The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-12-09
WHISKY AND WIVES.
HOW THE AVERAGE ENGLISH LABOREI.
TREATS THE WIFE OF HIS BOSOM.

Justin Mccarthy writes from London to
the New Iorl, Nal.
don't know anything more lamentable
and shocking than the steady increase of a
certain class of deeds of violence in Eng
land. l mean the brutal tire atment of
wives, and, indeed of women generally
OF course, these offences are confined to a
very low class, but they are rampant there.
Take up any paper any day, and you can
sup full of horror on such stories. The
The London rough comes home drunk, and
the mere sight of his wife is enough to
madden him. He beats her on the head,
kicks her in the stomach, knocks her down
and jumps upon her. A series of kicks in
the abdomen is familiar a rebuke to one
of these wretched women rs box on the
ear to a naughty child. A brute in the
north of England, the other day, set
fierce bulldog at his wife, and kept the
sport going until the animal had torn
Jumps of flesh out of the woman's arms
and shoulders; then the husband finished
up by beating her on the head and breasts.
He got six months imprisonment! The
woman's life was at one time despaired of,
but she did not die, and so he escaped any
serious punishment. A man in London
quar- relied with his wife because she com
planned of his going to the public house.
Ee beat her to death with a bludgeon. A
I ,f
of a public house; his wife met him.
Without waiting for her possible reproach,
he knocked her down and stamped upon
her legs and stomach. Another fellow
came home drunk to the bedside Of his
dying wife. He struck her on the face. |
am not inventng or exaggerating-al this
appeared in the papers Last week-and
when the poor womon's father and sister
demonstrated he knocked the father down,
seized the sister in his brawny arms, ran
to the window, opened it, and hoisted the
shrieking young woman on to the sill OF it,
resolved to fling her into the street, twenty
feet below. The woman, wild with agony
and terror, chung to the framework of the
window with frantic clutch. While the
wretch was deliberately endeavoring to
unclasp her fingers the Ieighbors rushed
in and saved her Of course he will get no
adequate punishment.
The British rough has got it thoroughly
into his head that his wife is his property
to beat and kick as he pleases and, unless
he actually and deliberately killed the
woman, having formally announced his
intention beforehand, he never suffers
more than a few weeks imprisonment
The beast would he more severely punished
if he were to break pane of glass in
shop window. The papers positively over
flow with these crimes just now. 1t is al
most superhuous to single out any partic-
ular case as an illustration, for they are all
Just the same.
In no country of the civilized world,
save England alone, do such things occur
to the same extent, and the fact is hide
GUS disgrace to our laws and society. We
need for these cases either special and
exceptional punishment or lynch law
Either the law must deal with man who
does his best to murder his wife, as with a
murderer, or society outraged by these
crimes must become a law unto ITSELF
This very day-since I began to write this
paragraph read in the police reports an
account of the doings of 4 ruffian whose
brutality almost sickcns one to think Of
This mamie is young, only twenty two
comes home to his young wife, who is de-
scribed rs very clean, neat, and attrac-
tive in appearance, and who is ''f far adj
vanced in pregnancy" and he begins by
beating her, and blackening one of her
eyes. An hour after he begins again; he
beats her anew, and blackens the other
eye. Later, on this sane happy evening,
she goes to bed, whereupon he pulls her
out of bed by the hair, and kicks her until
she lies insensible, and her mother finds
her stretched out apparently lifeless.-
what punish ment is awarded to the hus-
band? Three months imprisonment
Again, l say, the only remedy for this sort
of thing, while we wait for the working
Of our new system of national education,
is exceptional legislation, Drudge Lynch.
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