Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-01-04
NO. 3.
#iseella lla,1soms.


We read these words in our weekly pa.
pers year after year; but alas they are
so common that we read them with little
or no emotion, and forget them by night. It
is not our trouble, our husband would
never do such thing. We have no fears
in our hearts; none but brute would do
such deed. He must have been drunk, We
think and we feel thankful that our husband
is not drunkard. Neither had this poor
woman any fears, when in his youth and
health she stood by this mans side and, be-
fore God. put her hand trustingly In his
while he vowed to love and cherish and
protect her while life should last. How
she trusted him; did she think then that in
the years to come he would forget his
vow; In sickness and in health she could
lean upon his love and strong arm, and
she feared no evil, nor asked no greater
bliss than TO be his wife. Suppose hs did
take a glass in q social way now and then,
he would never get drunk, be was too
proud to be seen drunk, and his love
would never grow 80 cold as to come
home to q loving wife drunk. She would
scorn to listen to any warning.
A few brief years pass and we read in
our morning paper these dreadful werds:
"A wife murdered by her husband" Is
it not strange that we can read it 20 quiet
ly? His wife, the woman he has sworn to
love, cherish and protect while life shall
last, the ceremony of whose union with
him is held by the church as holy and
solemn thing, the wife he was so fond
and so proud of! Yet while we wonder
why il is that it is always his wife that the
tipsy man flies at when he is angry. q so.
luton of the mystery dawns upon US.
The institution Of marriage is held sa-
cred by the laws of the world. The bad
and foolish would break it IL they could.
With drunkenness comes all other vices,
and to the drunkard it Is chain that gals,
it is in his heart to get rid Of the woman
who binds him to the regular rou-
tine Of life and home duties, for
whom the law compels him to provide,
in sickness and in health, for whom he haa
promised to forsake all others and cleave
only unto her, so long as they both shall
live. He hates her in consequence. Per-
haps she sees the downward road he is
taking, and strives to lead him back. She
cannot smile and be happy when he comes
home to her drunk. or when day after day
he drinks the liquid poison in her pres
encc, until his temper is excited 80 that
he loses his manhood and becomes q
brute; he is tired of her pleading and of
her tears, perhaps she has broken down
under the cruelty and neglect with which
he has treated her and become an invalid.
If so, he is tired of the care and expense of
her sickness. She has faded; he wants
fairer and younger face he cannot have
it while she is living. he cannot wait for
her to die natural death; and when
once rid of the little sense he has in his
safer moments, and forgetful Of the conse-
quence. he naturally revenges himself
upon her. Once he thought her the fair
est of all women the face now pale and
wan. was once round and rosy; once, the
lips now quivering with anguish, were
kissed because they were 80 temptingly
sweet; that hollow cough was once mer-
ry laugh that charmed his ear, but sorrow
has done its work, she has faded and he
is tired of being fond to her, and so in
or temper, or both, he muir
ders her. But every such man don't kill
their wives, there is many poor suffering
woman who wishes they did and done
with it. for there are blows of the heart rs
well as of the body, slow torture
which as surely kills in time. And the
poor heart can be figuratively black and
blue with pinches that the ewes of the
world cannot see. for it is done in secret.
Were her true story written on many =
as terrible as the record that follows
poor woman's murder. for through ne
glect. cruelty and drunkenness many a
wife has been murdered by her husband.
NJ. H.