THE HAPPINESS FLITCH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 27

THE HAPPINESS FLITCH.

ANCIENT TRIAL REVIVED. Jealous of-its ancient custom of awarding a flitch of bacon to the happiest married couple proving a claim, an example which has been copied in recent' times by the larger community of Ilford, the village of Dunmow, in Essex, has revived the trial ceremony after a lapse of 17 years. The judge was Mr Geoffrey Tyndale, a Divorce Court barrister, who assumed judicial ignorance on many matters, including “ curl rags." There were two flitches awarded, the winning couples being Mr and Mrs E. W. Walker, of the Downs, Dunmow, and Mr and Mrs P. VV. Goodey, of Great Easton. Mr Walker is cashier at the Dunmow bacon factory, and Mr Goodey is a postman. The donicstic life of the competing couples was thoroughly probed, and such important domestic subjects as the right breakfast to give a hungry man, and whether a husband should help his wife to wash the baby, were gravely considered by the jury of six maidens and six bachelors. • When one of the husbands was asked if bis wife wore curl rags at breakfast, the judge wanted to know what a curl rag was. Mr Mortimer, “ counsel for the bacon," obliged. " Curl rags,” he said, “ are implements used by the modern young lady as part of her running repair outfit.”