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SHIRT ST) HERE New Neighbors By Richard H. Wilkinson € as 1 be ee un The Whitney's living room ; oir a court. Across the : were the windoivs of another apar)- ment. Occasionally Paul Whitney, velaxed on his couch, could see = people moving arotind there. After ta day or two he decided that the occupants were a young. childless couple who spent a good deal of time at-home. : : "I'd like to get to know them," Paul confided to his wife. Mrs. Whitney: sighed." "I would, too. We've béen here a month now and haven't met a soul. Do you suppose I ought to go over and call?" . : Paul shook his, head doubtfully, "1 wouldn't -- not. without some " ~good excuse. You know © how apartment dwellers arc. They might think we were imposing." le glan- ced across the court. '"Théy have- a much better apartment than cours." Sek "Better?" : "Why, it's obviously their living room we can look into and, if you'll notice, there are windows on both sides." : Mrs. Whitney followed her husband's gaze. Without effort * she could look into their neigh- bors' living room and see the window on the wall opposite. "That's so," she admitted. "Mrs. Whitney went into the kit- chen and Paul rose and strolled idly toward the,window of his own living room. On the chance of be- ing observed, he Pane "amine a potted plant of we sill. Surreptitiously he glanced across "«. .the court, and was shocked to see = the head and shoulders of a man framed in the window om the fur a side of their neighbors' living room. He called his_wife, and, standing - well back so as not to be observed, they peered: across the court, But the figure in the window on the far side and vanished. "You're positive you Saw some- one?" Mrs, Whitney asked. i] "Positive!" Paul aflirmed. "Ought awe to mnotify-the police?" . -- Sy "You're positive you saw someone?" Mrs. Whitney asked. Whoever it is is the police We'd appear "1 wouldn't. gotiec, and perhaps wouldn't believe us: ridiculous." Loe Two evénings later Paul again -- saw the peeping Tom. He was -- standing in the same position, and sight of the man at the window of: their neighbor's "apartment gave him the same unexpected shock. "I'm going to do something about it. Sooner or later the chap will conjure enough courage 'to break his way is," Paul said. ? "Let's go over there and warn the people, tell them what we saw and then let: them do as they like. "about it." She hesitated. "Perhaps we can strike up an acquaintance)" They crossed to the neighboring apartinent and knocked. = A pleas- ant-faced woman opened the door. . "Are you Mrs. Phelps?" Mrs. Whitney asked. The wonran nodded and Mrs. Whitney satd: "We're Mr, and Mrs. Whitney from across the court. We" i" Come right-in} Frank and I "were thinking of calling on you." _ The Whitneys entered and were I greeted cordially by Mr. Phelps. "I'm afraid," said Paul, "that we came on rather an unpleasantymis3- = "gion," And he explained what they had seen. Mr, Phelps looked puzzled. "There's something wrong _ here. Woeuld you mind step- 'ping' into the living room?", They followed him in and he * pointed toward the far wall. ' "You see we have no windows © on that wall, edd He' broke off as Mrs, Whitney gasped. "Why, it wasti't a wifidow 'at alll Tt wag that mirror! You see, it hangs where a window 'might be, and faces our apartment, + Paul . Whitney, it was your ow reflection you saw! Standing near the flower pot, you saw yotirself in_the mirror, and jt appear=d that some one else was peering io at the Phelpses!" SURES Paul's jaw dropped. He swal- ky lowed, grinned and looked sheepish, -- But the Phelpses thought {t was a ? grand joke, and urged their new. with: 200,000 bushels of fruit. The apples were swept from a fruit packing company's outdoor stockpile and bobbed merrily downstrean. ] = EA, Sat A Hg . (oA YY iy idass -- BAEC IPELATE $8 35 A ad 2k . 95 de of ESL LS Lyi ANS i AEF ny Io FIN Aa Uru Husbands In Revolt Choose Jail Instead Britain's great post-war marriage muddle is creating a new race of jailbirds,, One man in every eight who goes to prison in England and Wales today is there for non-pay- ment of a maintenante order. A sullen, embittered army of 3,400 husbands defiantly- chose jail last year rather tlian contribute to their wives' support, Many of these de- . termined men consider themselves the injured party. Members of Parliament and ma- gistrates are urging the appoint- ment of a Royal Commission to set things straight.-Says Mrs. Bar- baia Castle, M.P.: "I don't believe men are naturally the 'errant sex. There are cases where the wife is the exploiting party." Says Lieut.- Cal. M. Lipton, M.P.: "The great majority of these: imprisoned hus- bands are being hounded by vindic- tive wives!" 