MATRIMONY AND BUSINESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7945, 22 January 1906, Page 5

MATRIMONY AND BUSINESS.

+ One of the developments of domestic life- in> the United' States is the married* womam who goej to business every day. The experience of a woman l wlio> does- this, told in a New York> paper, may perhaps be takeniae a'typical case. She and the man- she 1 fell l in love with> worked together in' the' same office;: she got I'OO'dollars n month, and he got 12& dqllaw.. The extra 25 dollars, she explains, "was the obromo they gave him for being a man." Married life on ordinary lines meant that she and her husband would lose nearly half their united income of 225 dollars, and that to live comfortably and save something every year, she would have to work hard at domestic duties. She had no objection to working, bat she did not see why, if she had to work, she should not keep on doing her office work, to which she was accustomed, and which was easy to har. Besides, bhe was afraid of getting out of the way of earning money. She knew that her husband might, at any time, lose his position through no fault of his own, but if they were both drawing salaries there was a reasonable certainty that money would always be coming in. So she made up her mind to keep her office work. Her future husband hardly liked the idea, but when she put it. to him that It would not reflect o.n him any more to have his wife post up books then wash dishes, he gave in. With the help of an able housekeeper at tive dollars a week, the plan has worKed admirably. "Each pays half the expense of the establishment," ahe says, "which amounts to eighty dollars a month, and a substantial amount is saved. Our personal expenses each nays for himself, out of his private pocket-book. My husband pays the bills when be invites me to go out with him as be would for any woman, but be has never bought me an article of clothing nor given me a cent, since we were married." The woman had a friend who was placed in a similar position to herself, but did not adopt this way out of the difficulty. This friend became engaged, but she had a mother and invalid sister to support, and the man's earnings were not sufficient to suDport four people. "My friend' would have been glad to marry him and continue uer teaching, but he would not consent. He was ashamed to acknowledge to the world that his wife had to work for money. They were engaged a long time, six or seven years, finally drifted apart, and the marriage never took pla'je. I think there was more vanity than either love or common sense in that."