The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1878-05-16
Wife, Beating A Peculiar Character
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Frances Power Cobs in the Contemporary Review.
! Wife-beating exists in the upper ant
middle classes rather more, I fear, thar
is generally recognized; but rarely ex
tends to anything beyond an cccasiona
blow or two of a not dangerous kind
In his apparently most ungovernable
rage, the gentleman or tradesman some
how manages to bear in mind the dis.
grace he will incur if his outbreak be
betrayed byhis wife's black eye or brok,
en- arm, and he regulates his cuffs and
kicks accordingly. The dangerous
wife-beater belongs almost exclusively
to the artisan and laboring classes.
Golfers, "puddlers, " and weavers have
earned for themsel, es in this matter a
bad reputation, and among long list
of cases before me, Ireckon shoemakers,
stone-masons, butchers, smiths, tailors, a
printer, clerk, bird catcher, and a
large number of laborers. In the worst
districts Of London Gas L have been in
formed by one Of the most experienced
magistrates, four-ffths of the wife-beat-
ing cases are among the lowest class of
Irish laborers-a fact worthy of more
than passing notice, had we time to be.
stow upon it, seeing that in their own
country lrishmen of all classes are pro-
verbally kind and even chivalrous to.
ward women. There are also various
degrees of wife-beating in the different
localities. In London it seldom goes
beyond a severe "thrashing" with the
tista sufficiently dreadful punishment,
it is true, when inflicted by strong
man on woman, but mild in compari-
son with the kickings and trampling
"purrings" with hob-nailed shoes and
clogs what We can scarcely, in this con-
nection, call the clark and true and
tender North" As Mr.. Serjeant Pull
ing remarks: Nowhere is the ill-usage
of woman so systematic as in
Liverpool, and so little hinder
ed by the strong arm of the
law, making the lot of a married wom-
and whose locality is the kicking dis
trict' of Liverpool, simply duartion of
and subsection to injury and
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