River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-09-02
Reform In Women,s Names.

REFORM In Women's Names.
So many women are about to change
their names Gas result of the summer
campaign, let us suppose and hope)
that it is proper to make a suggestion,
in regard to baptismal and married APP
pellations. 1t cannot escape the OBJ
servation of the most careless that the
names of women, standing for distinct
entities in the world, are daily becom-
ing of more Importance. Woman, in
the mass, has always been regarded
with favor, and her position in the
economy of life has been cEeerfully
acknowledged, but her distinctive in
dividuality in public way has not
been much insisted on. Since women
write our books, and teach our schools,
and practice our laws, and ride in gigs.
and send our messages by telegraph,
and ''hello" from one eE.l of the coun-
try to the other through the telephone,
and write after their names m. D.,
and "A b., and "A. M, land nearly
all the letters of the alphabet, and
even Ill. ID. thanks to the Smith
College appreciation of Miss Amelia b.
Edwards is necessary that woman
should have a name that will be in
alienable and her own through life.
OF course the time may come when the
relations of the sexes before the public
will be reversed, and man will have to
fight for his name. Revolutions are
said not to revolve backw ard, and
witty Fighter of wrongs has already
declared that she will never be salts
fled with the position of her sex
until she can 60 into graveyard and
read on maidstone some such senti-
ment as this. Here lies Samuel john
son, relict of Mary johnson.
Now, however good woman's
name may be, she is in danger-except,
they say, in Massachusetts, losing
it, and commonly in the change she
blots out all traces of her former ex-
istence and even identity. In royal
and noble families the attempt has
been made to pile on so many names
upon the female infant that some of
them should stick through life. and we
have to some extent initiated this in our
republic by giving girls two and three
names, sometimes string OF very
pretty appellations taken out of novels;
and especially if the child is poor, she
will be rich in names. This is all very
well so long as the girl remains
Clarissa El>ira Euphe.nia Hoskins;
but when it would become Clarissa
Elvira Euphemia Hoskins Pond, it is
too much, and either the surname or
some of the baptismal names have to
/ be thrown overheard.
/ All these and MANY other incon-
veniences can be avoided. and the
personal identity of a woman be Sc
cured through all changes, by very
simple device. In the first place, give
the girl in baptism only one name
She viii be perfectly content with it
Her lover never requires, never uses.
but one of her names, if she has half q
dozen. In the height of his tenderness
be never says, amelia Jane, come to
my armsr' He simply extends his
arms and cries, janet In the sec
ond place, when the girl marries let
her always keep her surname. Then
whenever we see a woman S name. we
shall know whether she is married or
single; and if she is married, we shall
know what her family name is. If she
has earned a reputation as writer or
a doctor or an l.. l.. ID. as Mary Brown,
she will carry that with her as Mary
Brown johnson; and in all cases there
will be spared an infinite amount of
talk and inquiry rs to who she was be-
fore she was married.
This system is essential to the
''cauSe' OF woman. 1t may be said
that it lacks perfection in two respects;
we could not tell from the three names
whether the bearer of them might not
be widow; and it makes no provision
for = second marriage. These are
delicate questions. In regard to the
first. it is nobody's business TO know
whether the woman is or is not q
widow. unless she chooses to make
that fact prominent, and then she has
way enough TO emphasize it. And in
the second place Gin case the woman
does not marry her Deceased Hus-
bands Brother, by permission of Con-
gres>), il does not at all matter what
becomes If The name of the first hus-
band. 1t is the woman's identity that
is 10 Toe preserved. And she cannot be
required 90 set up mile-stones all along
her life. CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER,
in Harper .Nagazine for September.
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