Evening star., 1938-05-27
\ NE Of the strange phenomena
\ Of our time is the frequency
j with which husbands and

with which husbands and
~ wives kill each other. 1t used
to be the rarest OF crimes, but now
1t has become so common that we
can't pick up a newspaper without
reading a CORY account of how some
man has taken pot shot at the women
he swore to cherish until death should
them part. or how some woman has
buried her scissors in the heart of
the man she promised to love, honor
and obey, or favored his coffee with
poison.
Apparently marriage has become the
most hazardous adventure in which
any one can engage and only suited to
the foolhardy who desire ito live dam
gerously," as the modern novelists say;
which may explain why wedding bells
do not ring out as often as they for
merly did. The timid and those who
want to live to ripe old age are afraid
to chance 1t.
1t is an appalling situation and
estate. For it is not alluring to think
that ones mate may be a potential
assassin, nor does it add to the peace
and restfulness OF home to wonder
when one goes TO bed whether one
will wake up in this world or the next
NOR does there seem any sense in
all these homicides in these days
OF easy divorce 1t is downright super
fuous to resort to murder, which is
messy affair any way you do 1t, in
order to get rid Of a life partner for
| whom one has lost ones taste when
the same result may be neatly ac-
complished by the husband alleging
in court that SWeetums inflicted cruel
and inhuman punishment on him by
her cooking, or by the wife swearing
that the sufferings that she was called
on to endure by reason of Laddie Boys
failure to provide her with Paris frocks
and trips to Europe were more than
mortal woman could bear.
OF course, it cannot be denied that
there are moments when even the most
devoted husbands and wives see red,
as the defense always claims he or
she did in murder trials, when they
feel like doing something lethal to
their best beloved and who are only
saved from crime by the grace of God.
ttoot fiy,on
when we have seen poor. doWntrod-
den, broWbeaten man meekly suffering
his wife's abuse, We have wondered
why he did not stop her nagging by
choking her. And many and many
time when We have listened to a big,
bullying man swear at a covering,
overWorked drudge of a wife and
berate her because the meat was a
turn overdone, or because she had
bought new hat or gone to the
movies, We have marveled that he
dared to eat another meal that she
had cooked. or to go near when she
had the carving knife handy. And at
such times We have not been surprised
that there were so many husband and
wife murders, but that there were not
more OF them.
X X X
REHIND the husband wife kill
ings is one fact that we do not
often realize-that maybe husbands
and wives themselves do not realize
and that is that all married people
keep a sort of running account
against each other in their memories
They don't make a major issue of
every wrong at the time. They pass
it over. and the party of the other
part thinks that it has been forgotten
and forgiven.
But this is not the case In the
husbands mind, and in the wife's
mind, the little cruelties, the little
injustices, the little humiliations, the
little tryannies, the selfshness, the
unkind words, all infinitesimal in
themselves. go piling up, added to day
by day, until they make an unbearable
grievance. Then comes the moment
when some little thing-a mere Moth
ing, word, a gesture, careless act
BEDBUGS? r,.,r.,:: ss:: and
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