HUSBAND GRABBING AND W.FE-RIGHJ. The Latest Sooiological Development

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 203, 14 May 1887, Page 7

HUSBAND GRABBING AND W.FE- RIGHJ. The Latest Sooiological Development

The , Legislature of Indiana has at present before it a very remarkable bill, which is notable as an attempt to bring the law into harmony with the. moral sense of the community. It is a bill for the legalisation of wilful murder under certain cii'cum<stances. It declares that whenever the seducer of a woman ib slain either by her father, her husband, or her brother, the homicide shall be regarded himply as a misdemeanor, or be punishable only by a line without imprisonment. "Seduction" in Indiana, of course, we take to mean seduction in the worst sense of the term — that, is, seduction followed by desertion and disgrace, seduction accomplished by fraud or force. It would be absurd to make it apply to cases where two adults voluntarily enter into relations which may be described us a marriage without legal or religious sanction. This legalisation of piivate vengeance, which strikes many as letrogiade, is in reality a natural and healthy reaction against the .abominable inditleience with Avhich society llun acquiesced in the ruin of women as ipurt of the natural and necessary amusement of man. To make seduction a capital iWfonce would bo los efficacious. The woman whose life has been blighted would ,seldou,< face the ordeal of a public trial, i»nd the more refined the victim the less chance of the ciiminal being brought to justice. The .Indiana proposal ha.*, at any late a fine old JTebiaic flavour about it, walling the"* avenger of blood and cities of lofuge, awl we should not be much' surprised it itucic placed on the Staiuteboolc of the .State. There is a <-to;'y r "l ( ' "' - 1 " t -'^ ( ' < Jlcnt Methodist pieachtir in (leoigia, s.hose sister vv.i- juine-l by u -eonndrel in .mother part ol the State. Oui good Methodist shouldered <i shotgun, saddled his horse, rode '230 miles through the woud->, shot the seducer dead at sight, and then 10 'c back, none daiing to do him haun, letuuiingin time to take his usual place in the pulpit on Sunday. He was never interfered with either by the sheiifTor by his ecclesiastical superiors. His conduct was regarded not only as natural, but as in the highest degree public-spirited and praiseworthy. The leading case in Ameiica, howe\er, \k, that of (Jeneral Sickles, who deliberately shot his wife' 1-*1 -* paramour through the head in the public treet at Washington and escaped scot free. The p-u.imour, .Button Key, was the son of the man who wrote The Star Spangled Banner. Public opinion sided with Sickles, three laAAjeis deiendid him, the jury acquitted him, and he \va-> afterwards sent as Minister of the United States to Madrid. In this country there is less respect paid to the irregular executioner of natuial justice. We doubt whether, if Mr Crawford had shot Sii Chailes J)ilke dead at the door of the Reform Club, any jury in London would have refused to return a verdict of wilful murder. X, however, the co-icspondent had been .surprised at Warren-stre«t his summary extinction would probably have been folloAved by an acquittal. In Ireland, where the light of private vengeance is recognised more widely than in the United Kingdom, the man who slew the seducer Avould come under the same comprehensive unAvritten laAv which extends an amnesty to the landlord -slayer and moonlight nnudoier. There Mere few Adio'did not approve of the as-vivsination of Loid Leitrim, and theie is a veiy uido^piead feeling of disgust that others ha\e not shared his fate. Aiehbishops, Bishops, and even the IaAV oiueers of the Crown and Cabinet Minister* have not hesitated to declare that any landlord oi agent A\ho abased his position in order to corrupt the avia'Cs and daughter » ot his tenants ought to be shot; but probably if the just sentence were executed, the avenger Avould be hunted down by the public prosecutor. One consolation, however, Avould be afforded him. No Irish juiy Avould e\er condemn the hero avlio risked his neck to saA r e the countryside from a monster. A much more remarkable sociological development, and one that is