POCKET-MONEY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 181, 18 November 1876, Page 3

POCKET- MONEY.

[From the tfaturditi/ fana u\ ] | Women, as a rule, suffer a _good deaj j from want of pocket-money. Young men! send in their bills* ti» their fathers, and { have-generally a sum wholly independent j ot necessary expenses to spend as they please, whilst their sisters have usually only an allowance for dress. In ordinary cases, and particularly where there are many girts of one family, this allowance is not one calculated to show any margin when the miUiner r a bill is paid. Miss Yong& lately spoke with regret of the ignorant young women who dabble in literature merely for the chance of earning » fewr pounds. She, perhaps, for a moment forget of how much importance even a few shillings may be to a person who finds it almost impossible to make her income cover her inevitable expenses. : Girl* are often subjected to painful humiliations when staying at friends' houses merely on account of this dearth of pocketmoney. They are, perhaps, forced to allow gentlemen with whom they are only slightly acquainted to pay for cabs or for m admission to a picture gallery or a tfower show. They suffer agonies from not being able to give tips to servants. But, worst of all, they lose that nice* sensitiveness in money matters which ought to be carefully nurtured, and which of lute seems to have gone out of fashion. It is cruel and wicked of parents to permit their children to be placed in circumstances where they are tempted to put themselves under obligations to people from whom they have no right to wceive them. A' girl, out of ignorance and tropeeuniosity, may sometimes find lierself ptaCfctf in an equivocal position ; from which she does not feel able to get j frtt'.v; and cruel embarrassment may be caused because she had not a few shillings itt tier purse when she wanted them. As iv rule, a married woman in the middle classes is not much better off than her unmarried sister in the matter of pocketmoney, if she has not brought her husband any fortune, and if she is unhappily burdened with a conscience She finds lierself in possession of house-money and dress-money, and, being probably inexperianced in management, s ve finds it hard enough to fctep w'thin her allowance. She never feels as if she could call a few pounds her own, and is thus deprived of many small pleasures, and even necesB&riea, which her hnahand would never dream of refusing to himself. This is. one of the reasons wuy ladies' clubs are not at present lifeely to become very numerous, (hubs presuppose a certain amount of pocket-money which a woman has not hithurto been supposed to require. A man wottld fed taat life was not worth having if he had to account for every cab, oigar,. brandy and snia; but a hdy who i»e&tig*d to balance her weekly book* would "have to chronicle the small bwer gava to; a friend at lunch, and all her «ftemoon cups of tea. She might, howaver, take rjf u e in the convenient item of "sundries," which till an important place in moot female account-hooks. Heing übligtsd to' do without pocket-money, and ta empty the hitherto- fairly abundant half-crowns into the family purse, is the roal trial of a young man's life when he marries on the same income which he has hitherto spent on himself. He must remain very much in h>ve with wife and home- if he douS not sometimes regret the jinjflu of the sovereigns in his pocket which *»ro not mortgaged to house-rent or servants' wages, ft will be well if he always femembera that he ewmot both have his ealtu and eat it. This is the impossibility Mined at by many of our artUans. They oiunmiher themselvva with a wife and countless children, and then feel aggrieved if they cannot have as. mneh money to •pond on beer, tobacco, and music halls as tllttir single comrades. U is provoking to get behind the scenes in a household where the income is amply Wtfipient if it was only sensibly apportioned, but where everyone is made roißorabto by the constant screw that has to ba kept on incidental! expenses. Tne 'epv.int.*,, the garden, th« stable, swallow Tuere- is no margin left. title of the girls has a fin© v«ice, but it is I"Ji<Mltivated ; another draw* cleverly, but *» not learnt perspective. Lessous 'oiild cost too mucn, so Lucy must go on j'lginj through her teeth, and Maude "ling sketches out of drawing. Perhaps Wotuer ef the family become* hopelessly ~ horn want of proper medical advice, woks, pictures, travelling expenses, and IpAe ltctte etcetera* whic.» add flavor to "»,ara done witnottt. Ho one is able to mttubge any little harmless fancy or gene(tH,»impulse. The mothers life is spent Lit?"** to mafi: * ««**y po«nd do the JJ 1 * of Jer hosband's in grumAt * k T ,t fi«jpir"' lt 'y keeping a

balance at his banker's. It never seems tr> occur to them that, by substituting a nrst parlor-maid for the puffy butler, and by lieing contented with fruit and Rowers in their season, they inbhr. get rid of most of their anxiety :■-:'• I nwkv *--'-™- ►■hildren much bappi«. r - --d a year reserved for househos-i, i--> ...i-inoney can confer a wonderful amounted pleasure. It will buy a new piano, give three people a nice iittt** tour, or present a stained ylass window to the pans!* c *nrch, as their tasbrs may incline. It is « 1 "' work drawing cheilites for the wages of servants vrho are only plagues, and for the fowl which they spoil in the cooking. " Where much t=t, there are many to consume it, and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes i" ""the enthusiastic affection displayed towards pattern old bachelors and_ fair}'godmothers, of the approved type iajnaiidy, we fear, owing to the command of poc.sutmoney which they take tare* *o haw. But without it they could not till their places to their own or anvonc claw's satisfaction. Thu happiness.that they are aide to give kei-pa them yout«. and planning surp™« Riftft tiffs uo many a lornly how. What glorious visits* to the pantomime and circus, the Cryst.d Palace or fie seaside-, the youngsters extract from their magic purses! What Christmas-trees and r-.ek-im'diorses, kites and canary birds ■ It is thev whosupplvcriup bank notes instead of onntdu candlesticks for wedding presents. It is they who help in outfits and buy long-desired watches. They have no children to tempt them t<> live in a style which they cannot afford- They keep themselves unencumbered with useless and unsatisfactory expertises. Many a young couple beginning life have it in their"power to halve their anxieties and double their chance of b: ing comfortable by so preparing their budget that mere everyday so-called necessaries shall not swallow up the whole of their means. But they will have the additional servant or the diamond necklace, or the pair of horses, or the house in a fashionable street, which leaves them without tf.e much more valuable item of pocket-money.