The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-10-08
Women Are Not Protected.

Recently the community was startled
by the claim of young lady to a certain
man as being the father of her child,
when some comrade of his, to screen his
friend, swore that he had participated
in the affair. The same community is
again shocked with the tidings that an
other young lady of sixteen years has
fallen victim TO this hopeful number
two, who also refuses to marry her,
making a similar charge against her.
Now, while society and the law screen
these apologies for men, society and the
law set their seal of denuDeiation upon
the victims Of such villains. And so
long as men, shielded by the law, can
thus play into each others hands, bid
ding defiance to woman, so long it is
cowardice in her if she does not Join
hands with others and rise up against
such injustice, arming with six-shoot-
er, even, If driven to that emergency.
Give US the MONDAY ''trampi and the
midnight assassin rather than such le-
galized villainy. These have not the
power to spread disgrace in our path
way, which is unspeakably worse than
the serpent's sting, pestilence, famine,
or sword.
While woman is compelled to paw,
either directly or indirectly, for the pro-
lection she is presumed to receive, she
has never been consulted about the pro-
lection that her necessities require. In
deed, she has always been treated legally
as though the only protection she needed
was on mans account; just enough of
this to keep her in working order for his
varied purposes as ''an help-meet for
him.n
Objections are made to woman's de-
mi fOF rrnfa0tinT1 q O tanditnor 70
love-" But this demand is farthest from
it possible. While matters remain as
now, an unprincipled man who has
brought ruin into one household may
as an unmarried man proceed from
house to house. But recently the last
son died of man who had three VIC
TINS, at one time, on the hands of the
community, all of whom he had engaged
to marry. But if the law had held him
as it should, married to the first, it
would have saved him from disgracing
himself; or else would have consigned
him to the punishment of bigamist.
This would not be very desirable Ii
ability to dog his footsteps; yet it should
be attached to every legally married
man who should proceed, as do often the
evil disposed, who can never be re-
strained except through some stringent
| neaSuI0 Wu4Cu bhS helA-O6luS VI sOC4eby
demands.
No law was ever too sacred to be i'm
| proved by mans or Woman's hands;
else statute law would never have been
Iinaugurated because a natural law pre-
ceded it in all things, which can not be
blotted out; so it is possible for man, If
he have his wits about him, to improve
upon "old usages" of kings who car
peted their floors with bulrushes, while
their subjects plowed their lands with
old chairs, with one leg in the ground,
the sire guiding it by the pommel and
the son dragging it by the rung, as has
been seen in our own country even.
Such law as woman proposes would
save many man, woman, and child
from ruin, disgrace, and infamy, in
stead of screening the guilty from pun
ishment or inflicting misery upon the
unoffending, as the law actually does
to-day.-ETchange