8.  Money Troubles.—­As has already been said, it is impossible to show any direct relation between small incomes and desertion.  The connection between low wage and non-support is of course a great deal closer.  The inadequate income unquestionably acts indirectly to break down family morale in much the same way as does lowered physical vitality.

But marital discord that springs from the handling of the family finances is another matter, and it recurs regularly in the history of what went on prior to desertion.  One deserter, traced to a southern city, returned voluntarily and begged the assistance of the social worker interested to reform his wife’s spending habits.  “I made good money and I never opened my pay envelope on her,” said he, “but the week’s wages was always gone by Thursday.”  Many men, however, who make a boast of turning over unbroken pay envelopes to their wives borrow back so much in daily advances that their net contribution is only a fraction of their wages.

Some desertions brought about by financial difficulties are not, strictly speaking, marital problems at all.  Debts resulting from his own extravagance or dishonesty may cause a man to leave home to escape prosecution or disgrace.  One such man kept in touch with his family, sending money at irregular intervals for some years, but always moving on to another place before he could be found.  It proved impossible to get in communication with him, and finally he stopped writing and disappeared.

9.  Ill Health:  Physical Debility.—­All social workers agree that physical condition plays a part, though usually only indirectly and secondarily, in causing desertion.  In the man, it may lower his vitality, cause irregular work, and superinduce a condition of despondency and readiness to give in.  In the woman, it brings about careless housekeeping, loss of attractiveness, and disinclination to marital intercourse—­all factors which contribute directly to desertion.  Continued ill health of the wife brings burdens, financial and other, which may help through discouragement to break down the husband’s morale.

There should be included here some consideration of one of the most puzzling types of abandonment—­the “pregnancy desertion.”  Attempts have been made to explain it on the ground of the instinctive aversion of the male sex for domestic crises.  But the impulse that causes the prosperous householder to move to his club when house-cleaning time arrives will hardly serve to explain such a custom, and as a matter of fact other domestic crises, such as illnesses of the children, do not have any such effect upon the man who habitually absents himself from home before the birth of each child.  Other possible reasons for it are the well-known irritability and “difficulty” of women in this condition, and their aversion to sexual intercourse.  Some pregnancy deserters take the step in the hope that their wives will bring about an abortion; but this is a modern and sophisticated development and the institution of “pregnancy desertion” is one of undoubted antiquity.  Its prevalence among certain European immigrants would almost point to its being a racial tradition.  Ethnologists who have studied strange marriage customs, such as the “couvade,” ought to turn their attention to discovering the causes of this other and socially more important marital vagary.