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WHY MEN ARE HANGED
happens to meet a man in the barn. This particular woman was given that latitude, willy-nilly, if not quite consciously.
In course of time, she became pregnant. Even that fact, when it came to be known to her keepers, did not provoke moral indignation sufficicntly strong to turn her out. For the good horse-sense of the peasant, unencumbered by moral cant, it would be silly to lose the labour power of a strong young woman on such an account as could be easily settled. She was ordered to keep under cover until the child was born, then get rid of it promptly by strangulation, and dispense with the remains neatly according to instruction. The alternative to obeying the order was cxpulsion from the only refuge in the hostile world, public disgrace, and a future too dreadful to visualise. If thc helpless woman was actually asked to choose between the alternatives is not known. However, she had to choose. There was no other way of escape. The man she mct in the barn, of course', would take no responsibility. Nor had she any claim on him. She chose to kill her child, failed to cover up the deed, was charged of an heinous offence, found guilty, and condemned. The whole tragic process was formally proper and legally justifiable, if not quite just. But perverse indeed is the sense of justice and morality which fails to sympathise with the unfortunate creature as a helpless victim of an immoral, unjust, cruel, stupid society.
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