New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-03
Wife Who Wanted Free
dom, Without Cash, Fails
TO Thrill Club.
MEMBER CALLS
LAWS BARBARIC
Let Woman Who Has Children
BE Supported, Is Decision,
Without Debate.

Mrs. or Miss, as the case may be,
Crystal Eastman, lately Benedict, may
| delete her husbands last name from
her title, may separate herself from
that gentleman and, as final act in
/ her career Of rejection, refuse his ali
mony, but she can't make the pulse Of
/ single member of the Alimony Club
beat the faster by her conduct. Even
! the climax Of her remuneration, which
leaves her former spouse minus one
wife, but plus the expense Of her up
keep, has produced not a tremor OF
emotion in the association Of kindred
souls at 50 Ludlow Street.
! The fact that the American democ-
racy has produced one woman who re-
fuses to let a man who is no longer
] her husband support her leaves the
martyrs to matrimony in the Ludlow
Street Jail as calm and cold and unen-
thusiastic as the stone walls and iron
CRATES of their clubhouse. For, de-
spite their sedentsry lives, the mem
bcrs Of the Alimony Club are good
sports.
No Worry Over Alimony.
ar wives want slimony they should
receive it, when we can get it," was
the cheerful-under- af'liction ruling laid
down yesterday by the members OF the
organization in conclave assembled.
When the meeting had dissolved with
tho usual hymn, ave can't get away
from Ludlow Jail to-day; our wives
won't let u.s." the dean of the divorced,
who will be cast, next week, out from
retirement into world Inhabited
chiefly by his former spouse and her
lawyers, discussed at greater length
tho question OF alimony and alimony
clubs. Before his connubial bliss
turned TO bistcrs this man was a
manufacturer well known in the city.
Foreign war decreased his income and
domestic strife increased his expendlt-
ures. Finally he fed from graspng
world to the seclusion of the Ludlow
Street alimona:tery, where the good,
thick walls and the stout steel gratings
of Abbott Gene Johnson defed even his
grasping spouse.
III Mrs. Benedict doesn't want ali
rnony, that is her own affair he pro-
nounccd. "Since she is feminist, who
believes that men and women should be
regarded strictly as equals IN all re-
lations Of lie. | suppose her action IS
the only logical way Of looking at the
problem Still, ! believe that woman
who has children or who has been
taken from home where she nas al
WAYS been supported by her parents
has right to expect that the man she
married should support her, even II
nc can't live with him. The only
question about the matter is whether
il is lust TO put man, who IS unable
TO earn enough to pay alimony, where
he will earn nothing at all.
Law Is Called Barbaric.
Other members in good standing
echoed this opinion. "Alimony Is prop
cr," another, lace importer, asserted.
But il should be proportionate TO the
salary the man Is earning. | was pay
ing $50 a week before ] struck hard
luck. Later wasn't earning as much
as | was supposed TO pay my wife. SO
here | am.
The law is barbaric, anyway, but u
the Judge would set the amount 10 DC
paid 1T certain percentage OF the
mans income there would be fewer OF
Us here
yes" third chmed in. glancing
at the heavy metal decorations of the
clubroom with evident satisfaction;
"alimony is only just. OF course, II
there wasn't a legal provision for 1t
there would be fewer divorces: But
that would be pretty hard on lots OF
US poor men.
Here the interview closed. for The
club members, ostracising the outsider
withdrew TO far corner. where they
drank the accustomed evening toast OF
their organization, ITO our wives and
sweethearts; may they never meet;
This is drunk standing, with the lett
4. 81