much less defensible, is the theory that husbandgrabbers may be killed as legitimately as seducers. A husband-grabber, it should be explained, is a woman Avho marries n man Avho has previously had childien by another woman, A\ithout having the consent of his deserted mistress. A very remarkable case tried in Francw last Aveek shows a tendency to regard husbandgrabbing as a capital offence. An officer in the French army, after living for several years Avith a mistress by Avhom he had three children, deserted her and married another. Ho made his cast-oft" mistress an alloAvance, Avhieh after some scenes he ultimately stopped. The discarded one, savage Avith jealousy and suilering from actual destitution, sent her 12 year-old son Avith a revolver to kill the woman Avho had taken her mother's place. He tramped to toAvn and arrived in rags Avith bleeding feet at his father's house. His father received him kindly, fed him and clothed him. The boy waited his opportunity and fired shot after shot into his father's wife. He Avounded her seriously, but not fatally. On his arrest his mother Avrote : "He has not killed her. That I regret. He has tried to d 6 his duty. I give him my blessing. I demand to share in the punishment for the vengeance Avhich I devised." They Avere tried for attempted murder. The facts Avere clear. Neither mother nor son attempted to disguise their guilt. But the jury acquitted them unanimously. The reason is obvious. In the eyes of the jurors a husband-grabber has no rights. She is as a land-grabber iiv Ireland an outlaAV— hod t a humani ye.ne.ris, Avhose removal by her evicted predecessor is no crime. The analogy is very close betAvecn the ethics of husband-grabbing and landgrabbing. The deserted ny tress and the evicted tenant have bee* i • more cruelly Avronged by the faithless h\ .band and the ruthless landlord than -by u uvnow Avife or the neAV tenant, bufc it is against fcke latter, not against the former, that vengeance is usually directed. A , dumb instinct guides them in both oases, ,and the net result of their action may possibly be the legal recognition of rights .which are at present but unredressed ,\f rongs. Without going the length of the French doctrine, that the husband-grabber may be shot at sight, . it f is., obvious that immense good Avoula result "from" the "establishment of the doctrine 1 of wife-right. ,A\>, .present* hn'sb'and'-'grabbing > goes on all; , .rOjUnd to the complete ignoring .of' (Hie prior wife-Eig^tt^v^edf /jijn', 'tl\e } m ! stj' mistresses, ,j»f, t the, M eligible bridegrooms. Jf Avoine^ c,o,u,\d,!;but',be got to .bpyqott tiip husband.igi]abber' tljey, would 'considerably iniproVe „ss,. .of tlieir/sex. Income fare cases women are do'ctbine ,of- Avife'-right> in x '<)ther ithan 1 their ovf ni. person^ ;* but tlid oases' sViro few-iti | wh^pji a ,AVomaTVAVoidd*ref\tseaJß?o6d niatch because her suitor has Already" conferreduponariOther.^p^i^^^^pqfti^ilitiiqs^f bearing his QlxUdi:^^^ jP.ne^emar^ablQ case, recently jenspe A^l^-Wiaji. civilian hi Burmalj r.^CTJi.AW, Mm dutie n Bormah. One clay a Burmese

fWdy called. at v 'tliB office. K"Wlio iis'eie^ inquired Mrs — of her attendant. V Oh, that was master's Burmese wife. " Mrs — — packed up her boxesj and When her l husband returned, she said, " How dare you marry me when -you have already a woman who is morally , your wife ? „ T leave by the next mail !" And leave ?hc did, dip playing a resolution that throws the faixcus repudiation of land-grabbing by Murty Hynes far into tho shade. Many devices have been tried for improving the morals of society, but hitherto they have met Avith but indifferent success. Perhaps the cultivation of a healthy detestation of husbandgrabbing and husband-grabbers might contribute materially to the gcort^ work Wives at present alone have rights. They are like Irish leaseholders. Mistresses are like tenants at will. But even tenants at will have now teitfint right, and if husband-grabbing becomes unpopular, who knows but some matrimonial Mr Gladstone will arise who will confer upon tenants at will the full measure of that security which at present is the exclusive privilege of the holder of a contract under seal ?— " Pall Mall Gazette."