THE WIFE'S POCKET MONEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 66, 7 March 1908, Page 3

THE WIFE'S POCKET MONEY.

If modern women were content to dress in lig-leavcs, 50 per cent, of the marriages which turn out rank failures would end its happily as they do in fairy stories.

For the wile's pocket-mmi'V is often a source of matrimonial misery. Disputes over dress hills would ruin the romance of a lioinco and Juliet. A few sensible financial talks on this topic before marriage would save much heartbreaking and bickering afterwards. Matrimony is not all billing and cooing. it has a serious business side. The engaged girl loves ti* boast to her Jianeee that the line feathers which make her such a line bird cost practically nothing. ''■ It's easy to dress on a few pounds a vear if you have taste!" she whispers to the confiding ami courting young man. After marriage she wishes she hadn't talked like that. When the bills come in to him, instead of to his adored one's father, the "few pounds" show a sharp market | rise, and a decided "slump" in domestic I finance and harmony sets in.

The bridegroom becomes " a bear," and the bride starts saving out of the housekeeping to cover extravagances in dress. Many wives say they feel like shopgirls robbing their employer's till when they economise on lood to buy finery. Lut what can a woman do u her husband retuses to give her a drc.,» allowance T

•With all my worldly goods 1 thee endow " sometimes mciuues a mental r .■• servation thai the endowment does iui apply to pocKet-nioney. j. lus sort of man does not grudge a wife her unhapnincss 1 "'i'ome to me when you want a new hat," is a most unsatisfactory system of settling the problem of the wife's spend-ing-uiouey. lo begin with, a woman doesn't always like to confess what that particui.ir hat cost. ■ .^l-mi

And, anyway, it isn't nice to have to wait till a man is in the best mood to be wheedled. '

I know a bride who went about with big holes iu her boots because bK» touldn't muster up courage to ask her husband for money, lie—good, dear, amiable soul!—thought, as generations of men from Adam downwards have supposed, that a girl's trousseau lasts lor uvei

ever. ''*«•<<&> {some nice men set aside a certain percentage of their annual earnings for the. wife's dress and pin-money. And tluvy produce it the minute it is due, with a genial, generous smile, as if they litid giving. Other husbands forget quarter-day, have to be dunned, and anally hand over the allowance to the wile as if she were a tax-collector. The molto that -Man's love is •■•£ man's life a thing apart, ''lis woman» whole existence, lias prevented millions of husbands from understanding their wives. ■„. .

That poor purblind poet forgot all about shopping. Being a mere man, lie couldn't understand a consuming hung-r for a hat, or a famine-stricKen sort of craving for fal-lals. That a woman should centre her soul on having the latest fashion in kimono sleeves may be deplorable, but there it

Vou cannot change the feminine love or shopping and frills and flounces. As . mere domestic pence cure, it pays a

man to give his wife a dress allowance. Money is a microbe which makes or

mars the happiness of marriage. To try and look nice on nothing a year would spoil the temper of a saint. The knowledge that her hat is the very latest shape produces a radiant serenity in a woman which ensures the happiness of her husband. A woman rarely nags when she's got her best clothes on. Look out for the squalls or scoldings when the wife's wardrobe is shabby.