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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



nello, who, like Faust and Don Juan, finally meets 

 the reward of his crimes by satanic intervention, 

 or whether, as other learned gentlemen say, the 

 quaint visage and humor of the Neapolitan vint- 

 ager Puccio d'Aniello, originated the jest which 

 has amused ten generations, it is equally remark- 

 able that so much of the enjoyment should con- 

 centrate about the thwacking of poor Judy, and 

 the flinging of the baby out of the window. 

 Questioned seriously whether he think that the 

 behavior of Punch as a citizen and a pere de fa- 

 mille be in itself a good joke, the British gentle- 

 man would probably reply that it was not more 

 facetious than watching a carter flogging a horse. 

 But invested with the drollery of a marionette's 

 behavior, and accompanied by the screeches of 

 the man with the Pan-pipe, the scene is irresisti- 

 ble, and the popularity of the hero rises with 

 every bang he bestows on the wife of his bosom 

 and on the representative of the law. 



The same sort of half-jocular sympathy un- 

 questionably accompanies the whole class of 

 characters of whom Mr. Punch is the type. Very 

 good and kind-hearted men may be frequently 

 heard speaking of horrid scenes of mutual abuse 

 and violence between husbands and wives, as if 

 they were rather ridiculous than disgusting. The 

 " Taming of the Shrew " still holds its place as 

 one of the most popular of Shakespeare's come- 

 dies ; and even the genial Ingoldsby conceived he 

 added a point to his inimitable legend of " Odille," 

 by inserting, after the advice to " succumb to our 

 she-saints, videlicet wives," the parenthesis, " that 

 is, if one has not a ' good bunch of fives.' " 

 Where is the hidden fun of this and scores of 

 similar allusions, which sound like the cracking 

 of whips over the cowering dogs in a kennel ? 



I imagine it lies in the sense, so pleasant to 

 the owners of superior physical strength, that 

 after all, if reason and eloquence should fail, 

 there is always an ultima ratio, and that that 

 final appeal lies in their hands. The sparring 

 may be all very well for a time, and may be 

 counted entirely satisfactory if they get the better. 

 But then, if by any mischance the unaccountably 

 sharp wits of the weaker creature should prove 

 dangerous weapons, there is always the club of 

 brute force ready to hand in the corner. The 

 listener is amused, as in reading a fairy tale, 

 wherein the hero, when apparently completely 

 vanquished, pulls out a talisman given him by an 

 afrit, and lo ! his enemies fall flat on the ground 

 and are turned into rats. 



Thus it comes to pass, I suppose, that the 

 abstract idea of a strong man hitting or kicking 



a weak woman — per se, so revolting — has some- 

 how got softened into a jovial kind of domestic 

 lynching, the grosser features of the case being 

 swept out of sight, just as people make endless 

 jests on tipsiness, forgetting how loathsome a 

 thing is a drunkard. A " jolly companions " cho- 

 rus seems to accompany both kinds of exploits. 

 This, and the prevalent idea (which I shall ana- 

 lyze by-and-by) that the woman has generally 

 deserved the blows she receives keep up, I be- 

 lieve, the indifference of the public on the sub- 

 ject. 



Probably the sense that they must carry with 

 them a good deal of tacit sympathy on the part 

 of other men has something to do in encouraging 

 wife-beaters, just as the fatal notion of the good- 

 fellowship of drink has made thousands of sots. 

 But the immediate causes of the offense of brutal 

 violence are of course very various, and need to 

 be better understood than they commonly are if 

 we would find a remedy for them. First, there 

 are to be considered the class of people and the 

 conditions of life wherein the practice prevails ; 

 then the character of the men who beat their 

 wives; next that of the wives who are beaten and 

 kicked ; and, finally, the possible remedy. 



Wife-beating exists in the upper and middle 

 classes rather more, I fear, than is generally rec- 

 ognized ; but it rarely extends to anything be- 

 yond an occasional blow or two of a not danger- 

 ous kind. In his apparently most ungovernable 

 rage, the gentleman or tradesman somehow man- 

 ages to bear in mind the disgrace he will incur if 

 his outbreak be betrayed by his wife's black eye 

 or broken arm, and he regulates his cuffs or 

 kicks accordingly. The dangerous wife-beater be- 

 longs almost exclusively to the artisan and labor- 

 ing classes. Colliers, " puddlers," and weavers, 

 have long earned for themselves in this matter a 

 bad reputation, and, among a long list of cases 

 before me, I reckon shoemakers, stone-masons, 

 butchers, smiths, tailors, a printer, a clerk, a bird- 

 catcher, and a large number of laborers. In the 

 worst districts of London (as I have been informed 

 by one of the most experienced magistrates) 

 four-fifths of the wife-beating cases are among 

 the lowest class of Irish laborers — a fact worthy 

 of more than passing notice, had we time to be- 

 stow upon it, seeing that in their own country- 

 Irishmen of all classes are proverbially kind and 

 even chivalrous toward women. 



There are also various degrees of wife-beating 

 in the different localities. In London it seldom 

 goes beyond a severe "thrashing" with the fist 

 — a sufficiently dreadful punishment, it is true, 



