en the conditions of his fidelity and devotion--and
she may well "down on her knees and thank God fasting for a good man's
love."

CHAPTER II.

THE FAMILY PURSE.

In the last chapter I touched, firmly, as became the importance of the
subject, upon the pocket question in its bearing upon the happiness of
home-life. The matter is too grave to be disposed of in half-a-dozen
paragraphs. It shall have a chapter of its very own.

There are certain subjects upon which each of us is afraid to speak
for fear of losing temper, and becoming vehement. This matter of "The
Family Purse" is one of the few topics in all the range of theory and
practice, concerning which I feel the necessity of putting on curb and
bridle when I have to deal with it, and conscience urges just dealing
with all parties.

I have set down elsewhere what I crave leave to repeat here and with
deliberate emphasis.

If I were asked, "What, to the best of your belief, is the most
prolific and general source of heart-burnings, contentions, harsh
judgment, and secret unhappiness among respectable married people who
keep up the show, even to themselves, of reciprocal affection?" my
answer would not halt for an instant.

"_The crying need of a mutual understanding with respect to the right
ownership of the family income_."

The example of the good old Friend, who, in giving his daughters in
marriage, stipulated that each should be paid weekly, without asking
for it, a certain share of her husband's income, is refreshing as
indicating what one husband had learned by his own experience. It goes
no further in the absence of proof that the sons-in-law kept the
pledge imposed upon them as suitors, or that in keeping it, they did
not cause their respective wives to wish themselves dead, and out of
the way of gibe and grudge, every time the prescribed tax was doled
out to them.

Nor do I admit the force of the implication made by a certain writer
upon this topic, that the crookedness in the matter of family finances
is "separation and hostility between the sexes, brought about by the
advancement and equality of women." Wives in all ages and in all
countries, have felt the painful injustice of virtual pauperism, and
struggled vainly for freedom.

The growth toward emancipation in the case of most of them amounts
merely to the liberty to groan in print and to cry aloud in women's
convocations. If the yoke is easier upon the wifely neck in 1896 than
it w