The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-09
SOME WIFE BEATING HERE.
City Magistrate Meade Tells why tho Public
Does Not OFTEN Hear OF II.

Docs Not OFTEN Hear OF II.
Men and women Of all stations were interested
in. the trial OF Edward J. Radcliffe, the factor
recently convicted of wife, beating. This arose
in part from a belief that wife. beating is an i'm
ported novelty ard that 1t is practically I'M
known in this country outside Of the ranks of
the lowest and most degraded. This is only
half a truth. Wife-beating is far more COM
mon than the public supposes. and it isn't al.
ways the uneducatcd man who is guilty Of 1t.
Hundreds of wife-beatcrs never reach the courts,
simply because their victims dare not have
them arrested. At the same, time wife-beating
has never been popular in this part of the world.
Neither is cruelty to children or to criminals;
but the societies for the prevention of cruelty
to both are kept worry busy just the same.
Since the day the Maytiower arrived Ameri.
can mothers have been SO unselfsh, so loyal,
30 sclf.sacriGcing that it is bred in the bone of
American men TO love and respect and protect
them. That old saying that a good son makes
a good husband is a homely one, but it is a true
one, and since to be a good son is one of tho
chief characteristics of the American man it
naturally follows that to DO a good husband Is
another. The native-born American who beats
his wife is an exception; but this is a very big
country and there are a good many exceptions.
When asked how common wife-beating is and
how often wife. heaters reach the police court,
City Magistrate Meade said:
"If there was no liquor there would DO no
wife. heaters. Wife-beating Ii more common
than most people suppose, for wife-beaters are
up in the police courts nearly every day. All
one has to do to find that out is to sit through a
days session. Probably not half the men who
beat their wives are arrested. AS a rule the
wife. heater Is a man in tho flower stations
of life; he Is a daily wage Garner. His
wife and children are waiting at home for him
to bring his earnings SO that they can have
food. He comes in without a cent and with a
very large jag on. having spent every cent
for drink. The wife upbraids him. often in a
not very mild manner, and he gives her a sound
thrashing. Nine out of ten times she takes tho
beating quietly. for she knows that II she has
him brought to trial and he Is sentenced her
source of income will be entirely shut Off. She
decides that she would rather have bread for her
self and children, with an occasional beating
thrown in. than face starvation or try to get
work herself. Occasionally q woman with
only one child or two has self respect enough to
have her brute of q husband arrested and sent
up. and then she gets out and manages to earn
her own living. But it is hard. almost impos-
sible, for u woman with a house full of small
children to do this, and her husband knows it.
The man who wrote:
Awoman and q dog and a hickory tree.
The more you beat EN- the better they be.
must have been IA Magistrate in the City Courts.
At any rate. he had evidently had expsrience
with wife-beaters and beaten wives. When Il
woman does take out a warrant and nave her
husband arrested for beating her, she invari-
ably bcgs that the case shall be dismissed. She
tells the Judge what IA good man her husband is.
except when IN liquor, and how kind ho IL TO
her ana the children, and how much no does
for them. and how much ehe THINKS Of him. She
Is willing to give him another trial If The Judge
will only not send him up. Then she makes n
ploa concerning her poverty and her utter de-
pondence on him for support. Sometimes they
lea v the rpnrt room HANGING on In each nthnr's
arms cooling like doves; again the man sTnlks
out with the woman whom he has, 50 cruelty
misused and who has begged 30 hard in his be-
half, with a manner that plainly says she Is be-
meath his notice
heater. who comes before us. He Is not often "A
drinking man, but every time anything comes
In u bad huInor, he takes it GU: OH his wife and
hirikes her as soon as he gers, into the house
with ANYTHING that comes 10 his hand. SOME
times no strikes her with u chair. She. like the
wife .orsthe wife-beater who drinks, appears to
like her husband all the better af'er one Of these
seances, Tor she does not often h ave him brought
to justice, and If she does have him arrested
she beas him on, telling what a nice man he is
when his temper doesn't got the hest.of him.
you ask ME II | think that, wife beating is
SHinnoI s eusss tn nse Is a H good ep deal OF IL IT, done ie%,,
by men OF comparatively good breeding but II
wives OF such men are too proud to let the world
know that they are married 10 brutes who slai
them, knock them down, or kick, them, They
pEtltI W u al fA'hblpiitl l'hAlllt anu pAllt
In silence rather than endure the publicity Of II
trial where. the indictment is for wife.bcating.
Even thCsc'wOmcn seem to love their husbands
more and more after each beating. Occasion
ally one obtains Il summons for her husband TO
appear In court, That night her husband
takes her out To the theatre or to II dinner or
supper, and tho next morning he says, What
about that little paper calling mo TO appear in
court this morninGf ana Shc answers, oh, tear
that up or burn 1t. for ! am going 10 give you
another trial.
"Wifc.beating comes under tho head Of as
sault in tho third degree, aud assault in tho
third degree 10 punishable hy Imprisonment
for not more than one year or by a fine OF not
more than $500, or both, Imprisonment must
be In "a jail or pcnitentiary, not in a. state
prison. Radcliffe got only siN months, but he
would probably have come nearer HIS deserts
II he had been sentenced 10 six years. His sen
tence, however, will serve a valuable end, for
IL will discourage wife beating, | believe.
another reason why more cases OF wife
beating do not come before the police Is that
the city Judges usually sentence IA wife'beatcr
70 twenty days imprisonment, and the wives
have learned that thCy cannot beg their hus'
bands OF once this sentence Is imposed. Only
last Monday ! had a pretty, refined little wo'
man hero who told me that she wanted her
husband punished to the limit of tho law Tor