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In the meantime I made inquiries about the parties & some blamed the one & some the other. I found that Abner was an energetic industrious fellow, rather violent in temper, who was in the habit of beating his children & his wife too, till I commanded him to desist from beating his wife, which he has not done.

I think since the first offense. The beating of his children not being beyond the law, I could not legally prohibit as it would be interfering with his paternal rights and duties.

Since then the woman has been with complaints six or eight times but from the experience I had in the first two instances, I turned a deaf ear to her as she admitted to me he had not struck her since his promise not to do so. She seemed to me to be one of those constitutionally illgrained    women who are always wanting to have a quarrel, in order to make friends with her husband & quarrel again. 

The man is anxious to continue to