The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-24
TOPEKA FOUR HUNDRED
Not the Leaders of Fashion Of
Our City,
But the Four Hundred Desert
ed Wives Who Live Here.
Many OF Them With Small Children
and Some OF Them Continually
on the Verge Of Starvation

The statement has been made. and
INVESTIGATION SHOWS it to be true. that
there are 400 deserted wives living in
Topeka While this is true Of To-
peka. 1t is also true Of every other city
and town in a greater or less degree.
The men who married these women
lived with them a few years and after
firing OF them ran away. leaving them
to battle with life alone. frequently
with TWO or three helpless children to
take care of besides themselves.
Poor missioner HALE says
u am now helping at least twelve
or fifteen women with children whose
husbands have deserted them within
the last few months. When a woman S
husband leaves a lot Of children on her
hands it isn't long before she is on the
county
Police AIatron Thorpe in her charity
work hears these tales OF family woe
and discord as often as anybody, and
she says the mum Der is astonishing
Every day they come" she says.
and IN all stages Of poverty. Desert
ed wives whose husbands have quar-
relied with them, and occasionally one
who just went away without any
good cause that the wife can give
-OccaslOnalIy-y viii be surprised
to hear 1T run across a husband
whose wife has deserted him and left
him with lot of children on his hands
that he doesn't know how to take care
Of I have three now on my charity
list men with children whose wives
left them for other men; but nearly
always ii is the man who runs away
II don't mind telling you of a few Of
the cases I have IN mind just now All
of these i shall tell you Of are white.
II am helping a worthy white wC-
man who lives near the Santa Fe
shops She has five children and her
husband left her about I'VE years ago
for no reason she can tell me about.
and she has been supporting the family
as best she could ever since.
-On East First street a littIe white
woman IS supporting family OF seven
children Her husband c1dn { leave her
She drove him Off some time ago be-
cause he was drunken and lazy and
wouldn't work
Another woman with four children
lives near the shops Her husband
left her some time ago for no reason
she knows of that would warrant it,
They had a slight quarrel one day and
he left.
ION Lawrence street. near Fourth,
woman lives whose husband left her
with five small children some tine ago
He went he said. because she was a
poor h0usekeeper and lazy
ON Chandler street near Seventh
street woman and six children sup
port themselves and ask for charity
Her husband left her more than two
years ago because she was too relig-
ious and ne wasn't (Which is EVIDENT.
There is also another woman near
the shops who takes in washing To sup
port two children Her husband was
drunken and they quarreled and he
left
"A woman and her one child live
alone on Sixth street in ParkdaIe- She
and her husband quarreled contiuu-
ally, and over two years ago ne left
her with her permission
About a year and q half ago a Wo-
man who now lives on Hancock street
vas deserted by her husband and left
WI a. hi 3
away and didn't come back She had
no warning and knows no cause She
has since been divorced
Another Parkdale case is that of a
woman whose husband left her with
seven children a few months ago He
was drunken and they seemed unable
to get along.
"On west Tenth street lives Wo-
man with two children
~Oue of the saddest cases 7 know is
that Of nice little woman in North
Topeka She and her husband were in
very straitened clrcuLust anceS eighteen
months ago and she sold her sewing
machine to furnish him with money to
get to Colorado. hoping he could set
work there in the mines He went
and that is the last she has heard Of
him They have two children
"On south Kansas avenue is wo-
man and one child living alone Her
husband left her seven years ago He
was generally worthless and they quar-
relied
a woman and two children are liv-
ing on West Thirteenth street WhO were
deserted seven years ago. He liked
whisky and gambling better than he
did home
I'VE have in the city Jail now wo-
man whose husband deserted her. They
ta5 two children brt he said she was
800 ro-ro'1f for him
"Thehra is another case on East First
street of woman no had too many
r--5sr,.7s a-7 whose husband left her
So l7ss Two small children
-r+,a4a = y s7f ease on Lake street in
,,-t,+-b . 7--r7rlg wire with a baby has
hs4 - - a divorce He wouldn't sup
49, her
.-Sr sa47th Van Buren, street lives q
GIRL roF Vet 1q who has been married
ar5 deserted already. She was mar
rjai v-rsn she vas 1s wears Old and