| Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Marriage Rules Annoy Wife SEATTLE WOMAN got a divorce divorce di di- A vorce the other day because her husband drew up a list of ot theten the theten theten ten commandments of ot marriage and requested that she sign it These laws included the following promises that she should never embarrass her husband that she pay attention when addressed addressed pre pre presumably by him that she neither smoke nor play the radio too loudly loudly loudly loud loud- ly nor keep him waiting nor make comparisons again presumably between him and other men that she shorten her telephone calls and make fewer that she not harp on topics of conversation that she cook three meals a day when requested requested requested re re- re- re quested at specified hours and that she continue to do well the things she has done well Now these rules of Mr Horowitz are not radical nor cruel in any anyway anyway anyway way and they embrace only such concessions as most good wives make to loving and generous hus hus- bands But the audacity and complacency complacency com of a man who can attempt to rise to a state of ot such superiority of ot such medieval male supremacy is something at which to marvel marvelin in these days I would visualize such sucha a man as small in every sense building up an innate and perhaps unconscious sense of ot inferiority by puffing his little self sel up Into something of ot a domestic dictator Too Busy Sniffing Somehow one doesn't imagine this man as whistling as he cleans the car Sunday mornings picking up a cookie as he goes through the kitchen admiring his wife's new permanent and lending a helping hand to Junior with his arithmetic No he Is too busy timing his wife's telephone conversations sniffing turn tt it lower to see if theres there's been any smoking watching her sharply to see how attentive she is to his account of the practical jokes he played when a boy in grammar school Few wives could stand that Dorothy Horowitz couldn't and she got her divorce It must have been a great shock to her husband because a man must feel himself perfect to demand such perfection The clause that especially impressed Im im- Impressed pressed me was that she must promise to continue to do the things she has done well No letup letup let let- up for Dorothy under the new rules But in a happy marriage the take give-and-take can include most of these marital suggestions without friction A tired man relaxed with the big chair and the newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper can permissibly call out to his telephoning wife honey could Clarissa get it through her e head that exactly at six o'clock is not nota a good hour to go over the whole week In review Including references references refer refer- I to your happy childhood Some I He may say in perfect safety Mollie weve we've thrashed this affair af at alefair fair of Carolines Caroline's marriage dry I ILet's Lets Let's w wait until we know more He may even yell Turn it low er erl Keep it on keep It t on if It the kids are arc so crazy about the program program program pro pro- gram but turn it down Yes and which one of ot our loving husbands hasn't said to his loving wife Would you mind looking up from from that pattern and listening to Judy's doll house problems long enough to give me your attention for three minutes One husband I 1 knew with such constancy used to shout I want your undivided attention that the very babes of ot the household used the phrase among themselves Yet that marriage held happily for more than 40 years As for tor embarrassing your mate only immature adolescent little wives of ot the junior prom school think that is coquettish and funny Nothing makes a real wife more sorrowful than accidentally to expose ex ex- expose pose to others some weakness or mistake of ot the little man That Isan is isan isan an easy game to play but too expensive expensive ex ex- pensive to be a part of ot the bigger game of marriage One wife I knew spoke perfect English because of a European education She didn't say much that was worthwhile worth worthwhile worthwhile while in that language or in her own fT fr that matter The Horowitz rules offend the dignity of ot women because they are superfluous It Is as 1 if Dorothy had asked her spouse please to put his shoes on the right feet and get out of ot the bus at the corne come nearest his office If U such rules are necessary necessary sary in a marriage they wont won't I have any effect They are all aU implicit implicit im im- in in inthe the original covenant covenant- I with the possible exception of smoking which ought to be settled as it were out of ot court his reasons reasons rea rea- sons against and hers for being taken into account |
