New-York tribune., 1908-06-14
WHY HE'S A DESERTER
Not Alzcays a "Yellozo Streak IN
Nan Who Runs Azcay from Family.

W an NJ no RUnS A7Cdy from Il dHttY.
Hard times drive people to all kinds Of devices
Occasionally a who cannot get work and
whose children hungry says to his wife:
Maybe 1 get work in the country. Any
how you're more likely to be helped If you've no
man around. And with me out of the way there'il
be one less mouth to feed. I'll desert
Perhaps he goes without mentioning his tnten-
tions. wife desertion for the above reasons is
not infrequent now, according TO some charity
workers
Other forms of desertion are less credtable to
the man There is the habitua deserter, and the
man who has the habit is most likely TO be over
by it in times of domestic stress. Let the
stork prepare to aght; let the landlord nail dis
possess notice the door. and swiftly and silently
the noble husband fades away, leaving the wife he
has to protect to meet the crisis alone.
Generally he reappears when the crisis is over, ana
it is of the mysteries of the feminine nature
that generally his wife takes him back. Such
cases are the despair of charitable organizations
The return of the habitual deserter means the re-
turn OF the former slipshod conditions and. in
evitably the birth of more children to suffer for
their parents sins and to complicate matters for
society al large
One deserter whose family is now being cared for
by the Charity Organization Society took only
himself but the furniture when he went, a month
ago. He left his wife with two empty rooms,
rent unpaid, two small children. and baby COM
ing very Everybody who knew the man
united describing him as ugly abusive and idle
but bad he his wife had taken him back
three times This his fourth deserton.
All men are not worthless. The deserted wife
has brother who works in a sweatshop for 81 a
week. and with this 81 supports a wife and four
children. He took his sister and her children into
his three and fed them for some weeks.
Then he was forced TO ask for help. He ap-
preached the Charity Organization Society with
proposition.
IF you will pay half our rent and half our
- ba oJ will
Sickness
However. that would have meant the woman's
confinement in that crowded place. with the SIX
young children about 1t decided to get the
woman and her youngest child into the Nursery
and Chd's Hospital. She stay there three
months or a year If she wishes Meantime the
oldest child will be boarded out by the Charity
Organization Society.
That husband seems to have disappeared perma-
nently this time. for police stations and hospitals
have been searched for him in vain.
Another chronic deserter halls from Philadelphia.
Not long ago he deserted his sick wife in that
town, first putting her in hospital. where he
agreed to pay SIS week for her OF
he never paid it. Instead, he took four of the five
children and Disappeared the other child. a baby,
he left in an institution. He was traced and the
family reunited, but Ne promptly brought them
to New York and deserted again. going all by him.
self this time. The Association for Improving the
Condition of the Poor is looking the family
cook responsible for some of the desertons?" a
worker in this organization was asked.
Oh yes. But, again. the very best sort OF a
wife may be deserted. We have now-such
a nice woman, neat, good tempered, hard working
She's only twenty-seven years old. but she has
five little children. and her husband has deserted
three times. He's gone now. and she is heart
broken over 1t In spite of the fact that he drank
steadily for week before going The wife is try
ing to keep the children together she does laundry
,v-orly. hr, oFy
some of her customers lave taken their work away
because OF that. Seems hard, doesn't itY'
curious case is that of Canadian woman de-
serted by her husband, a Japanese. Up to the time
he left her he devoted and kind and good
proVider In August he disappeared Soon after
ward of the two children taken down with
scarlet fever and died in the hospital calling for
his father, whose pet he had been.
On the day before Christmas the wife encountered
the husband in the street. He glanced at her pre-
cisely if he had seen her before and be-
fore she could collect her thoughts and accost him
he had vanished in the crowd.
II wonder" said the charity worker, who has
this case in charge IF this isn't of those curl
Gus instances of sudden loss of memory of which
read
Charity workers agree that there ought to be
more adequate punishment for wife deserters.
man who deserts his children can. according 20 a
law passed not many years ago, receive something
of what he deserves. but if there children
in the case little be done the wife deserter
And even when there children and the deserter
is caught he frequently gets off with brief stay
on the island.
IF he could be compelled TO work while there
for the benefit of his family there would be some
sense in it," said a member of the Association for
Improving the Condition of the Poor. But now.
consider this case which has just been referred to
An Irish woman has been deserted by her hus
band--the fourth desertion They have had thirteen
children: six living; fourteenth is coming
SOON The found after he disap
peared last month and sent to the island for six
months Now. If he could have been sentenced to
earn something for his family!-but as it is there
are the fral wife and the six chidren-all young
absolutely dependent charity
DR.. Leo Frankel. formerly with the United He
brew Charities, says that cases OF wife desertion
make from TO 10 per cent of the that come
to the Hebrew charities for relief, Miss Lillian