WIFE-TORTURE IN ENGLAND. 



47 



have vanquished her in a boxing-match. Almost 

 without exception in these cases it is mentioned 

 that " both parties were the worse for liquor." 

 It is in this way the drunken woman is beaten, 

 by the drunken man, not by the ideal sober and 

 industrious husband, who has a right to be dis- 

 gusted by her intoxication. It is nearly exclu- 

 sively, I think, in such drunken quarrels that the 

 hateful virago gets beaten at all. As a general 

 rule she commands too much fear, and is so ready 

 to give back curse for curse and blow for blow, 

 that, in cold blood, nobody meddles with her. 

 Such a termagant is often the tyrant of her hus- 

 band, nay, of the whole court or lane in which 

 she lives ; and the sentiments she excites are the 

 reverse of those which bring down the fist and 

 the clogs of the ruffian husband on the timid and 

 meek-faced woman who tries, too often unsuc- 

 cessfully, the supposed magic of a soft answer to 

 turn away the wrath of such a wild beast as he. 



One word, however, must be said, before we 

 leave this revolting picture, even for that uni- 

 versally condemned creature, the drunken wife. 

 Does any save one, the Great Judge above, ever 

 count how many of such doubly-degraded beings 

 have been driven to intemperance by sheer mis- 

 ery ? How many have been lured to drink by 

 companionship with their drunken husbands ? 

 How many have sunk into the habit because, 

 worn out in body by toil and child-bearing, de- 

 graded in soul by contempt and abuse, they have 

 not left in them one spark of that self-respect 

 which enables a human being to resist the temp- 

 tation to drown care and remembrance in the 

 dread forgetfulness of strong drink ? 



The second kind of wife-beating is when the 

 man alone is the striker and the woman the 

 stricken. These are the cases which specially 

 challenge our attention, and for which it may be 

 hoped some palliative may be found. In these, 

 the husband usually comes home " the worse for 

 liquor," and commences, sometimes without any 

 provocation at all, to attack his wife, or drag her 

 out of the bed where she is asleep, or has just 

 been confined. (See cases page 49.) Sometimes 

 there is preliminary altercation, the wife imploring 

 him to give her some money to buy necessaries, 

 or reproaching him for drinking all he has earned. 

 In either case the wife is passive so far as blows 

 are concerned, unless at last, in self-defense, she 

 lays her hand on some weapon to protect her 

 life — a fact which is always cited against her as 

 a terrible delinquency. 1 



1 Such was the case of Susannah Palmer, a few 

 years ago, whose husband had beaten her, and sold 



Such are the two orders of wife-beating with 

 which a tolerably extensive study of the subject 

 has made me familiar. It will be observed that 

 neither includes that ideal wife-beater of whom 

 we hear so much, the sober, industrious man 

 goaded to frenzy by his wife's temper or drunk- 

 enness. I will not venture to affirm that that 

 ideal wife-beater is as mythical as the griffin or 

 the sphinx, but I will affirm that, in all my inqui- 

 ries, I have never yet come on his track. 



I have insisted much on this point, because! 

 think it has been strangely overlooked, and that 

 it ought to form a most important factor in mak- 

 ing up our judgment of the whole matter and of 

 the proper remedies. It will be found, I believe, 

 on inquiry, that it is actually surprising how very 

 seldom there is anything at all alleged by the 

 husband against the wife in the worst cases 

 of wife-torture — except the "provocation" and 

 " nagging " of asking him for money ; or, as in 

 the case of poor Ellen Harlow, of refusing him 

 twopence out of her own earnings when he had 

 been drinking all day and she had been working.' 

 In thirty-eight cases taken at random, five were 

 of the class of drunken combats ; and in thirty 

 nothing was reported as alleged against the vic- 

 tims. In many cases strong testimony was given 

 of their good conduct and industry : e. g., the 

 wife of William White, who was burned to death 

 by the help of bis paraffine-lamp, was a " hard- 

 working, industrious woman." The wife of James 

 Lawrence, whose face bore in court tokens of the 

 most dreadful violence, " said that her husband 

 had for years done nothing for his livelihood, 

 while she had bought a shop, and stocked it 

 out of her own earnings." The wife of Richard 

 Mountain had " supported herself and her chil- 

 dren." The wife of Alfred Etherington, who has 

 been dangerously injured by her husband kicking 

 and jumping on her, had been supporting him 

 and their children. The wife of James Styles, 



up her furniture again and again, blackened her eyes, 

 and knocked out her five front teeth. At last, on one 

 occasion, with the knife with which she was cutting 

 her children's supper, she somehow inflicted a slight 

 cut on the man while he was knocking her about the 

 head. He immediately summoned her for '• cutting 

 and wounding him," and she was sent to Newgate. I 

 found her there, and afterward received the very best 

 possible character of her from several respectable 

 tradespeople in whose houses she had worked as a 

 charwoman for years. Friends subscribed to help her, 

 and the admirable chaplain of Newgate interested him- 

 self warmly in her case, and placed her in safety. 



1 This, however, was a " provocation " on which a 

 Chester jury founded a recommendation to mercy 

 when they found him guilty of manslaughter. (See 

 page 51.) 



