Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-21

and whose wife asked the Associated Char1-
ties for aid because she was without food
for herself and three young children. Find
ing him sober. the husband was induced to
80 to work. For q few days all went well,
and he gave her most of his money Satur-
day night; but with the rest he began to
drink. and after using up all he had kept
he struck her in compelling her to return
to him what he had given her, and drank
that up too. yelling and swearing through
the night while man In the next house
sank to his DEATH
"Could the picture have been drawn more
truthfully? The poor, hoveld and hustled
together the filthy by-way,' the few last
gasps Of the sick and the yell Of the
trampled wife were all there; and there
was plenty of the vitriol madness in
shop on the next corner-set out like the
wares in the display window OF bar
gain store, with attractive labels on each
bottle telling how cheap the poison was.
Nothing but sheet Of thin glass sepa-
rated the man as he passed by from this
glittering temptation, and while he was
probably free moral agent once he was
hardly more responsible than for the dis
aster which resulted from gratifying his
appetite than the trout when he Jumps at
the fly. The motive power for his blows
came from that liquor. How would fog
ging such a man help him or his wife? 1t
would add to weakness, resentment and
malice.
II do not wish to digress on to the subject
OF intemperance, which Is only one of the
uitucFlylnS causes, Dut TO snow IHdL tNeEe
are many complications, and that there is
no social antitoxin which will remove the
cause of either wife beating or wife de-
sertion. Anything which improves the
home lessons the temptation to both. The
better houses now being erected will help.
and better education. For lack of a good
compulsory education law some future wife
heaters are doubtless idling about the alleys
now, destroying their nervous control by
smoking cigarettes when they ought to be
in school. All the efforts for betterment
now being made and they are many, will
in time reduce the number Of wife heaters
more than whipping ever can.
Whipping Works No Change.
Whipping changes no conditions There
Is something wrong with a man who strikes
his wife, but whipping cannot remove it.
Lynching puts Its victim out of the way,
but after we have whipped man we still
have him on our hands, and his wife ON
hers, in worse condition than before. It has
been very difficult to get wives to appear
against their husbands to compel support,
which does them some good. In the Dis
triet wife is not a compellable witness,
and it would be still harder, at least after
the first fash of Indignation had vanished,
to get them to testify to bring on hus-
band disgraceful punishment which does
them no good. Under such circumstances
more husbands would desert and leave their
families public charge.
has no terrors for such offenders, and yet
some punishment which will restrain them
should be found. My investigation has led
me to believe that Imprisonment at hard
labor Is the most effective method with de-
serters, and the reasons for it apply as well
to wife beaters. 1t need not arouse resent
ment as a blow does, it gives time to think
the situation over, and yet 1t is real pun
ishment in being hard and distasteful.
cit has the disadvantage of depriving
man of the chance to earn money in the
usual way to support his family, while
whipping leaves him free to do this If he
will; but there could be coupled with TINS
provision for his release before OF after
sentence on bond to behave properly un-
der pain of immediate reimprisonment II
violated-such a provision as Is contained
in the excellent laws as to non-support
passed last year by Maryland and Virginia.
This would certainly have a deterring eff
feet. while allowing for reform at any time.
Il believe some provision should also be
made for the payment of certain sum to
the family for their support for each days
hard labor in confinement If reform and re-
lease are delayed. The dependent wives of
men confined in the workhouse at Toledo,
Ohio, for desertion or neglect OF their chill
dren, receive at the end of each week 40
cents per day, and the law works very well.
In Cleveland, Ohio, the excess earnings over
the cost of keeping men confined In the
workhouse for violation of any municipal
ordinance are paid over in like manner to
their families If dependent Such plan
would keep the man in touch with the fam
lily, remove him for the time being from the
temptation to drink, and at least make him
no worse, as whipping certainly would. 1t
runs into the vexed question of prison labor,
and unless properly managed might involve
some loss, but with proper effort it could be
successfully carried out. Its advantages
are great, and even If there should be some
loss the burden of supporting the family
could probably not be better adjusted, nor
the money provided for them in any way
that would be more appropriate.
Now that it seems clear that wife beat
ing demands a more effective punishment
than present laws afford, trust some solu-
ton of this kind will be found. 1t will be
worth some effort if our city can lead the
way for the rest of the country in dealing
with this problem, instead of sagging back
Immediately behind Russia in the march of
civilization, as is now proposed"