The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-19
E. Fl. DILLON & co,

be a OldCk HeChlAC+
 lrent in neruetual mourning because they are so foolish as to stay single and deprive themselves Of the society of a nice girl and the comforts of home There would be no danger Of Forgetting to put the tie on, because a man does not consider hlmseli dressed without one And if 1t were the law that he could wear only a black tie he'd wear rather than go without. Incidentally I don't think there'd be any spinisters in the coun- try if such a law were passed All the men know are simply crazy about having a large supply of ties On hand of varied hues. To release himself from the obligation to wear a black one continually the average man would do anything. A wedding would then mean a rousseau for him too. for he could exult in a perfect orgie of ties.'
 Hard times are ahead for the moral and social backsIider who is recreant to his obligations. In two distinctly different directions a movement has been started to make him known or all men, to the end that he may pc brought to boot for his shortcomings.
 One of the movements has origin ated with the retail merchants of the city who claim they are annually mulcted out of millions or dollars oS supposedly responsible people, moving in affIuent circles. More trouble is experienced in collecting bills from this class, say the sponsors Of the movement than from all other eIe- rnents of the city'S population, 1nclud- ing the poorest. With the avowed in tention of curtailing the activities or these dead beats" Rogues Gallery has been esta ablished in which will be kept for the benefit of members or the association photographs of of lenders, together with card index containing a full description of them, their habits of life, methods of doing merchants, etc. All new applicants for credit will be looked up in this gallery and if their pedigree is found on file there. his or her request will be denied. This is an elaboration Of the old credit system in vogue in all large cities. but in this instance will be so thorough and minute in it's de- tails that it will be almost impossi- bIe to put anything over on mer- chants" The other movement is even more unique than this and is abso- lutely new in its line.
 This is a sort of Rogue's Gallery of missing husbands and Is designed to facilitate the location and capture of wives and families.
 Within the last few years there has been a noticeable increase in the num- Der of wife assertions by men who tiring of their marital ties, consider the divorce courts a useless waste of time and money and take French leave. The legislature at its last ses- sion passed law making 1t felony for a father to desert his children, but this seems to have had no ter TOT for thousands of unhappily mar ried men. In the gallery are the photographs of the deserters with such other information about them as will be helpful in finding and identifying them Agents of the organization which has undertaken the task on be- half of the poorer wives of the city A1 fCIa cd ir1 1-i0 aTN- ies and through them the work of tracing the fugitives is being carried out. The organization is being con- ducted on the same lines as the gov ernment secret service and has re. course to a hundred different sources of information. To-date the results have been highly gratifying and hun- dreds of wives, with little children de- pendent on them for support, are now being supported in whole or in part by the reclaimed husband and father. So far no effort has been made to enforce the penal statute against them would be sure to be the victim in stead of the transgreSsing husband. Encoura ged by the results achieved by the organization, 1t is now intended to have the work taken up by other organizations of the city on behalf of other women than those of the ex- tremely poor classes to which the movement has tO-date been restricted.
 How much money should a minor be allowed to spend for his or her year ly maintenance? Every once and a while this question is put up to the courts by guardians and executors of estates but so far no formula for answering it has yet been devised co which all of the Justices of the Supreme court will subscribe. The question was raised again the other day when application was made to have the allowance of Frances F. Leg gett, the daughter of a millionaire merchant, who died here a few years ago, raised from sS5,Oo0 to $4O,OOO a year The mother of the young girl thinks she should be educated abroad in preference to her own country thereby inverting the judgment of Lord inverness who recently brought his young son to America to be edu- cated here so that he might become a man instead of one of Eton'S molly coddles.
 Ultimately, when Miss Leggett at tains her majority she will have an income of something like $75O00 a year. How she can now spend s45OOO a year was not made quite clear all ed a retinue of servants, special tu- tors. etc, besides a variety of wearing apparel suited to various climates Since there was no objection to the application from any one and con- cerned the young woman herself, the court gave it's consent to the extra allowance Recently a similar appli- cation by Mrs. J. Arthur Hickey to| be allowed to spend $15,O00 on her five