see lee what my wile got fot jo for our baby perambulator high chair ir crib bath inette sterilizing outfit blankets blan ets the cost was wai more than our budget for the child allowed by KATHLEEN NORRIS OW many young wives HOW would feel horrified and shocked if their husbands could be identified as the tir tired ed tim who writes me this letter if you happen to be a young wife the letter may help you to see one of the pitfalls of modern marriage a little more clearly than you do I 1 I 1 say modern marriage because marr marriage aage used to be quite a different thing a hundred years ago A girl was so glad to get a husband then that she practically idolized him families were large having from eight to fifteen members dependent mothers and unmarried sisters lived with the young wife 1 and all together the women handled an the tremendous burden of domestic duties they hung out long lines ol of wash cleaned windows fed chickens cared for babies started children oft off lor for school wrestled with coal ranges and dirty grates made fruit cake and bed quilts took rugs out to the yard and beat them put up fruit nursed the sick and in between other jobs wrote voluminous letter sto dear old school friends but its different toda today Y ea each h bride launches out by herself in the following letter one young husband explains just where his wife falls him wife had no training bert Is the most adorable girl in the world writes tired tim but she had an any y training and money simply mean anything to her we talked budget before we were married and worked it ou out t on paper but she ashes I 1 s never glanced at it nor given it a thought since weve been married two years and have a baby seven months old I 1 wish you could see what bert ber t got 9 of for the child perambulator high chair crib bath inette sterilizing outfit blankets it came to more than our budget for him had allowed my salary is 85 a week but I 1 carry insurance and contribute ut e 20 a month as rent for rny my mother who has a pension also pay 87 tor for our house bouse including taxes a and nd amortization of debt and about 40 more monthly for refrigerator tove stove and so on these expenses will lessen as time goes on but bert already has found a larger place she likes better where we will have a room for a maid we now have only dinner help bert Is hospitable and nothing Is too good for her friends in planning menus she spares no expense lets have steaks again and a mousse and alligator pears she will w ill say our friends are au all better bet ter fixed financially than we are and my wife likes to keep up with them very much in debt last week my office boss told me that they had bad considered me for or a promotion but the fact that I 1 was about 2300 in debt to doctor hospital hostal hastal pt tal dentist florist and so on seemed to them a serious thing and they wanted an explanation foolishly I 1 told bert this and her answer was to appeal to her father for money because tim was being so mean the old man very much worried gave her a diamond ring ot of her mothers to pawn and bert ever since has been anxious to redeem it t tor 0 r she naturally values it highly now dont think the letter concludes that I 1 am criticizing my wife lle but I 1 am working hard pret ty well burdened and not satis satisfied fie d to face a future which may be an indefinite repetition of this sort of thing can you make a suggestion that I 1 can pass on to her in the hope that she will take a different attitude toward extravagance and bills the trouble began many years ago tired tim when bert was a little girl perhaps because she had no mo mother ther she evidently gre grew w u up P feeling that she had only to w want ant a thing to buy it and that oat there was no relation between honest money and dishonest bills thousands of women much older than bert have this tailing failing and thousands of mothers let their daughters go into marriage without a hint of the seriousness of this oversight the simple truth is any woman who lets her husband worry bout about beems finances is a poor wife this s seems like a sweeping statement but it is true to be only a money spender squandering his hard won salary cheerfully on beauty parlors frock shops theaters club lunches bridge prizes is to fail in your job and more marr marriages lages go on the rocks because of this inexplicable stupid stupidity on the part of intelligent women than because of any other one thing it matter how fresh groomed buried or frocked you are or how charming your house is with the new hangings hannings hang ings the new china the chromium chairs and the venetian blinds if your husband is worrying about money he hates it all husbands like serenity for men surprisingly arent fussy about furniture they love comfortable old chairs familiar lamps dads old desk and moms old spoons they even get to like the dresses of yesterday many a wife has been exasperated to answer ive had it three years when an affectionate husband comments admiringly upon her costume what a husband likes Is if serenity at home a woman content and busy bills paid I 1 remember one young wife who fell madly la in love with the picture of a nude girl by a stream it was in the september morn mom era the picture cost it was no prettier than the picture on the grocers calendar that year but she wanted it and she had bad to have it she paid installments on it tor for more than a year her husband hated it and frie friends ads made fun of it she told them she he was lust just storing it for emily her husband run down and anxious died of pneumonia that winter leaving an estate of something le less than 2000 almost one tenth of t that h t bad to go tor for the picture I 1 hope the she felt it was worth while |