The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-10-08
FOR THE LADIES.
Suggestions In Regard to Babtismal and
Married Applications for Women.
fuzzling Questions ~ to Why Women
Dress-Care Of the Hands.
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 ap-
pellations. 1t cannot escape the obser-
walton 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 cheerfully &C
knowledged, but her distinctive indi-
viduality in a 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 end of the country to
the other through the telephone, and
write after their names IN d." and
"A. b." and AM" and nearly all
the letters of the alphabet, and even
"LLD. "-thanks to the Smith College
appreciation of Miss Amelia B. Edwards
it is necessary that woman should
have a name that will be inalienable
and her own through life OF course
the time may come when the re-
latiOns OF the sexes before the public
will be reversed, and man will have to
fight for his name. Revolutions are said
not to revolve backward, and a witty
RICHTER of wrongs has already declared
that she will never be satisfied with the
position of her sex until she can 90 into
a graveyard and read on q maidstone
some such sentiment as this. Here lies
Samuel johnson. relict of Mary John
CON-"
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 existence and
even identity. In noble and royal
families the attempt has been made to
pile on 80 many names upon the female
infant that some Of them should stick
through life. and we have to some ex-
tent initiated this in our republic by
giving girls two and three names. some
times string of very pretty appellations
taken out of novels; and especially il
the child is poor, she will be rich in
names, This is all very well so long as
the girl remains Clarissa Elvira Euphe-
mia 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 Inconve-
fences can be avoided, and the personal
identity of a woman be secured through
all change, by very simple device. In
the first place, give the girl in baptism
only one name. She will be perfectly
content with il. Her lover never requires,
never uses, but one OF her names, il she
has half dozen. In the height of his
tenderness he never says, "Amelia
Jane, come to my armsr' He simply
extends his arms and cries, "Janew In
the second 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 reputation as writer or
a doctor or an LID. as Mary Brown,
she will carry that with her as Mary
Brown johnson; and in all cases there
may be spared an infinite amount of
talk and inquiry as to who she was be-
fore she was married. This system is
essential to the "cause" of women. It
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 Wild
ow, unless she chooses to make that
fact prominent, and then she has ways
enough to emphasize it. And in the
second place Tin case the woman does
not marry her Deceased Husbands
Brother. by permission Of Congress), it
does not at all matter what becomes of
the name of the first husband. 1t is the
woman's identity that is to be preserved.
And she cannot be required to set up
mile-stones all along her Charles
Dudley Warner, tn Harper's Magazine
for September.
WHY WOMEN DRESS.
For years l have puzzled over the pho