A Neighbor's Warning From Deer Valley
A drunk husband beat his wife until neighbors pulled him off. She swallowed poison and nearly died. The Miner printed the warning without a name — just a promise that he would be 'taken in hand.'
Residents of Deer Valley have informed the Miner of an inhuman brute in that neighborhood who is a wife-beater. One day last week he came home drunk and but for the interference of neighbors would have killed the unfortunate woman. The woman in despair took a dose of poison and came near dying. If he does not cease his evil ways he will be taken in hand and treated according to his merits.
“But for the interference of neighbors would have killed the unfortunate woman. The woman in despair took a dose of poison and came near dying.”
In 1908 a battered woman had almost no legal recourse — no protection orders, no shelters, and a press that reported her crisis as an item about a 'brute' rather than a crime with a name attached. What the item does preserve is the neighbors: it was their intervention that kept her alive, and their pressure that the paper put in print. A century later, domestic violence is still most often interrupted by somebody nearby deciding to act.
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