Year: 1873

No one hurries to draw a moral from
the scene of a week or so ago, where a
woman, who had been stabbed four times
by sulky and savage lover, refused to
testify against him, burst into tears when
his sentence of three years in prison was
announced, and wept on his shoulder as
he left the Court. He was sulky even
then did not respond to her outburst of
atfectionate remorse; refused to be touch
ed by her protestations that she would
wait for him. The circumstances of the
murderous assault clearly enough prove
the brutal self-will of the man. He saw
his betrothed walking with a young girl
whom he did not like. He approached
them and commanded his affianced to
quit the company of the other. She an
swered, ':She has done me no harm, and
| will not give UP her acquaintance"
Upon this the angry savage asserted his
authority with a dirk-knife so energetic
ally that the unfortunate girl was thought
to be mortally wounded. She recovered,
however, and the first use she made
of her convalescence was to publish her
devotion in the courtroom to the ruffian
who had reddened his hands in her blood.


Such an incident as this would give
food for serious thought to those who
are interested in the laws, human and
natural, which regulate the relations be-
tween men and women, if this were
matter to which as much thought as SEN
timent were generally given. 1t is not
enough to call this an exception to any
rule The records of the police courts,
the recollection of all officers OF the
peace; and all well meaning but mis-
guided neighbors who have attempted to
defend maltreated women against their
husbands, would only confirm the puzzled
differences which the performance of the
other day excited in the minds of the
witnesses. at appears like they prefer
red ito be used rough" an observant old
policeman remarked. Mr.. Reade de-
scribes rascal whose hawk-like face
reused the distrust of all the men who
met him, but did not raise any prejudice
in the breasts of "those white doves who
were born to be clutched. There may
be something of cynical exaggeration in
this, but those who are called by their
business or by charity among the poor or
the degraded, learn how prompt and
faithful and ap parently willing obedience


is paid to.ruffians by their beaten, bruis-
ed, and trampled wives. There is many
a woman in New-York to-day who not
only supports her husband and family,
but endures his savage cruelty without
murmuring, and furnishes him the means
of vicious indulgence with silent. uncom-
planning resignation, and who would re-
sent with quick anger any imputation
upon his person or repute.


This spirit is not confined to those in
humble life. The men in Fifth Avenue
who beat their wives are probably not
numerous, but how many are there whose
daily life is filled with acts of moral cru
city more revolving to any refined sensi-
bility than the club or the knife of the
tenement-house The surly Jest the
brutal -retort, the studied contempt and
neglect which many men use to their
wives, and which would insure their
prompt chastisement if INDUCED in the
company of other men, do not, to any
outward seeming at least, alter the devo-
ton and loyalty of these women toward
them. There are men, claiming to be
gentlemen, who never think it worth
while to be civil to their wives, who are
nevertheless as sure of their obedient re-
gard as if they were Bayards or Sidneys
They are, as they think, perfectly happy
in their domesticity, and it would be
hard to see wherein they are not. There
are those who believe there is Provi-
dence which watches over drunkards,
which sustains their tottering steps on
slippery places, and which softens the
paving-stones for them when they fall
1t would sometimes appear that a similar
care has ordered that when an especially
mean and selfish scamp is driven into
marriage. woman of more than angelic
character is provided for him. And the
more the scamp is developed in him, the
more the angel blooms forth in her.


This is not an affair with which reason
has anything to do. That poor girl in
the dock knew that man who would
cut her to pieces for disobeying petu-
lent command was not an agreeable or
safe companion to trust her life to. But
that seemed to make no difference She
admired him more after his murderous
assault than before, and probably came
to make herself believe she had deserved
more than she received. This was all
very weak and exasperating no doubt.
But those who wish to place women in
relations of absolute equality and identi-
ty of conditions with men, would do well
occasionally to consider these facts, and
then to ask whether, on the whole, the
world as it is would be better if this de-
plorable weakness were finally cured