3 There are young husbands driven to desertion by their. wives' wild behaviour, men who know their wives are committing adultery but cannot obtain conclusive legal_evi- -dence. There are men who agreed to a separation from a guilty wife "for the children's sake" only to find thenyselves dragged into court a few manths later, - maintenance men--in jail at the taxpayers' expense--are callous rot- sibilities. Yet some husbands feel so aggrieved at the present system that they -go to prison rather than pay allowances' of $8.00 or so a week, yi "I married a girl who bore two illegitimate. children, who robbed -- and nearly ruined me, and finally arranged a: desertion charge. Why should. 1 support her?" Such is a typical statement made to a former chaplain of Wormwood Scrubs. "No matter how many kinds of-a devil a woman may be, she has only to adopt a pathetic attitude in court, squeeze out a few tears, and tlie day is hers under the present laws," said another man, who has become -a-piageer membeglof the newly-formed Maced SoA) Asso- ciation. . g "In 1950 tite problem is cothipli- cated "by an impending gold-rush ary a new Married Women '(Main- tenance) Act raised the maximum allowance from $4 to $10 a week and from $2.00 to $6.00 for children, Many wives who did not press for committal orders for a meagre $8.00 are now having second thoughts. Admittedly, a percentage of the -|' ters who have shirked their respon-- "Better wait. Maybe he'll_pay up of some. 200,000 wives. Last Janu-_. Many more men are therefore likely to choose prison rather than payment, urged by the sheer "unémotional" sanity of cold econo: mics, for in most cases mainten- ance arrears are wiped out by the maximum three months' sentence. * Admitted, this is a sympathetic presentation of a man's point of® view. Husbands. can gain separa- tion orders on only three .counts-- the wife's adultery, drunkenness, or persistent" cruelty to the children. A wife has cight counts- against a husband, of them highly technical. : Commonest grounds ave desertion: No fewer than 25000 women were. deserted their husbands last year. One marriage ineiery six- teen breaks down mn this way. And what of the woman's viewpoint? A ° deserted wife may be too elderly or too frail to work, She becomes a charge on relativés or on public assistance .. unless her srun- away husband can be traced. L Many men clear oui of the coun" try. Legally, maintenance orders can be upheld and enforced to the point of imprisonment in 'Belfast, Hong Kong or the Falkland Islands, Under existing law, however, a maintenance order ~cannot- be- en- forced in Eire at the Channel Isles: The Attorney-General of Guernsey stated recently that over 300 Eng- lish 'husbands have taken cmploy- ment in the Istands: deliberately to some by avoid payment. --of maintenance orders. When "a wife is allowed main- tenance -and - the husband fails to pay, she takes out a. summons for default. Eventually a warrant is issued to ciforce payment. If the husband still refuses. to pay, jail . results, Small wonder, then, if court officers usually advise wives, use of lays the What's the that next month. killing the goose golden eggs?" Jurists have yet to grapple with this outsize matrimonial jigsaw puzzle; -A-man who leads a reason ably steady life may be marching along the maintenance highway to jail, Yet the man who walks out of his home, changes his name and disappears, has the laugh of the law. Eg agi dae ToT In Scotland, maintenance pay- ments are deducted. from wage packets on the PA.Y.E. system, England and Wales, it is argued, could set up a similar system. But perhaps the King's Proctor: should be charged with the task of probe ing all maintenance summonses, exposing vindictive motives on the pact of cither husband or wife and ensuring 'utmost impartiality in this "tragic aftermath' of smashed mar- riages.--From "Tit-Bits". : $s. £ 3 2 TEN A Happy Reunion--T k warm greetings in a reunion New York after his return neighbors to spend the evening » . + ' Ret he Duke and Dich ahoatd the SS Queen Elizabeth in 10; laughed off rumors that their marriage, for which the gaye up the thone of England, had become shaky. ] wrt ; ess of Windsor exchange m Europe, The royal couple 1 ; Duke fost FEBRUARY test : 1 2 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 10} 11 12 13 14 18 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 26 27 28 : ~ Happy New Year 5 . 16 16 22 23 29 30 110 11.12 13 14 18 17 18 19 20 21 22 24 26 26 27 28 20 30 a N = ae {! Ix RL x «a 3) = Coune Whedon, It's casy to have exquisite smock- ing on children's clothes or on yours. Four designs; use as is or repeat for wider bands. Smocking-made-casy Pattern 531; . directions; charts for 4 simpie-to-do designs. 