AMERICAN MOTHER-IN-LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 15, 17 January 1914, Page 15

AMERICAN MOTHER-IN-LAW.

THEIK ASSE-TITTETXESS CAUSES TROUBLE. FOUR CASES IN THE COUCBTS. The mother-in-law has for many years been a subject for jocularity on the part of American humorists; but, from latest papers to toand, the lady has more vigorously asserted herself as a disturbing factor in family life, and apparently claims to be taken seriously. Xo fewer than four of these aggressive elderly females are before the courts of the United States —two of them as defendants in actions for boavy damages for "alienating the affections" of .wives, one for assaulting her son-in-law, and one for being a party to ibe kidnapping of a bride.

.Mrs. Isabella Barton, the widow of a rich Californian prospector, has .been made the defendant in a remarkable suit for damages by her son-in-law, Mr. Telamon Cuyier, who claims £100,000 for the alleged alienation of his wife's affections. Mr. •Cuyler is -the son of a rich cotton factor of Atlanta of the name of Smith, but he adopted the patronymic of Cuyler because Miss Barton objected to cha-gimg her name •to Smith. He declares that after he bad yielded to his wife's repeated requests to a-ba-ndon a lucrative law .practice at Atlanta she deserted him and went to California, where, in submission to —treats of her mother to disinherit iher, she secured a divorce without even notifying him. Mrs. Cuyler, to whom the court granted the custody of her two children, denies that her mother exercised any .pressure on -her to secure a divorce. 'She and her mother tooth declare that a divorce was granted because of ■__■."* Onyler's neglect to sup.port her and her children. Bernard Bosenbei-g demands £10.000 damages -from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Josephine Moore, and his two sisters-in-law , Ina Starges and Hilda McMamis, of Tivoli, New York, for alleged alienation of his wife's affections. Bosentoerg says his mother-in-law started a-n annulment action against him, alleging falsely that he is a man of bad repute. •A despatch from Minneapolis, dated December 6, states:—When Mrs. Mary Anderson (60) spanked her son-in-laiw, F. Williams, he coiled the police and Sirs. Anderson was arraigned in court. Williams, who is thirty-eight, told the conrt his mother-in-hrw had lived with him for a number of years, and he had .put up with all kinds of abuse, but when she struck him in the face and smashed his meerschaum pipe it was more than he could stand. "He was too fresh a young man, your Honor, so I spanked him good and hard, .that's all," Mrs. Anderson explained. A Chicago message dated December (5 states:—(Ross A. Shaffer, a young clerk, whose bride, Mrs. Lovetta Murphy Shaffer, was taken away from him onHheir wedding day, October 29, by her mother and brother, Mrs. Mary Murphy amd diaries Murphy, ■has started habeas corpus proceedings, claiming that she is being illegally detained by *ne defendants. Judge Goodwin issued ■the writ commandhig the defendants to produce the girl in court. Shaffer caused _he arrest of his mother-in-law and 'brother-in-law at the South Chicago Station, charging disorderly conduct, and Mrs. Murphy started a suit to annul the marriage in the Circuit on the ground that her daughter is only seventeen years old and swore falsely that she was of legal age when the marriage license was obtained. ,