The day book. [volume], July 24, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 13

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
WHAT IS A HUSBAND WORTH? IDAH PARKER ,
REFUSED $1,000,000 FOR HERS
bush seems almost priceless. As for
those women who are already mar
ried well, I am afraid that to them a
husband's value is pretty much like
that of the Kansas man's baby. You
remember he said: "We've got a baby
up at our house that I wouldn't take
$10,000 for, but I wouldn't give 50
cents for another!"
A husband has other values be
sides those that can be expressed by
the dollar sign.
What is a husband worth men
tally? What is he worth emotionally?
What protectively? You see the '
most insignificant of husbands has a
certain scarecrow value' in that he
keeps so many other men away and
so saves a woman the trouble of turn
ing them down.
Every woman is entitled to life, lib
erty and the pursuit of a husband!
The constitution guarantees this
rjght. But, as in the case of many
other things the constitution guaran
tees, a whole lot of people don't seem
to know about this or to get any
profit out of it. I shan't undertake
to tell any woman how to get a hus
band. The thing we're discussing
now is what is he worth financially
after she HAS got him.
. BY NIXOLA GREELEY-SMITH
How much is a husband worth?
Idah Parker, formerly the fiancee
of Danforth Brooks Ferguson,
grandson of Herman O. Armour, has
just declared that she will not accept
$1,000,000 to give the young man up!
This happened in New York.
Simultaneously, in Chicago, Mrs.
Felicie Mahdah Modjeska, in an
nouncing that she will oppose a suit
for divorce filed in Portland, Oregon,
by her husband, a son of the famous
actress, asserted that all the money
in the world could not induce her to
consent to the legal severance of
HER marriage bonds,!
"He is my own husband, the lov
able father of our three children, and
I love him dearly, regardless of his
actions!" she explained dramatically.
As Mrs. Modjeska claims actually to
have refused her husband's offer of
$80,000 for his freedom, we must ac
cept her statement as truth and not
merely as third-act eloquence.
Before Madame Emma Eames
could become Madame Emilie de Gor
goza, a transfer of more than $100,
000 had to be made to the famous
prima donna's predecessor as Gor
goza's spouse.
On the other hand, Lillian Rus
sell, whose husbands have been as
transient as her charms are perma
nent, declared before she married
Alexander Moore that he-would have
to show her $1,000,000 or she would
not go to the altar with him!
Innumerable other instances of the
high cost of husbands might be cited.
But what is the use? We all know
that eligible men are becoming as
scarce as roses at the North Pole,
cigarets in Indiana or Republicans in
Texas! But the scarcer he becomes J
the more valuable he will be, of
course! One may pardon any girl of
the period who actually gets one
roped and tied for estimating him as
worth $1,000,000. A husband in the
To many women he is worth far
too much!
Every man has a certain economic
value, an earning capacity. Because
many women have not ALL WO
MEN SHOULD HAVE they exag ,
gerate the value and the difficulty of
earning a living. I would rather take
any man's job than almost any vife's .
job. In comparison with the unpaid
professions of homekeeping and child
rearing, any man's work, no matter
how arduous, is a cinch!
Nature gave man a sinecure in the
matter of parenthood. She made
maternity an immolation and pater
nity a pastime. To do man justice.
JtOW J. V .- ?!