Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-27
A CASE OF HARDSHIP.

Are the Courts to cast their influence
against peace and order in the household ?
Here we have the Supreme Court Of Iowa
declaring that an agreement between hus-
band and wife not to quarrel, to live to-
gether in peace if not in love, to dis
charge the obligations incumbent by rea-
son of the marriage relation, is compact
against public policy, and that recovery
cannot be had upon it to enforce payment
Of the allowance made to the wife, But
as the document is itself novelty, and
has no parallel in legal or matrimonial
history, it is worthy of presentation in full,
and here it is:
agreement and complaint Of whatever charac-
ter or kind shall be absolutely ignored and
buried and no allusion thereto, by word or talk,
10 each other shall ever be made.
Each party agrees to refrain from scolding,
1authnding and anger in so far as relates to the
future, and to use every means within their
power to promote peace and harmony.
That each shall behave respectfully and fairly
treat the other.
That Mrs Miller shall keep her home and
family in a comfortable and reasonably good
necessary expenses of the family, and shall IN
addition thereto pay Mrs. Miller for her indi-
yidual use two hundred dollars per year, pay
able sixteen and two-thirds dollars per month,
| so long as Mrs. Miller shall faithfully observe
| the terms and conditions of this agreement.
They agree to live together as husband and
wife and observe faith 'ully the marriage rela-
| tons, and each to live virtuously with the
other.
Mrs. Miller kept her contract to the
letter She smiled upon her husband, she
! scolded not, she trained up her chill
dren in the way they should go, she kept
her house tidy, she entertained Miller's
friends, mended his clothing, made her
self presentable in presentable times, hon
ored the mans house and brought credit
upon his name. But Miller was deceived
in the woman after all. For, trusting to
her gracious ways and beguiied by the
peace and content of his freside, he neg
lected, after a time, to "come down y
promptly with the sixteen and two-thirds
dollars, and though at first Mrs. Miller
said nothing at the last she sought out a
lawyer and sued for the sum nominated in
the bond All the while she held her
peace at home and proved faithful to her
compact in every detail How now is this
F, trusting, patient woman rewarded? The
chief tribunal of her State rises up in its
strength and dignity, puts its foot upon
! the contract, and declares that an agree
ment to keep the peace, to be amiable
kind and clearly and virtuous is void
when made by husband and wife. This
important body says to Mrs. Miller, and
through her to all wives, Dear Ladies
By the marital relation you voluntarily
assumed you were, are bound to do all
that in this bond is specified, for these
things are essential to domestic felicity
and lie at the very foundation Of all con.
jugal happiness. The law viii not, there
fore, permit you, ladies, to boycott your
husbands into paying for those duties you
are bound to discharge, precisely as these
men you marry are bound to remain by
you, in sickness and in health, through
good and through evil report, and to give
you share and share alike of all they
acquire during marriage-but we admit
ladies, that the law makes these same
fellows custodians of all such acquisitions