MARRIAGE AS A TRADE
Table of Contents
Marriage as a Trade
BY
CICELY HAMILTON
AUTHOR OF “DIANA OF DOBSON’S”
NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
1909
Copyright, 1909, byMOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
New York
All Rights Reserved
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J., U. S. A.
v
PREFACE
The only excuse for this book is the lack ofbooks on the subject with which it deals—thetrade aspect of marriage. That is to say, wifehoodand motherhood considered as a means oflivelihood for women.
I shall not deny for an instant that there areaspects of matrimony other than the tradeaspect; but upon these there is no lack of a veryplentiful literature—the love of man and womanhas been written about since humanity acquiredthe art of writing.
The love of man and woman is, no doubt, athing of infinite importance; but also of infiniteimportance is the manner in which woman earnsher bread and the economic conditions underwhich she enters the family and propagates therace. Thus an inquiry into the circumstancesunder which the wife and mother plies her tradeseems to me quite as necessary and justifiableas an inquiry into the conditions of other andviless important industries—such as mining orcotton-spinning. It will not be disputed thatthe manner in which a human being earns hislivelihood tends to mould and influence hischaracter—to warp or to improve it. The manwho works amidst brutalizing surroundings isapt to become brutal; the man from whom intelligenceis demanded is apt to exercise it.Particular trades tend to develop particulartypes; the boy who becomes a soldier will notturn out in all respects the man he would havebeen had he decided to enter a stockbroker’soffice. In the same way the trade of marriaget