Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1887 — No Spending-Money. [ARTICLE]

No Spending-Money.

Among the poor, particularly the thrifty and industrious poor, says a writer in Harper's, the woman of the household, be she wife or daughter, has much more control in dispensing the daily or weekly wage than women on a higher social plane; men of brawn, when sensible and kindly, practice a more generous rule of conjugal partnership than is usual among men of brain, though these latter’s earnings are on such a scale of plenty that unless we look below the surface regulations and equipments ot the house we fail to discover the false financial relations that exist between husband and wife. For wives, as a class, have no spending money, and are rarely cognizant of their husband’s true business condition. Is this just to the being a man has promised to honor as well as to love? Women are accused of being “mean,” and any one who has ever served on a collecting committee knows how, in forming a list of possible subscribers, name after name is omitted with the remark, “No use going to her; she never gives,” or, “She has no money,” and yet the husband of “she” is invariably a man of means or ample professional income, who pays extravagant household and personal bills for his family, usually with willing goodnature. It is only when money is asked lor that a tightening of the pursestrings instinctively takes place and the unblushing query is made : “Why, little woma i, what did you do, with the $5 I gave you last week?” - We have heard such a question put to a beloved wife by a man whose yearly expenses were at least $20,01)0, and who the next week gave the same wife valuable diamond earrings, and always encouraged her to dress extravagantly and live luxuriously.