The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-07-16
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW BILL.
From the Chicago Post.)

From the Chicago Post.)
A bill has been introduced 10 the New YORK
Senate, and favOrably reported 0y the Judicl,
arY Oommittee. which Is irreverently styled
the Mother.in.law's bill. This malevolent en-
actment provides that whenever brutal hus-
band shall deny his wife The society ol her
friends or relations, or prevent her from al
tending divine service, or render her life un-
happy or uncomfortable, the injured female
shall be entitled to separation and aiimoay.
Whether this bill Is child to the brain.sweat OF
q designing Benedict, or an irresponsible
bachelor, the table -talker is unable to decide.
About It there is charming indefnitenesS
which cannot fall to commend Itself to the
female mind. Woman, bless herl Is utterly
nnconscious of number beneath million. OF
distance less than mile, OF amity less IMAM
love, or Of dislike less tnan PosltiVe hatreo
(Dos.itiye in italics, emphasized with stamp
Of the foot, Questions are therefore apt to
arise under this statute which may render
divorce In reality as faclle as 1t is popularly
heIieyed to be In Indiana. Thus. TOR instance,
TO what amount of the society OF her frlends
and relatives Is woman entltled! Gan
t.iriends" be legally construed to include your
Belinda's dearest friend
The friend she always shares her SORROW with,
Nedora Gertrude Wilhemina Smith
with whom she used to quarrel and condde at
arding-school, from whom she has received
long letters crossed thrice aHd full OF Italics
and affection, and who never travels without
three Saratoga trunks and bird-cage! ls the
young artist with long hair and wild express
elon IN his eye, on whom Belinda really doats,
for his lovely painting, or his dear singing, or
his angelic adding, or whatever peculiar
vanity he may affect, to be considered
s.trlendn and go come within the p roVlslons OF
the act? And again, as TO relatives. Are you
bound to entertain cousins unaWares, who
e1coriate Bells rosy mouth with military
though you wash your upper lip with zylobsl.
samum and make your chin never 80 smudgy?
II Belinds's big brother prefers smoking your
sacred Henry Clays and reading novels with
his Impious heels on your desk TO gaining his
bread by honest industry In the OIL and Vsrnisn
line, are you therefore compelled to find him
bed and board for the summer! Tnen, as 10
gentle reader ever notice that, whenever q
Soet wants to draw an ideal darling. like the
Princess in Tennyson or the ''girl fair as
rosebudn In Edwin of Deira, he makes the
mother die In childhood? This, however, is
depression. Well, the presence OF Beliudas
mother may be considered necessary, indeed
Indispensable, on occasions not wholly uncon-
nected with augmentations of the census re-
turns, but how much mother-in-law must
man endure, to rebel against which just ap-
portionment makes him "brute?" and ian
unfeeliug monster-there?" And when one
comes to divine service. who shall set the
bounds? Do the offices OF religion, indispens-
able to the American matron, include the fire.
quent assembling together at ones house of
sewing societies, whereat shirts without tails
and scandal without charity are constructed,
and all washed down with tea bitter as juice
OF cursed hebsnon In vial: If you will not
let Belinds be Sister OF the Stranger, or First
Dlrectress Of the ZooZoo Mynugpoo Calico Mis-
sion, or Secretary of the Society for the pro-
Motion of Something, or the Repression Of
Everything, may she, therefore, shake of the
dust Of her little bootees against your door