THE FAMILY PURSE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3170, 26 August 1881, Page 4

THE FAMILY PURSE.

The " nioni'y question " between husband and a ifc is one of tbe most .-erious drawbarks to married happiness, and it, is time it. was arranged upon a more just and equal basis. Men do not realise how crushing and degrading it is to a sensitive woman to be obliged to ask for money every time she wants to buy a quart of berries or a spool of thread ; nor is ifc afc all necessary for the good of the family that money should be doled out in such little " driblets." A smart, woman can make one dollar go as far two would laid out by her husband, in a general way ; and she will go about her work with far more heart and cheer if she knows there are five or ten dollars in her purse that she can spend as she chooses, when a convenient time comes for it. She feels more self-respect, and not so much like a pauper.

If anything needed comes along she can buy it without hesitation, and as a lady said ' without borrowing a quarter of her hired girl,' for often in such tilings ' hired helps ' have more independence than their employers. lam convinced that if farmers' wives wo-! granted a little more indulgence in this matter the result would be very cheering and beneficial. And doesn't a smart, skilful woman do her part towards helping to support the family ? (for that is the way I choose to put it), and should she not have a little liberty in money matters ? I have seen wives who almost quaked with fear as they meekly suggested to their ' lords ' that the flour barrel was nearly empty, or the sugar almost out. And I have heard of the husband scolding her as if she were guilty of devouring the whole of it, but for the ' good of the community' I hope such men are ' few and far between,' and I sincerely think they are. But t have seen one man of whom it is said that he never allowed his wife to buy even so much as a calico dress for herself, or a pair of stockings for the children. Though a poor woman of good intelligence and judgment, she is helpless in this respect, and I presume, though her husband thinks her almost an imbecile in money matters, judging from his treatment, yet she could buy to much better advantage than he for'she knows just what she wants and needs while he does not. shopkeepers like such customers as he is—you know it is a good chance to get rid of old-fashioned, unsaleable goods, and all undesirable stock generally. If anyone has a right to handle her own hard-earned money it is a farmers' wife, and to spend it too as she chooses, without giving account of every cent to anybody. —American Cultivator.