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

eAcelielL way.
1.-The Police Court record, with fits pstiful
stores of. masculine brutality-the annals
of the degraded poor-present few cases OF
wife beating but are the outcome of
looms in sections populated by this class
Arguments Against Are Overwhelming
Mrs Eugenia w Weller. resident worker
of the Neighborhood House of 456 street
southwest, says:
1.-THE arguments against the revival OF the
whipping post seem to me so numerous and
so overwhelming that 1t is hard to deter
mine which are most important.
But for every form of punishment surely
the final test should be it's curative power.
Will the man who has atoneG for his cruel
ty with an eye for an eye be made less
brutal for the future? Will the pain of the
blow or the humiliation of 1t make him a
different being? Not the pain, surely; for
no suffering is more shert-lived- than a
physical sting, and the memory of that can
bring about only a cowardly submission.
And does complete abject humiliation. such
as fills the soul of the man who has been
beaten like dog, strengthen his manhood!
1t is my experience that the human oemg
who is made to feel in any public way that
he has sounded the depths of degradation
loses the power to rise up and struggle on.
1T may be that sheer dread of the lash
will stay his hand. But know women who
would prefer thousand times the brief
anguish of blow to the endless torture of
their daily lives. Almost invariably the
wretch who has drank the dregs will hurl
back upon his innocent victim the ven
geance he dare not wreak upon Others
Better physical violence thousand times
than the suffering of her who endures little
Sights or open abuse from the man she
has loved (for one of the most pathetic
characteristics of these unhappy sisters of
ours is the unreasOning tenacity of their
affection), or of the anxious mother neg
lected. perhaps deserted, by the father of
her children.
wife beating is only a part, a symptom,
of the low estimate some men put upon their
wives. Given this lack of respect for
womankind, which seems to us but a relic
of past ages, but which is still prevalent
among the ignorant, add to it british
nature and you have a wife beater. VIII
the heroic treatment of the whipping post
strengthen ideals or build up character or
soften hardened heart?
History has its answer, written large, In
the growth of evil doing under over-severe
laws and the frenzy of crime that follows
a reign of terror.
An Infantile Proposition.
Mr.. John w. Douglass, agent of the
board of children's guardians. says:
wife heaters are despica BILE, at the same
time pitiable characters. Their natures are
dwarfed or perverted or diseased and need
treatment.
Adequate treatment cannot be given
without study, long and patient, Of the
causes. Mr.. Weller hit the nail square on
the head in his excellent diagnosis of the
problem. To seriously think of the appli-
cation of the lash as cure for any form
a moral delinquency is simply infantile and
the logical outgrowth of that phase of hui
man nature which seizes upon what APP
pears to be the easiest and quickest method
to solve any perplexing problem.
Let study be made in a number OF
concrete cases of the wives, of the homes,
of the antecedents of both sides of the
house of their habits, past and present,
etc. Perhaps some sound deductions can
be drawn and crystallized into legislation
which will deter. At any rate, let's get
away from the silly notion that temporary
stings OF the flesh can permanently cure
any moral disease.
The Effects at Home.
Mr.. 2. D. Copp, probation officer Of the
District of Columbia, says:
The whipping post is a dangerous and
deadly remedy for brutal crime and the
effects of its establishment are far more
to be dreaded than the crime for which 1t
is proposed as the remedy
The class most affected by such legisla-
ton is passionate and brutal Jealousy.
passion and force are their chief character
istics. Jealousy inflamed by whisky, is
the immediate cause Of such outbreaks.
These facts warrant the conjecture that
the man who is whipped for whipping his
wife will do one of three things: First,
either go straight home and murder her
while still smarting from the lash, or wait
until the next outburst OF whisky-infiamed
Jealousy. Second, go home and beat her
into insensibilfty and then decamp for parts
unknown or quietly desert at the first IA
vorable opportunity, or, third, become a
model hen-pecked husband
1T will seriously affect the wife in four
ways: First, causing added abuse, the
husband threatening to kill her il she has
him punished; second. despairing of remedy
she viii either commit suicide or separate
from him; third, deserted and alone she
will have to fight elife's battles for herself
and her family; fourth, she will be able to
lead him around by the nose to the delight
of all the children in the neighborhood.
TT will injuriously affect the family I'M
der any one of the heads enumerated above,
and 1t would vitality affect the state at
the points Of citizenship, the care of the
family and the prosecution of the criminal
1t would prove a Pandora box of criminal
evils of the basest kind"
Maj. Sylvester for "Spanker."
Maj. Richard Sylvester, chief of the police
force of the District, says:
''The question of proper punishment for
those who abuse wives and children and
those who indulge in some other crimes is
one which this department has given con-
sideration for many years, and it stands to
reason that those who deal with these
classes should be in measure properly
operate as a preventive. as well as
cure. for such evil. 1t has been observed
that many good people have not been prop
erly advised as to the situation, either by
reading or inquiry. and they formulate con-
illusions in haste without regard to the sew
eral interests involved. The police, in their
duty, exercise less harshness in the treat
ment of prisoners than formerly, enighten
the courts more fully as to the weaknesses
OF unfortunate humanity. provide houses of
detention for women and children and use
Juvenile courts and probation officers In be-
half of first offenders. Every advanced
measure along these lines, including the
classification of prisoners, has originated
with the police. The latter rescue the sick
and provide for the hungry from their own
pockets. in many instances. This being
true it is unreasonable to presume that
they must assume a position in support of
the inhuman treatment of wife heaters, or
others. 1t was never proposed by the police
to have resumed the practice of the dark
age or middle period, but for locality
where the conditions are such as to call
for special treatment. 1t was suggested
that a whipping place be established, where
those guilty of aggravating petty offenses
and women beaters might be whipped with
a spanker rather than LASH
Not that the flesh should be torn or
the blood brought. but that spanking, if
YOU choose to call it, would act as a cor