Newspaper Page Text
"HOME TROUBLES ARE MOSTLY
FAULT OF HUSBAND UNWILLING
TO GO 50-50 WITH HIS MATE"
"Who is most often to blame, the
man or the woman?" t
Above is the question most fre
quently asked by visitors " to the
court of domestic relations, that tri
bunal before which husbands and
wives appear with ' plaints about
wrongs they believe they have been
done by their better or lesser halves.
"She's -to blame," says the man,
nearly every time.
"It's all his fault," says the wife.
"It's the man's fault, 75 times out
of 100," says Judge John Stelk.
"The man, in his business or at his
wdrk, talks loudly of a 'square deal
and '50-50' between man and man,
but the same man comes home and
won't go 50-50 with his wife.
"A husband may drink, smoke,
chew, swear and be a perpetual nui
sance or grouch around the house,
but if he keeps the flour bin filled and
the washboard in repair for his wife
he may consider that he is fulfilling
his duty and doing all Be should do.
"And when the man doesn't stop
at just being a general nuisance
around the house, but gets drunk,
runs around with other women and
doesn't provide for his wife and fam
ily until he's arrested and brought
in here on a nonsupport charge, then
he assumes an air of injured feelings
and says: 'Judge, it's all her fault;
she drove me to it with her nagging.'
"It isn't 50-50 between husband
and wife, it's 75-25 or 90-10, with the
ratio against the woman.
"Sometimes a husband expects so
much from a wife that the woman
w,ho could fill all requirements would
be little less than a saint, always
eager to give and willing to take a'
snarl for thanks. You see that in
here when a husband is told he must
pay half his salary each week or
month lor the support of the wife he
has deserted. He generally howls
that the award is too much, and the
reason he invariably gives is: "I am a
man, therefore I need more than
she," though she probably has from
one to a dozen children to feed on
the pittance, which is mostly not
more than $6 a week."
A case that well illustrates this
last point of Judge Stelk came up in
the domestic relations court the
other day.
A man deserted his wife" and child
and joined the army. None knew
where he was until his enlistment ex
pired, then he was found out and a
nonsupport warrant served.
During his absence the destitute
wjfe and mother submitted to famil
iarities with another man'in order to
secure money to keep her and her
child from being objects of public
charity. She contracted a loathsome
disease that has undermined her
health after wiping out the little nest
egg, that she had laid away.
Now the husband says he will not,
go back,to live with her. He says
that he behaved himself all of the
time he was away from her, but that
she was not good, that all the money
he would give her now would be
mostly used in the seemingly hope
less attempt to conquer the disease
"You're not playing fair-by your
wife, even if you did behave yourself
in the army' the judge told him,
"for if you hadn't left her slie would
not have sold her body to buy gro
ceries and fay rent and would ( not
have become diseased." '
STOLE $20,000; BROKE; PINCHED
L. Henri Charlebois, said to be a
forger who got $20,000 in' one job,
was picked up by the Chicago av. po
lice last night, penniless, hungry and,
half dead from exhaustion.
Thepolice think he is the man
who, while holding down a minor
position with the Canadian govern
ment, forged a check for $20,000 and
skipped. He was sent to the psy
chopathic hospital for treatment
Oak Parkers want village to oper
ate coal yard and sell coal at cost,
f
m
VM., -
