The Arizona champion., 1890-12-20
ODD BOOKKEEPING.
How AIimony is Paid to De-
 serted Wives.
MATRIMONIAL TROUBLES IN NEW YORK
The Police Sargeant's Peculiar and
 Arduous Work.

To be a sergeant in police court in wolves peculiar and somewhat burden some duty that of acting ss banker for the receipt and disbursement of the weekly stpends paid by husbands to de serted wives A sergeant is fortunate if be has not above thirty such bookkeeping accounts on his list. and in busy court the number may run up to l5O or lIo The obligation of the husband to support his wife assumes a not romantic aspect m e police court. The obligation is not to the woman as her desert for services ren
 dered or for affections sake, but to the city, that it may not have pauper on Its hands This attitude of self defense ot the community as against the husband colors the proceedings which woman must 20 through before she can compel her husband to provide for her The hrst step involved is a visit to the commission CTS of charities and correction and an aP plication for a requisition from them on the police justice in her district requiring him to issue an abandonment warrant for the arrest of the delinquent husband
 The law being framed directly to pre- vent the increase of paupers and not to punish the man, the wife is called upon 
 she will be charge on the public unless her husband supports her. That is all she has to do with the matter as a prin cipal In the police court it is the city against the husband. with the wife merely as witness. She is called upon to testify a second time that she is in the position of pauper and that the city will have to support her if her husband does not. TTnIor oiv tho awarded the woman is seldom large, the object being simply to keep her out of the poor house. The weekly sum which the husband is put under bonds to pay her varies according to his wages. but more closely according to the ages of her chil dren, whether they can work and help support her or whether she can get work and support herself Four dollars a week or $6 is as high as 1t often gets. and sometimes 1t is not above $2.50 or s Women who brace themselves for weeks to submit to the mortIying ordeal of swearing out such warrants against their husbands are sometimes surprised to learn the exact basis of the law
 If man has beaten a woman and made her life an almost insupportable burden to her, but asserts that he has not aban doned her, that he will go home with her and live with her, then that woman is not in danger of becoming pauper, and the police justice, though he may feel the ut most compassion for her, can only tell her to go home with him. and have him up for assault if be beats her The woman often will not venture to appeal to the court again, for an assault complaint, she hay ing learned that any other is useless, will mean her husbands imprisonment and stoppage of the family income. The man very naturally comes to the conclusion that whatever be does his wife will have to put up with it, and acts for the future very much as he pleases Aman who has 8 decent income has bis wife even more in his power She imagines she can secure his punishment for deserting her for prettier face than her own. She tries She opens her eyes when she finds the abandonment warrants open the door 10 so many dollars week only. If be can support two women that is his business not the courts. He gives bonds to secure her bread, with not too much butter and goes back to his newer flame It is couples of this sort largely for whom the police sergeant is banker, They don't ! care to meet personally, and the court | official collects, pays and takes the re ceipts. It is getting to be qvite busi OeSs in lie uav