Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-26
WNIFRED BLACKS
w SPECIAL ARTICLE
A STRANGE LETTER


Here is a letter that makes me
ros
No, not cross and not vexed, just
mad" plain old fashioned American
MAD. mad.
To think that any woman 30 years
old who can read and write can live IN
America and think what she evidently
does think.
Dear Winifred Black:
/ am a woman So years old. / have
been married IL years and have W
children, a boy nine and a girl IL years
old. My whole married life has been
one of disappointment. quarreling n
nagging. My husband is one of those
selfish kind, always thinking Of him
self first. never "a thought or a klno
word for the woman who tries to keep
the children and house neat and clean.
You Can Leave Him
On two different occasions / have
gone to work to help keep u meager
home together. But he was always the
same. He would come home cranky,
eat his supper grumbling, and then go
out with his friends to some saloon
and come home in the middle of the
night, more often drunk than sober.
He threatened to hit me several
times. On one occasion | had to de-
fend myself with a coffee-pot.. / have
such n hatred for him that / feel !
could kill him on such occasions.
/ can never forgive him for the mis-
cry he has caused me. [ am SO de-
spondent at times that | feel like DOING
away with myself and children to be rio
of him. But | control myself for theil
sake.
My friends all advise me to leave
him. / did leave him two years ago
but he came after me-, promising to b.
different. / went back but it is now
the same story.
What | want to know is, can he force
me to give up the children If L leave
him?
Thanking you in advance, l am,
A DECEIVED MOWAN.
NV dear woman, where in the wOrl'
do you live and how do you live tina
you do not know one or two plain fact
about the American law as to
If your husband abuses you, neg
lects you and fails to provide for you
you do not have TO live with him, on
single week, one single day, one singl
hour or one single minute-unleSs yo'
want to.
You car leave him and take you
children with you and care for then
and he cannot lift his finger to proven
you.
Not unless you live in one of two o
three states out of all the Unite
States. In those states a woman be
longs TO a man exactly as his horse o
his COW belongs to him and she canno
leave him. no matter what he doe:
If she does leave him in one of thos
states, he can take her children ava
from her and prosecute anyone VIII
helps her in any way.
Forget That He Lived
OF course. the only thing for
woman who lives in such a state TO d
-is-to move
No law in the world can compel
woman to live with a man who IS III
kind to her-not in any really clvillze
community. Put this in our hat an
! take it out and look at it four or fv
times a day until you know it by hear
Go to work if you must and take you
children with you, of course. Make
, decent, honest, self~-respecting HON
for them somewhere and pay not th
/, least attention in the world TO anythin
this man who abuses you and them say
or does or thinks.
Suicide? That would be a fine thin
| for the children, wouldn't 1t!
This man is nothing to you and les
than nothing, if all you write is tru'
, Put him out of your life. Forget tht
he wei lived. Hold up your head an
, be honest and courageous and cheerful
, Be a good mother and a good woman
and everybody in the world who's wort
; attention will respect and help you.
And don't let anybody tell you any
thing different.