Still, their heavy drinking is spasmodic, and they are said to lose less time from work on account of intoxication than certain other nationalities. Says a Jersey City doctor practising among the Ruthenians, "They drink, but few die drunkards or hurt their health with alcohol. If a man does get drunk he is likely to be violent. If he strikes his wife she defends herself if she can, but she does not complain, for she knows he has 'a right to hit her' and that makes a great difference." In Slavic neighborhoods, American influence first shows itself in the rise of a community sentiment against alcoholic excess and in a growing refinement in festal customs. CRIMES OF THE PRIMITIVE PASSIONS For crime the Slav betrays no such bent as the South Italian. Aside from petty thieving--noted in some cases--the complaints of people near a Slav settlement center upon the affrays that follow in the wake of convivial drinking. The Bohemians have about the same criminal tendencies as the Germans. The other Slavs reveal the propensities of a rude, undeveloped people of undisciplined primitive passions. Animosity rather than cupidity is the motive of crime. When the Slav seeks illicit gain he takes the direct path of violence rather than the devious path of chicane; he commits robbery or burglary rather than theft or fraud or extortion. From crimes against chastity, and the loathsome knaveries that center in the social evil, he is singularly free. Morally, the stock is better than one would judge from the police records and from its reputation. No doubt if the descendants of these immigrants have the proper training and surrounding they will prove as orderly as the old American stock. SLAVIC BRUTALITY AND RECKLESS FECUNDITY Among the South Slavs "every married man," says Vrčević, as quoted by Professor W. I. Thomas, "strikes his wife black and blue at least once a month, or spreads a box on the ear over her whole face, or else people are likely to say that he is afraid of his wife." Their popular proverbs corroborate this, as for example: "He who does not beat his wife is no man." "Strike a wife and a snake on the head." "One devil is afraid of the cross, the other (the wife) of a stick." "The dog may howl, but the wife must hold her tongue." In one wedding-song the bride begs her husband: "Strike your wife only with good cause and when she has greatly vexed you." In another folk-song the young wife sings: "What sort of husband are you to me? You do not pull my hair, nor do you strike me!"