MODEL HOME LIFE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2141, 24 December 1920, Page 11

MODEL HOME LIFE.

"MY WIFE SHALL BE BOSS." That the matrimonial ship can be wrecked even when there is a "family code," drafted by an apparently model husband, in which the wife is proclaimed the "boss of tha house," is evident from the case of Beverley Towles, a New Jersey illustrator and advertising agent. ; The "family code" in question ran as follows: — My Duty to My Wife. My wife comes first before everything and everybody, and shalt have iny salary every week. She shall be boss of the house, and shall have everything to say about home life, like pleasures and comforts; must have attention, such as outings and theatres when we can afford them. No swearing or insults or rude treatment around the house. No slobbering or love-making to other women around the house, or calling on or corresponding with other women. No argument or mentioning anything that has happened in the past, which must be forgotten for ever. You can have your friends and go around with them, but they must be respectable, and you cannot go with people I object to. This means women only. In spite of this (writes the "Central News" New York correspondent), Mrs

Marie Jacobean Towles has sued for separation in the New York Supreme Court, and is receiving £4 a week temporary alimony. In the New Jersey Chancery Court her husband has sued for divorce, alleging desertion. Their home was formerly at Keyport, New Jersey, where Mr Towles, acting as his own designer and carpenter, built a handsome little bungalowt It was in Mrs Towles 's answer to the divorce suit, denying that she deserted her husband, that - the family code came to light. The code, Mrs Towles swore in her affidavit, was written in September, 1919, by Mr Towles, and is a proof that they were living together at the time, although the husband swears the desertion occurred in 1916. As further proof that they were living together in 1919 she quotes from a will which she says he made on December 13 last, bequeathing "to my beloved wife Marie" the bungalow and half of his shares in the art service of which he is president. The couple were married in Keyport, but apparently the wife did not think highly of the place, as her husband quoted her, in an affidavit, as saying: "The people of Keyport are a bunch of clan-diggers, and I wouldn't willingly be buried there, let alone live there."