WIVES WHO MAKE THEIR HUSBAND'S FORTUNES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 55

WIVES WHO MAKE THEIR HUSBAND'S FORTUNES.

There is probably no more striking case of a wife making her husband's fortune than the history of the last 10 years of the business of- a Liverpoo l merchant and exportei. Ten year ago he owned the remnant of a fine business, inherited from hia uncle, which Was rapidly* crumbling in his hands. - He found, what many men in his position find, that it i? often a very much harder matter to revive a' flagging business than to work up a new enterprise ; hi fact, he found it more than he could manage. Shortly after his marriage to a lady of seven or eight and twenty his financial position was so serious that he begged his wife to lend him her private fortune — some £1700 — with which to tide over immediate difficulties. She consented on the one condition that with her money she should bu;* a partnership in the busincHS, and be allowed to act as aD active partner in all the affairs of the concern. Reluctant agreement was giver and the deed drawn ud.

During the following year the lady visited Scuth Africa and Australia as a commercial traveller for- her firm, and, such was iier talent for business, she secured orders for goods to the value of some thousands of pounds. The next year she devoted -to the West Indies and South America, returning with such a collection of orders that the business's credit was found not good enough to make the deal. But even this difficulty she overcame, and the busi* ness was concluded at a very handsome pioflt. She then engaged a number of smart business men to push the trade abroad where she had begun it, and practically took over the entire management of the business. Such was her success, that in five years she had more than trebled the trade of her firm, and new and more extensive premises had to be taken. This seemed to give the business a fillip, for it steadily and largely increased for five further years, and to-day it is a solid con« cern counting its annual profits in thousand! of pounds, and it is still, conquering foreign fields of commerce.

An eminent artist owes his success artistic and financial to his wife. • When he married he "was almost unknown. His talent was unquestionable, but talent alone cannot make a successful profession. He could not see beyond his canvas, as his wife used to say; so that she took over his pictures as soon as they were completed; in fact, she became a kind of agent to him. She never allowed him to fail to exhibit where his works would be well seen; she took care that his name became known, an<l known only in connection with art; she secretly " puffed " him by dragging him into a journalistic controversy upon an artistic subject upon which he was keenly interested and interesting ; and in this .way he gradually became a known man.

As financial matters improved she commerced giving entertainments, which blended economy with style and excellence. She. dressed well, albeit she made her owr costumes, and easily succeeded to " society,' where she pushed her husband by unostentatiously pushing herself. And in a thousand other ways she forced her husband's name, art, and talent upon the minds of those who had been ignorant and wer# desired to know.

The result of all this is that the obscure artist of comparatively a few years back is making a better income, without the slightest sacrifice of art, than not a few R.A.'sj^and it is likely he will be an A.R.A. Defore many vacancies have occurred. Yet no one could .say this lady had advertised her husband in a manner which could seem unprofessional. What she did she did with a tact and delicacy which offended no one; and her husband undoubtedly owes his. unquestionable, supcess infinitely more to her than to his own abilities.

For another striking instance of the kind, we may mention the case of a famous British actor, whose magnificent fortune is entirely the result of his wife's talents and energy. She was an actress, he a mere man-about-town, with small private means. He fell in love with her, and determined to join the, then, rather despised profession.

Under the tuition of his charming and talented wife he developed rare histrionic ability, an ability which was- the foundation of a career which has been a rapid succession of triumphs, and produced a fortune not one man in 5000 ever possesses. And the position that actor holds to-day in the theatrical profession is almost at the top of the tree, and wholly and solely due to his wife «