2 shown. poll Laura Wheeler's improved pattern makes crochet aid knitting so simple with its charts, photos and- concise directions, - - - --- Send TWENTY-FIVE CENTS in coins (stamps cantot be ac- cepted) for this pattern to Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St, New Toronto, Ont. Print plainly PATTERN NUMBER, your NAME and ADDRESS. Newl Household accessories to knit] Motifs to paint on textiles! Send Twenty-five: Cents (coins) for our new Laura Wheeler Needle- craft Book. Illustrations of crochet, embroidery patterns plus many fascinating hobby ideas. And a free pattern is printed in the -book. Second Front. In Oklahoma City, while Patrolman Sam "Billings and Travis Brown were questioning" a motorist stopped for speeding, two armed thugs made off with $30 from a filling station directly across the road. : , Ra Boom - Boom - Boom Is Booming 'But What IS That Awful Thing? Richard Kleiner _ . By The music business is going through a boom in boom-booms booms these days. And it's alt-bg- cause of a song called "The Thing," a bouncy tunc-that is sending. happy shivers up and down juke boxes all over the country. In case you don't recognize it by its official title, "The Thing" is that number that uses three rous- ing boom-boom-booms of the bass drum as part of the lyrics. To refresh your memory (which nceds no "refreshing if you live within carrying distance of a full-lunged | disc jockey), it goes, in part, like this: g Rg turned around and got right : out a-runnin' for my life, And then I took it home with - me to give it to my wife. But this is what she hollered at me as I walked in the door: Oh, get out of here with -that x x x and don't come back no more.* (Copyright, 1950, Where those x's are, the lyrics. give a direction to "stamp feet." Actually, most recordings have substituted three booming booms on the drum to hide the identity of "Tlie Thing." Which has a lot of people_puzzled. Just what is the horrible-- thing; anyway? Take it from 'Charles Gréan, manager of RCA"s popular records department and the song's com- poser, there ain't no such thing as a thing. 1 just put same clean. lyrics to - an old song I'¢e known for a long time. We used to sing some dirty words to it and it was known as "I'he Tailot"s Boy," says Grean (pronounced Gre-on.) "I've been trying for a long time to write nice lyrics for it, but I'd always put something definite in the place where we stamped out feet. That would ruin it, somehow. Finally, I" decided to have nothing for the thing in the song. Then L worked it out in an hour aiid a half." 2 Grean says he changed a few notes in the music of "The Tailor's Boy," which' he thinks had an Irish origin. Then he took the song out to California, where RCA's west coast recording director, Henri Rene, thought it would be a natural for Phil Harris. And it has been "his record is selling at a revord pace. tlollis Music Inc.) That's the cold-blooded history of "The Thing." But it won't stop people from guessing at what "The Thing is. New York disc jockey Martin Block conducted a contest. _ Herc are some of the things people thought "The Thing" was: A transcribed commercial; Chloe: unhappiness; a marriage license; the tail<end. of "Mule Train"; a deck of canasta cards; a woman's hat; an 8-hy-10 color shot of my mother-in- law; my latdlord; one falsie; my boss; 'a K-ration; the little man who wasn't there singing a chorus of "Good-Night, Irene." ~ The student nurses at St. Luke's Hospital wrote that "The Thing" was undoubtedly an interne at St. Luke's Hosital. . One woman wrote that * 'The Thing" must be _my husband, 1 "have been looking for him." "It's just a moral or a lesson to the public that péople should mind their own business," wrote another ° entrant. Inthe same serious mood, someone clse said that it "must be a mirror--nothing- else could scare so many people." far-he likes best, he leans to "'un- happiness," because it's a serious, straightforward idea, "The "hing," incidentally, is published by Tin Pan Alley's phe- nomenal - young - success, Howard Richmond. Richmond has-been in the business less than a year, and already has published such hits as "Music,- Music; Music," "Good- Night, Irene," aud 'Tze-Na, Tze- Na." - CHILDREN SHOULD BE SEEN --NOT HURT ~ Three X's Mark The Spot: For all the "hoomsboom-hooms" - you've been heating lately, you can put most of the blame oh Phil Harris (left)," who doesn't look very happy about it, and recording director Henri Rene, wha encouraged the rer song's author, DMWGONE IT= THERE GORS MY HAY/ JITTER CATCH IT/ ; Ta GO ON- GET (1/ DON'T 88 AFRAID OF A LITTLE MUD/ By Arthur Pointer [i Ie . - 3 Ri - Grean lumsclf says that most LS people he's talked to seem to think ~~ ¢& "the scary Thing is a skunk. Most ~~~ skunks disagree. If Grean had to BE say what answer he's heard so 3 & ¢ J 4 $0 14 ee a nn