The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-04-17
WITH ALL NY WORLDLY GOODS
THEE ENDoW."

When Mrs. Parlington, of blessed
memory, said that when she was mar
ried she did not know that "With ali
my worldly goods thee endow" meant
one calico dress a year, she touched
upon a subject about which good deal
might be said.
To "endow" is to furnish with fund.
A "fund" is capital, or stock; money
provided, for the payment Of interest" ;"
When man marries, then, according
to the ritual of the Episcopal Church,
he furnishes his wife, or agrees to fur
nish her, with all his capital or stock or
the interest of it. The wife, not know
ing that the law will not allow the hus-
band to keep his vow, takes to her un-
suspecting soul the fiattering unction
that she really has something to do
with this funded capital in her own
right. Pitiful delusion.
She, on her part, il she has any prop
erty, finds that she has endowed her
husband with it to much better pur-
pose; for he at once proceeds to take
direction of it, to use and 10 sell, with
hardly so much as "by your leave %
Everybody has seen dozens of cases
where the wife brought property into
the firm which in a short or long time,
without any option of hers, became en-
tirely lost through the bad manage
ment or bad conduct Of her husband.
He always feels that he has a right to
her property. She, such is the force OF
custom, takes whatever she gets from
her husband as gift; and should he
not be actually parsimonious with her,
eherishes feeling of gratitude, as one
living on the royal bounty of another.
Where neither have property to begin
with, and both work together to obtain
it, then 1t all belongs to the man. 1t is
called common property" but it is
common in just this way: The man
claims n all while living, and dying,
the law allows the woman the interest
upon one-third of the common property;
the property really descending to the
children without recognizing any right
in the mother other than this interest
on one-third of the estate. On the other
hand, should the woman die first, the
man enjoys his property just as before,
without regard to anybody-it is all his.
With a wisdom almost superhuman
Oregon lawmakers have decreed that
the childless wife may inherit her hus-
bands property, in fact, while, as above
stated, the mother of children may not;
thus making it for the interest of Ore
gon women to keep empty cradles.
A woman who owns separate prop
erty" may not sell it without her hus-
bands signature; she may not hold OF
give power of attorney, or givea note,
or mortgage her own real estate. But
her husband may give note, or endorse
for another man, though either may
cause the common property" to b,
sold under the hammer.
These are a. few of the disabilitie:
under which married women live anC
labor. In cases where an incompetent
or dissipated husband would make Il
Of the greatest importance that the wife
should be free to earn, to keep, and tc
handle her separate, or the common
property, her hands are tied, and hel
energies paralyzed by this foolish and
unjust legislation.
1t is about time that some man Of
brains and heart should devise some.
thing better, without waiting for women
to shame them, as they certainly will
when the ballot comes to them.