Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-04-26
Mife Healing In ENGLAND.
From Edward Kings London Letter to Boston
Jourual1

JOurnall
Coming home the other day to my rooms |
saw crowd in the neghborhood of Portland
place, and heard the shrill voice of n woman
As | approached the centre of attraction, the
owner of the voice moved away, protesting
that she would not accompany n low-lived,
vulgar man, clad in cotton velvet clothes, who
was smoking clay pipe, and whose language
was by no means choice. The woman was
slender, evidently respectable. and quite so
Der, although her excited condition led the
crowd to imagine that she had been drinking.
The low-lived man WIS her husband, and he
was threatening her that if she did not come
home he would do for her" ! need hardly
explain that this phrase meant that he would
kill her. She chung to the iron area railing
near Portland place and with the utmost
earnestness refused to go with him. You've
beat me before she said, and you'll beat
me again | WON'T WON'T won't 20 with
you This painful scene continued for a
long time. No one interfered, and after the
crowd had separated, the brutal husband still
stood on the corner threatening the wretched
wife. Many people laughed at the woman's
predicament and appeared to consider it II
good Joke. When | entered the house found
the Contemporary Review for this month ON
the reading table and opened it listlessly.
Ny eye fell on an article by Frances Power
CObbe, entitled wife Torture in England 3"
In this brilliant treatise the noble woman calls
on all Englishmen of chivalrous instincts to
protect women against the brutality to which
they are constantly exposed in certain classes
of society. The writer, who may be cOnsid-
cred an authority on the subject, says: Wife
beating exists in the upper and middle elias.
SEES rather more. fear, than is generally rec
| ognized. But it rarely extends to anything
| beyond an occasional blow or two of n not
| lapuarnt,s hind In his nv "
governable rage, the gentleman or tradesman
somehow manages to bear in mind the dis
| grace he will incur if his outbreak be betray
| ed by his wife's black eye or broken arm, and
he regulates his kicks and cuffs accordingly "
| The worst classes of fe-beaters, according
| to Miss Cobbe, are golfers, puddlers, weav-
| ers, shoemakers stone -masons, butchers,
smiths, tailors and ordinary laborers. Hav-
ing made these statements, the writer gives
"A few statistics She says that in London in
one year there were three hundred and fifty
one brutal assaults ON women OF course
there were thousands of bestings which were
not considered OF sufficient consequence to be
| brought before the police courts. In Ian
cashire, one hundred and ninety -four assaults
| ON wives were punished. In Stafford there
were one hundred and thirteen cases In the
| West Riding there were one hundred and
| fifty-twO and in Durham two hundred and
| sixty-seven. Curious must it be to n foreign
er to learn that in England there are kick
ing districts" so called; that is, districts in
which husbands are often punished for brus-
ing their wives almost to death with their
hob nailed shoes. In the Black Country the
| brutality is most conspicuous Under the in
| fuence of poverty and rude toll the men seem
to degenerate into animals. They treat their
wives Ms slaves. MSS Cobbe finds that the
women are much to blame While she was
collecting her information Il gentleman wrote
to her from Lancashire: The women OF
Lancashire are awfully fond of bad husbands.
1t has become quite a truism that our women
are like dogs The more you beat them the
more they love you"
need hardly say that Miss Cobbc gives a
heart-rending list of the atrocities committed
by husbands in the laboring classes on theiI
unhappy wives. Ii the woman whom | saw
clinging TO the ratings near Portland place
had ever been treated like some of the poor
women mentioned by Miss Cobbe l should
expect her to die rather than to get into hel
husbands clutches again. Miss CObbe sug
gests, partial remedy for this horrible
condition of affairs, u bill ''aiTording to thes,
poor women, by means easily within theil
reach, the same redress which women of tn,
richer classes obtain through the divorce court
They should be enabled to obtain from tn,
court which sentences their husbands pro
lection order which should in their case hav,
the same value as a judicial separation. II
addition to this, the custody of the children
should be given to the wife and an orde
should be made for the husband to pay to tn
wife such weekly sum for her own and he
children's maintenance as the court may SCI
fit" England is just now too much occupied
with other things TO attend to this, but surel,
great and chiyalrous nation cannot foreve
| pOStpone the consideration of so scaudalous
topic.