I have been married now for five years. To-day is the anniversary of my
marriage. When I was single I was a teacher and supported myself in
comfort. I had more pocket-money and dressed fully as well if not better
than I do now. Why should girls who are abundantly able to earn their own
livelihood struggle to become the slave of a husband and children, and tie
themselves to a man when they might be free and happy?
I think too much is said by the men in a light and flippant manner about
the anxiety of young ladies to secure a home and a husband, and still they
do deserve a part of it, as I feel that I do now for assuming a great
burden when I was comparatively independent and comfortable.
Now, will you suggest any advice that you think would benefit the yet
unmarried and self-supporting girls who are liable to make the same
mistake that I did, and thus warn them in a manner that would be so much
more universal in its range, and reach so many more people than I could if
I should raise my voice? Do this and you will be gratefully remembered by
Ethel.”
It would indeed be a tough, tough man who could ignore thy gentle plea,
Ethel; tougher far than the pale, intellectual hired man who now addresses
you in this private and underhanded manner, unknown to your husband.
Please destroy this letter, Ethel, as soon as you see it in print, so that
it will not fall into the hands of Mr. Ethel, for if it should, I am gone.
If your husband were to run across this letter in the public press I could
never look him in the eye again.
You say that you had more pocket-money before you were married than you
have since, Ethel, and you regret your rash step. I am sorry to hear it.
You also say that you wore better clothes when you were single than you do
now. You are also pained over that. It seems that marriage with you has
not paid any cash dividends. So that if you married Mr. Ethel as a
financial venture, it was a mistake. You do not state how it has affected
your husband. Perhaps he had more pocket-money and better clothes before
he married than he has since. Sometimes two people do well in business by
themselves, but when they go into partnership they bust higher than a
kite, if you will allow me the free, English translation of a Roman
expression which you might not fully understand if I should give it to you
in the original Roman.
Lots of self-supporting young ladies have married and had to go very light
on pin-money after that, and still they did not squeal, as you, dear
Ethel. They did not marry for revenue only. They married for protection.
(This is a little political bon mot which I thought of myself. Some of my
best jokes this spring are jokes that I thought of myself.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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