The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-18
FOOD AND DIVORCE.

figures as often as any other among the
causes for matrimonial infelicity, but it is
commonly the husband who poses as the
sufferer. From time out of mind women
have been blamed for their shortcomings in
the culinary department, and responsibility
for many evils is laid at their door in con-
sequence. Sometimes the complaint is the
wife won't cook, and if the unfortunate
man of the house gets anything to eat un-
der his own roof he has to prepare it him.
self; sometimes she doesn't know how to
cook and insists on boarding; sometimes
she doesn't know how and never can learn,
but keeps on cooking to the bitter end.
Slum workers and social scientists do not
hesitate to charge the inefficient wife with
driving her husband to drink and even to
crime by her failure to set before him
toothsome and healthful fare, or to lay
upon the woman cooks shoulders the aw-
full responsibility for the national ailment,
dyspepsia. Man gets a good deal of SYM
pathy for his woes in this direction, and
when he puts them forward as a justifica-
ton for his own sins courts and juries are
extremely likely to be tolerant toward him.
But there is another side to the case. 1t
seems; the wife may be victim to the un-
fortunate human necessity Of having some
thing palatable to eat and the husband the
obstacle in the way. Right here in Indian
apolis, temporarily in the workhouse, is a
man whose wife surreptitiously extracted
81 from his pocket for the purpose of buy
tv,er xuhn he q
to make a payment on furniture. Her ar
gument was that she had to have some
thing to eat even IL the furniture wasn't
paid for, and for taking this not unreason-
able stand he gave her beating, hence his
workhouse interlude. 1t may seem to some
that the husband is really the sufferer in
this case. since he lost his 81 and his liberty
and the wife got a square meal, even
though the beating did follow; but the
Journal maintains that the wife who has
to "sneak" money from her husbands
pocket to buy DEMONSTRATING groceries is
really the aggrieved person, no matter
what good purpose the money had been in
tended for.
There are other instances, however. Of
even a more aggravated Sort showing
that the husband may be the offender in
the culinary department Of the house. These
illustrations are also of an Indiana brand.
An Anderson woman who has filed suit
for divorce complains that her husband
would bring home the materials for
good meal, compel her to cook them, and
would then eat the food himself, while
she and five children sat hungrily by,
watching him and waiting for any scraps
that he might leave. Sometimes he would
graciously deign to bring home cents
worth of meat for their use and contend
that it quite sufficient. A Kokomo
woman, who wants divorce, had, on the
other hand, enough and more than enough
food of a certain Sort ii was the mo-
notony of it that made her life burden.
For over two years Of her married life,
she testifes, her husband provided nothing
to eat but beans; the third year the diet
was changed to potatoes. but, seeing symp-
toms OF return to beans and feeling that
she could not endure another year Of
them, she asks for legal separation from
her "provider." 1t stands to reason, of
course, that this Kokomo wife is not
native of Boston, else she would not rebel
against this down-east staple. Out this
way most persons will agree that two
years of unbroken and enforced bean diet
is ample cause for divorce If ever the food
| question has right to figure In the d.
vorce court. If the vegetable selected by
the husband had been corn she would not
have had the same just ground for COM
| plant. Corn is a generic term that in
| cludes great variety of dishes. A teacher
of cookery is said to have demonstrated"
| two dishes made from corn or corn prod
| ucts each day during three months of the
| Chicago worlds fair without repeating her
programme. Some of the greatest and best
| of Indiana's men and women have been
| corn-fed. With beans 1t is different The
| scale is with baked beans. bean soup
and boiled beans. and though any of these
dishes may be conducive to brains served
| three times day for two years at time
| they do not tend to peace and content In
| an Indiana household. Persons who OPP
pose divorce may urge that so extreme
| remedy was not needed in the cases men,
toned: that II, in the rude but expressive
language of the street, the wives in Ques-