Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-10-01
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
Bell Syndicate-wNU Features

IN MY desk is one of the
strangest letters I ever re-
~ ceived. I don't know
whether to laugh or to cry at it's
contents. 1t is from a man,
Philip is his first name. He says
he is a small male and has never
been very strong, although per-
fectly we'll. His trouble is that
his wife, a big woman, occasion
ally. beats him.
Matte is a farmer" Philip says.
"She and three brothers have big
wheat ranches, and she runs them
and her relatives, too. One of her
brothers whips his wife and chill
dren; she went to lawyer about it.
He said that as long as the husband
didn't cause any injury a man could
whip his wife. How that is I don't
know. But what I do realize is
that if Matte gets mad at anything
she watches her chance, grabs my
collar, and whips me with a strap
"a q oOlilSlAillSo ~ tAtShSS iAAS
mad enough to kill her.
II came out here for my health"
this pathetic letter continues, land
after we married l got job in the
village. like it here and when she
treats me decently l like Mat. But
no man ought to stand for this sort
of thing. When l had pneumonia
last winter she nurSed me night and
day, and the doctor said couldn't
have lived without her care. But
when she wants to accomplish some
thing l don't want to do, and says:
Look out, now, or you'll catch it,
that makes me see red. Has any
woman a right to spank man?"
Question of States Law.
Philip, I can only say that l don't
know. l am not familiar with your
states law on that point, l cannot
believe that a state could carry such
a statute. Years ago, in England,
a man might whip his wife with a
stick mo thicker than his thumb"
I believe this was repealed. /
never heard that this country had
such law.
But l do know several cases of
men beating their wives. Usually
this state of affairs comes to light
through divorce courts. One wife,
now living in a crowded war-work-
ers' community, told me that in the
early days of their marriage her
husband gave her old-fashioned
spankings whenever she did any
thing he disapproved. She cured
him through a court order and a
psychoanalyst' opinion that the
man was not quite mentally sound.
Hes been like lamb ever SINCE"
she said. He doesn't want to be
sent to an institution. You'd be sur
prised at the amount of wife-beating
that goes on in this camp" the
letter continues. II advise all girls
to do what l did. Lots of them
jumped into quick marriages when
the war began and aren't anything
but spoiled kids - husbands and
wives alike Give them a good scare
about bringing in legal and medical
advice, and they come to their
senses"
In Victorian times it was almost
the rule that father of a family
should work off the discomfort of too
much heavy food, little exercise, and
undisputed domestic authority, in
thrashing the children. Mothers used
as a threat the familiar phrase,
"You wait until papa gets home!"
Boys cringed and whined and had
their dispositions soured for life, be-
cause the father found a restful out
let in welding strap. Schoolmas-
tiers in England quite recently used
to cane boys-grown ones in their
teens-thereby acknowledging that
these youngsters were incapable of
responding to reasonable or civilized
influence and had to be cowed by