ever, when youth and high temper seem to have caused the trouble and
there is real affection to build upon, a speedy resumption of life
together is usually the best thing.

A young woman with one baby said that her husband had got drunk and
threatened her with a knife. They quarreled and he went to relatives
in another city. Neighbors testified how devoted the couple had been
to each other, describing the young man as handy about the house
though "lazy about finding work." He was visited by the family
social agency in the city to which he had gone, and wrote a penitent
letter asking to come home. The wife agreed; the man immediately
returned, got work, and succeeded in overcoming his incipient bad
habits. The death of the baby soon after his return seemed only to
draw the couple more closely together. The case was soon after
closed; nothing has been heard in the three years since to indicate
that any further trouble has developed.

A study recently made under the auspices of the Philadelphia Court of
Domestic Relations seems to show somewhat better results from court
reconciliations than might have been expected. One thousand and two
couples who were reconciled in court during the year 1916 were visited
from six to eighteen months later. Three hundred and ten had separated
or had had further differences which brought them to court; 87 could not
be found, and 605, or about 60 per cent, were found to be still living
together, though with a varying degree of marital happiness, as the
report somewhat drily states.[37]

It should be said that many of these families were probably under the
supervision of a probation officer for a longer or shorter period after
the reconciliation took place. There is no statement as to the number of
repeated deserters among the men, and we cannot estimate how many of the
605 fell within the group which might chance to have the proper basis
for reconciliation.

The practice of the Desertion Bureau maintained by the New York
Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor is as a rule not to
advise reconciliations without a definite preliminary period during
which the man shall contribute regularly and show that he means
business. "The kind of reconciliation that lasts is the one that is
effected with some difficulty to the man," its secretary remarked. The
same probation department which furnished the stories of hasty and
unsuccessful reco