The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-07-06
WIFE OWNERSHIP.

We find in an old, old paper, bearing
date of January 4, 1900, the following:
Second notice of my wife Hannah is hereby
given, forbidding all persons from harboring
or keeping her, and from trusting her on my
account
This was duly signed by "Matys Van
SteeDbeTgh," and reading it over and
contemplating even in Imagination the
grim and surly Dutchman with the law
and the power and the public sentiment
all on his side, we wonder how poor
Hannah could dare to leave him, even
while we shudder at the thoughts of her
staying with him.
This paper of which we speak was
published in Ulster county, New York,
and contained another gem of the civ
ilization of that period, an advertise
ment headed "For Sale" of "stout,
active negro wench." At that period in
our nations history the wife was as
much the mans property as was the
slave. No person dared to "harbor OF
keep her." when, fleeing for her life
from her irate lord, she sought shelter
and bread elsewhere. Law and custom
alike held her in bondage. The former
took no note of brutality if the husband
practiced it upon his property" the
latter smiled complacently, while all
that a woman had or saved, from the
children she bore to the web she spun
dyed, and wove, belonged to her hus.
band by right which might created, by
law which men madei nay, even hel
unborn child might by the father be
willed to another, and by that other bt
torn forever from the mothers sigh
while yet its birth wall resounded il
her ears.
Shocking and scarce believable al
these things are when separated from ui
by the century's changing cycles, We
have only to look around to see thai
this spirit of "wife ownership" dies
hard, though enlightened public senti
ment has placed an unrelenting anC
merciless grip upon its throat, and Gus
tom impatiently waits to give it sepul
ture. We still occasionally find a mar
so lost to all sense of honor or sham,
and so dead to self-respect as to publish
in the daily papers that he has made {
miserable failure as husband; one who
not content with having in his undis
puted possession the accumulations o
years of matrimonial partnership, un
blushingly publishes to the world tina
he intends to keep them for his exelusiv,
use. The old formula about "harborins
or trusting nay wife Hannah" is gon,
through with, but it is now dead let
ter. She can return to her father
house in security, reside there IN peace
ask "trust" of no one, and go to worl
for herself. More than this, the sam,
paper which for a consideration pub
lished the husbands announcement ant
warning, finds space, for like cOnsid
Grafton, for card from the wife, setting
forth facts which more than corroborat,
his acknowledgment that, as a husband
he had mistaken his calling, but whicl
facts he had evidently forgotten ~ Il
mention.
These advertisements are not yer!
uncommon, but they amount to moth
ing except to display what a man of an.
sensibility would much rather conceal
the fact that he would like to live witt
a woman and claim her as his wifi
when she cannot endure his presence
Fancy man of any self-respect fOistin
such a notice of himself as this upo
the public:
On the 10th day of June, 1877, my wife, Mar
E. Campbell, without any cause or provoc;
ton, left my bed and board and abandOne
her home on Lake River, in Clarke count
Washington Territory. She still wilfully r
mains absent from me, and, contrary TO m
most earnest protests, is staying in or abOl
the city of Portland in Oregon. This is
notify all persons not to harbOr or contract an
debts with her on my account, as will her
after pay no debt contracted with her or an
one else on my credit except upon my write
order. JAMES H. CAMPBELL.
Fancy now the feelings of James H
when Mary E. fortifies her position b
the following facts:
One ]. H. Campbell publishes me as havil
''left his bed and board without cause or pro
ocation." II beating mans wife with his Fl
whipping her with "a gunstick, breaking
broom handle over her shoulders, beatil
her with a club, and for long years hea
ing curses and the coarsest abuse upC
her, which renders life a burthen, is no ju
cause for seeking happiness elsewhere thu
IN my old log cabin at Union Ridge, '
T., then call it unjust cause, and make Il
most oft NJ. E. CAMPBELL
Truly, it is an easy thing for man
write himself down tyrant and an in
beetle, and we trust that, having dol
so, this one will now sleep at ease in b
wife's ''old log cabin at Union Ridge
while she, seeking happiness els
where" will find it unaccompanied
'gunsticks, fists, clubs, broomsticb
and curses"