Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
Nor would he speak until Lindsey arrived; everybody had to wait.
It was a high point for me at this time, so soon after my own court
appearance, to have Judge Lindsey preside at my meeting. Formerly my
listeners, with the exception of Indianapolis, had been chiefly of the
working class. Here they were wives of doctors, lawyers, petty
officials, members of clubs.
I was more than delighted to have an audience which had the power to
change public opinion. The “submerged tenth” had no need of theories nor
the proof of the advantages of family limitation; they were the
proof—the living example of the need. It was vitally important to have
reflective hearers who not only themselves used contraceptives, but who
advanced thought through literature, discussions, and papers. To them I
was telling the story of those millions who could not come, and trying
to relate it as I knew it to be true. Stimulating them offered the best
possibility of getting something done.
Judge Lindsey invited me to sit on the bench with him the next morning,
and I watched enthralled the way he handled his cases. The familiar
court method was punishment, and the more punishment the better. But he
operated on the new psychology. For instance, he attempted to inculcate
a sense of responsibility in one boy who had disobeyed his mother and
run away from school, by showing him his indebtedness to her, how he
should be helping rather than causing her grief.
The same tactics were employed in the case of Joseph, charged with
assault on his wife, Nelly, who stood silently in the background, shawl
over her head. Lindsey read the evidence, then said, “Joseph, come over
here.”
Joseph stepped nearer, appearing somewhat guilty, as men of his status
usually did when they came into court.
“What’s this I hear about you? Why did you strike Nelly?”
“She made me mad,” Joseph mumbled.
“Joseph, turn your head and look at your wife. Look at her! Look!—thin,
pale, weak, and you a big strong man striking that delicate little
woman. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself to beat Nelly? You who promised to
love, honor, and protect her?”
The reprimanding lasted fully two minutes. Finally tears began to spring
from Nelly’s eyes and to run down her face. She moved forward, took
Joseph by the hand, and said, “Oh, he’s not so bad, Judge.” Joseph then
embraced her. Instead of punishing him, which would in effect have also
been punishing Nelly, Judge Lindsey put him on parole to report back in
two months’ time, and husband and wife went out arm in arm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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