The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-04
AND WHOSE FAULT ISIT
One Says Women 'sNag'' Their
Husbands Till They Run Off.
Another That Meanness of Men
and Drink Habit
Are Responsible for Most of the De-
sertions of Wives-A Letter From
Another Man in Distress.


2. d. McKeever. a young man and
lately elected to the legislature from
the main Topeka district has been
thinking some along the subject Of the
400 deserted wives Topeka has. Today
he said to a Journal reporter concern
ing it:
My idea is that a great deal of the
trouble is caused by people who ge-
married and don't know what is going
to happen to them and when the GA
nour of the honeymoon wears or ana
adversely comes and they get better &C
quainted with each other they become
dissatisfied and the man 'slzips out
About the first reason of an eStrange-
ment is that the man gets out Of a JOB
and gets broke The woman reproach-
es him with his absence of forethOughU
in providing for the future as IN the
past. She finds fault and he decides
finally that ne doesn't care to live with
her Just to support her and hear her
growl. He gets the blues and she be
comes a ma gger and a fault finder The
quarrel continues and finally IN desper-
alton he leaves her
In the matter of divorces 7 have no
ticed that nine out of ten of the divorce
cases are filed by the woman in the
case. "a man doesn't care whether he
has a divorce or not SO he has his way
and his freedom.
But the man isn't always to blame
divorce case yet in which goodness was
all on one side. You viii always find
that both are to blame and the trouble
generally starts out with seldshness.
Neither has anytOlerance for the others
likes or dislike.
For my part believe that deser-
lions are largely the result of marriages
that ought never have been cOnsumma-
ted in the first place
THE great trouble is that too many
men have absolutely no aims in life
and if man is aiming to get no place
in particular he generally gets there
Il don't think any legislation viii
ever be devised to reach the condition
because there are too many men of too
many minds. Legislation won't do it
because YOU can't tell by looking at a
man before he is married how far he
viii be able to jump after he is mar
ried- He may be worthless before and
brace up, or he may be well to do be-
fore and go to pieces afterwards. Leg
islation can't help"
one Of the leading workers in the Or
phans Home is Mrs Howell Jones. and
for several years she has had excellent
opportunity to judge Of the deserted
wife question, and she has done so. She
believes that the desertion on the part
of the husband. if it comes through pow
erty, is the fault of the husband
If you want it summed up in the
least possible language said Mrs.
Jones, lit is just pure meanness and the
drink habit I made out the home sta
UsticS last year for Rev Mr.. Savage of
the east, who collects such date with
legislation in prospect, and I found that
of 10 Of the children the home had han
died during the year before had drunk
en- fathers which is just as bad or
worse than no father at all
II found, too, that "A of the children
had been abandoned by the father
alone, six by the mother alone and ten
by both father and mother.
What we need is a law to compel the
20
have a law now that barely touches on
the subject through the wife, but we
might as well have no law at all a s the
way things are managed now When
the man is arrested he is thrown into
jail and sometimes it is weeks or
months before he gets trial. and what
is to become of the children during that
timer
OF course in many instances it is sick
ness and poverty that puts a man in the
mind of running off, but in the case of
the woman deserving. it is simply that
she goes Off with some one she prefers
to her husband.
The only thing to be done in the case
of men deserving their wives and Ieav-
ing their children to starve. is to make
an example, good, glazing example of
a few of them.
we have now in hand the case of a
man who is a Mason He is a Young
man and able TO work, but he has simp-
ly gone away and left his wife and her
three children. Last spring he had
about six weeks Of sickness His wife
nursed him through all of it,
day and night, poverty stricken as they
were. She had q young child then As
soon as he got able to earn little mon
ey for himself. he suddenly disappeared
The eldest child is 6 years old, and that
woman is compelled TO put at least two
of those children in the Home
IF it is possible, we are going to find
that man and bring him back and make
am example q him. The woman is
really in too i'll health to work
Speaking Of desertions Of children I
want to say right here for the colored
people, that among the hundreds of
applications for admission of white
children to the Home. we have had but
three colored children Colored mothers
do not desert their children as white
mothers do The colored father deserts.
but the mother will always hold the
family together.
We hear a good deal about the chiId's
duty to it's parents. Let's hear more
about the parents duty to the child,
and the other condition viii be the out
growth
II don't believe it makes the slightest
difference about late or early mar
riaEes