The Rural Voice, 1988-07, Page 58their meals are supplemented
with beer, which is looked
upon as just as much of an
article of diet as bread.°
WOMAN'S NOTES
from The Farmers Advocate,
August, 1889
In an American paper,
Nancy Jones asserts that "a
wife should be submissive, or
else get left" on the money
question. I believe that nine -
tenths of the factors that go to
make "marriage a failure" is
the unsettled state of domestic
finances. In the good old
days, our grandmothers went
with an unquestioning depen-
dence to her husband's home.
This couplet explains the
situation:
"Bound to their fathers until
they're made wives
Then slaves to their husbands
the rest of their lives."
•
4
ALMA LADIES' COLLEGE
1E3t. Thomas;., Ont.
1111 r, un,urlrl,•cd adl antuge 111
LITERARY WORK,
MUSIC, FINE ARTS AND
COMMERCIAL SCIENCE,
!tate, from $311 to 84il a term for board, room light.
laundry, etc., and tuition. The 1.411110 With )i[usie
unit Drawing for nue year for $PUU in advance.
Attendance last your 1w1. Re.opene Sept. 9th.
For lila-page announcement address
24•6-1, PRINCIPAL AUSTIN. S.D.
She did not presume to be able to
earn her bread either outside of the
family or as a member. Her husband
expected to support her, i.e., feed and
clothe her, and if the bride brought
money or lands, it was immediately
seized by him and confiscated. In
return the bride performed faithfully
the duties of wife, mother, house-
keeper, etc., and was, apparently,
humbly grateful for the privilege of
being "supported.”
But times have changed, and the
laws and customs regulating marriage,
although advancing, are still far in the
rear. The young woman of the present
has learned her commercial value.
She teaches, she keeps store, she has
entered and done successful battle in
many fields of employment. The girl
earns her own living as early and as
successfully as her brother earns his;
therefore, when she steps from the
school -room into a wedded home, her
ideas of pecuniary independence re-
volt at the notion, still rampant in the
slower brains of man, that the wife is
a sort of parasitic growth "supported"
by him.
Does she sit idly and fold her
From The Farmer's Advocate, August 1886
hands? Ask any young housekeeper
which is the easier, her old occupation
as bread -winner, or the new as bread -
maker? House -keeping and its atten-
dant drudgery do not often prove more
attractive than do the usual outside
employments of women. And is it
more lucrative? To the "head" of the
family, no doubt, it is a money -saving
institution, for the wages of a house-
keeper would soon make a hole in his
pocket. To the wife? Well, no.
Money could not repay the services
of a careful, loving wife and mother.
And shame upon that man whose wife
must assume an attitude of submission
when soliciting the pecuniary aid that
is her just due! The woman holds her
services cheap who will "tease" or •
cajole her husband for money which is
hers, and should be freely shared. As
for earning one's own pin money by
extra work outside, I think the practice
reprehensible, and wholly inexcusable
on any grounds except inability of the
husband to provide; for, really, should
she do her work and his, too?
The doors of divorce stand now all
too widely ajar; but better to live alone
than under such humiliating
conditions.°
� Hagedorn �
LIVESTOCK
HANDLING
EQUIPMENT
Check the quality
and value
at Hagedorn's
where equipment
is made with care
and pride
0 Bale thrower racks
Flat racks
Zero grazers
Cattle feeders
Headgates
Cattle squeeze
Electronic scales
Gates
Loading Chutes
N.E. HAGEDORN
& SONS LIMITED
Paisley, Ont.
519-353-5642
0364.600-0
JULY 1988 57