The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-06-05
Our BrOadbri1n Letters.
Hot Weather Asylum for Female Drunk
ardg-Another Family Scandal New
Yorks Paupers-A FemaleCo Cowley, etc.
NEW YORK, May %, I8S

Yorks Paupers-A femaleCoWley, etc.
NEW YORK, May %, 1880.
Ninety-five in the shade. and no
shade to speak Of; all sun-hot, swell
tering, roasting, boiling, sizzling. It's
hard for a fellow to be good, no mat
ter how carefully his early education
may have been supervised. In weather
like this, bad language rises to the
surface like cream upon milk, though
l regret to say that, like cream, it
is not the better part; but then, every
thing evil in us is connected, remote
ly or intimately, with a hot place ;
hence, can we'll understand how a
very pious man might be induced to
use very decided language in exceed
ingly hot weather, even to the quali-
fication Of big D. On the ferry
boats, in the street cars, all along the
line of the elevated roads, men, wo-
men and babies were dripping, drip
ping, dripping, as if they had been
dipped in the river, and hadn't been
wrung out. Fat men looked as if
they mad been training for prize
fight, and had brought their avordu-
poise down to fighting weight, and fat
women looked, we'll | don't care to
tell what they looked like, for can't
be complimentary, and | don't want
to be severe. A round half dozen
sensible people have endeavored to
get rid of the heat by jumping off Of
ferry boats. What more delightful
mode of suicide could be conceived in
such time, than sudden plunge
out of this torrid, horrid heat, into
the sparkling waves. Of course, there
isn't much sparkle to the waves of
our East river, but that makes no diff
ference, the idea is very pretty. 1t is
true there may be something on the
other side, but Bob Ingersoll, who
preached to an immense house last
Sunday night, assured US that the
coast is all clear there. s-.. -M
was somewhat startled on Monday
last by an invitation to found an asy-
lum for Incorporate women. Now, [
know no special reason why women
should not have the privilege of get
ting drunk as well as their husbands
and yet, when it came to putting up
IL separate establishment for them, l
confess it startled me. Drunkenness
in females is an imported vice, and
hence the novelty of the proposition.
Fifty years ago an intoxicated Ameri-
can woman was Il thing almost ul-
known in the limits of the United
States, aud when IL rare case did oc-
cur, it was invariably among the dregs
Of the population, and it must be re-
membeved that in those days bottle
Of good liquor could be found on
| every side board, ana the farmer, the
mechanic and the merchant laid by
their six or eight basrels of cider in
the fall, as regularly as they laid by
their pork and potatoes. Drunken
men were plenty, but drunken women
were rarer than white black birds.
Still, at the meeting the necessity of
such an institution was made so OBJ
vious that there is no doubt but it
will be erected at once. While the
matter was under consideration, a
case in point came before the Courts.
A Mrs. Elizabeth Williams sues her
husband, the Rev. John Williams for
divorce. MIR. Williams is Methodist
minister, and also prominent writer.
! am not deeply yersed in the ways
of ministers, but it is morally certain
that either Mr.. Williams or his wife
did some of the tallest lying on record.
In her complaint Mrs. Williams swo:e
that her husband had brntally beaten
her, and not only that, but lie starved
her, encouraging her own daughters
to abuse and insult her, and or one
occasion, in mid winter, on a freezing
night in the month of February, he
drove her to a room, where she slept
on bare floor, and was guilty of other
acts of cruelty too numerous to men,
tion. Then comes Mr.. Williams to
the stand, who swears point blank
that he never lotched her a lick y
but, on the contrary, that he was a
mild and atfectionatc husband. Now,
| should like to believe them both,
but | can't. | dislike to distrust the
word of Methodist minister, and |
hate to suspect his wife of misrepre-
sentation, but it is impossible that
both have told the truth. Mr.. VIII
liams alleges that Mrs. w. gets tight
as bricks, aud that she is never happy
without her toLdy. Mr.. w. himself
is a cold-water man, and he doesn't
go cent on "rock ami rye," not even
for galloping consumption. So, as
Mrs. w. would insist on having IA reg
ular go, be joyful" every morning