TIL that Henry Lawson's poem "One Hundred and Three" was about his experience in prison for drunkenness and non-payment of alimony, about 100 years ago.

carchamp1 · 2010-07-08T17:30:28+00:00

"At this time, Lawson became withdrawn, alcoholic, and unable to carry on the usual routine of life."

Wow. They could have written this about me. Marriage really is hell on earth.

2010-07-07T09:31:45+00:00

2010-07-07T21:40:57+00:00

The clever scoundrels are all outside, and the moneyless mugs in gaol—
Men do twelve months for a mad wife’s lies or Life for a strumpet’s tale.
If the people knew what the warders know, and felt as the prisoners feel—
If the people knew, they would storm their gaols as they stormed the old Bastile.

And the cackling, screaming half-human hens who were never mothers nor wives
Would send their sisters to such a hell for the term of their natural lives,
Where laws are made in a Female Fit in the Land of the Crazy Fad,
And drunkards in judgment on drunkards sit and the mad condemn the mad.

This is a two-verse extract from the poem, which was published in 1908. Men still face heavy penalties for a mad wife's lies (go ask Pierce Harlan) and laws are still made in a fit in the land of the crazy fad (would someone think of the children‽). How times have changed...

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