"I think Mr. Bicknell is straining a point when he lays wife desertion largely to bad cookery," said Jane Addams. "The subject is a vast and curious one. I have seen many cases of this offense, and every one almost was due to a different cause. We have a nursery here in Hull House, with many women who have been left by their husbands, and summing up all my experience in the matter I would not place bad cookery first among the reasons. Many English students of the problem believe that wife desertion usually occurs after the birth of the third child. By that time husband and wife have grown apart. It is comparatively easy to take two children about, but it is difficult for the pair to take three. So the man goes alone. That, however, is only one of the many theories advanced."
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