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Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters. 
perils of childbirth and of loneliness for solitary farmers’ wives are about 
equal to the dangers from accident and the vices to which men are exposed. 
But crime and pauperism are liabilities of men much more than of 
women. There are generally about forty times as many men as women in 
our state’s prison and in our jails and houses of correction. The dispropor¬ 
tion is not quite so great in some other states and is still less in Euro, 
pean countries. In Europe there is no sentimental pity for a woman 
on account of her sex. In this state a few years ago, a farmer was mur¬ 
dered by his wife and the hired man. The hired man is now in state’s, 
prison, while the more guilty woman is free. But even in Europe the pro¬ 
portion of men to women is perhaps ten to one. Women do not commit 
crime as readily as men do; it may be from principle; it may be from 
cowardice; it may be from lack of temptation. 4 
And women do not become paupers as readily as men. In getting out 
door relief, it is true, women are a little ahead of men, but that is because it 
is easier for a woman to get poor relief than for a man. And in fact, 
where outdoor relief is laxly administered, though it is the women who 
usually apply for it, there are often lazy men behind them sending them 
for it or else drinking up all their earnings in the comfortable conscious¬ 
ness that the public will support their families. One case I heard of in this 
state, where a man spent all his week’s wages every Saturday night and 
Sunday, at a certain saloon, whose proprietor was the officer who gave pub¬ 
lic money to support the wife and family. That man was the real pauper, 
not his wife. So that even in outdoor relief, it is probable that the men 
have a good share of the pauperism. And in the poorhouse, as I said, there 
are thrice as many men as women. 
Second, as to age. About an equal number of each sex are born idiots 
and remain so all their lives, so that the question of age in idiocy need not 
be taken into account, except that idiots are not long lived. But insanity 
is a defect of mature years. Out of thousands of insane whom I have seen, 
I only remember two insane children. Going through an insane asylum, 
you are struck with the general age of the patients in contrast with the 
youth of the attendants. This, of course, is partly caused by the fact that 
insanity is not very curable. Only about one-fourth of the insane recover, 
a few die, and the rest end their days as chronic insane. But it is also 
caused by the fact that most insane are middle aged, or elderly before they 
become insane. 
Crime is rarely committed by little children, and when committed, is ex¬ 
cused by the law or by the judges and jury. The absurdity of hanging a 
boy for murder or sending him to state’s prison for life for burglary, both 
of which have been actually done in the south recently, is not allowed in 
any northern state. But every visitor to a jail or state prison must notice 
the comparative youthfulness of the prisoners. The average age of the 
convicts in state’s prison is 27. Or, to put it in another way, the majority 
