724 ANNUAL REPORTv OP THE Off. Doc. 



THE WIFE— A PARTNER. 



By MRS. S. B. FKITZ. DKnrannnn. Pa. 



Partnership is defined as an agreement between persons to invest 

 their time, hibor and means together, sharing in the loss or profits 

 that may arise from such investment. Now this matter is sometimes 

 very much misconstrued in the partnerships formed for life between 

 husband and wife. While the husband is perfectly willing to have 

 his wife share in all the labor and losses, he is not always willing to 

 have her share in the profits, and the wife is not accorded her rights. 

 A lady told me not long ago that her husband said he would do as 

 he pleased with his money; it was his. Yet they began life together 

 Avith empty treasury, and she helped earn every dollar made. The 

 time has come when husband and wife should be full and ecpial 

 partners in every respect. Each should consult with the other in 

 any important particular of their business, especially in any large 

 outlay of capital, and the purse should be just as open to the wife 

 as to husband. Nothing is more humiliating to a wife than to ask 

 for every cent she needs, and give account of what she spends, while 

 the husband spends for what he pleases and would not dream of 

 giving any account. True, the husband is considered the wage- 

 earner. But is the wife's part not just as important? And is her 

 work not just as hard as her husband's? Every woman who con- 

 ducts her home in a practical manner, giving her own personal labor 

 and supervision to its details, earns in direct proportion to her hus- 

 band's income. 



A story is told of a husband and wife who had a quarrel, and he 

 told her she could go home to her father if she wished. She told 

 him she was willing to go if he would pay her for her past services. 

 She told him she would not charge him for her faded youth, but she 

 would like to be reimbursed for tEe 1,040 weeks of household service 

 during their married life of twenty years, valuing her services as 

 cook at four dollars per week, as housemaid and waitress, at three 

 dollars, as nurse and seamstress, each, three dollars and as over- 

 seeing housekeeper at five dollars per week, all of which offices 

 she had faithfully performed during that time. She felt entitled 

 to a business settlement of the whole amount of eighteen thousand 

 seven hundred and twenty dollars. Her husband thought it over and 

 with a practical business appreciation of her value told her she need 

 not go. Every man should talk over his business affairs with his 

 wife and she should know the exact condition of his business. Many 

 a man has come to grief by keeping his wife in ignorance of his 

 straitened circumstances, or of the fact that he was temporarily 

 pressed for capital. A good wife will help her husband much in his 

 business troubles or struggles to become established if she knows 

 just how he is situated, and what is required of her. Her earnings and 

 planning will often give the needed support, and her sympathy will 

 surely help him bear his trials. 



