Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-26

without 4 penalty-if there can be such
| Things but so much waste paper; and
| the penalty properly attaching to a
| failure to comply with the reasonable re-
| quirements would, of course, be that
| property not so registered should be
| liable for the debts of the family An
| exemption of the wife's property from
| her own family debts upon so
| slight condition, is certainly
| cheap enough. But the legislature
passed law providing for such registra-
ton without attaching any penalty what
| ever; and the supreme court decided at
an early day that it was not i'll the con-
| stitutional power of the legislature to
attach such liability to the wife's prop
erty as the penalty for her failure to COM
| ply with that law. A law so impOtent as
this-dead at the time it was born, and
| its funeral preached by the court soon
| afterwards--has been treated with the
contempt it deserved. a case of compli-
ance with it has never fallen under my
! observation. 1t has been forgotten by
the people, and none but few
lawyers know that it still exists i'll the
statutes. The legislation and the absurd
decisions and Obiter dicta of the court
on the subject would like prose
be discreditable to firSt-claSS
schoolboy's compositions and they
put the state to an open shame and bring
her statutes into Tiiicule and disregard
When manly citizen of Texas has gotten
as far into debt with his neighbors as they
will permit him to go, he can now crawl
under his wife's petticoats and avoid
payment; and from beneath this sacred
canopy he can smile i'll triumph at the
discontinue of his unsUspecting creditors
He Gun remember that perhaps twenty
years ago he borrowed some hundreds of
dollars from his wife, and that he has
never repaid her either principal or inter-
est, and he can straightway sell her all
his property not already exempt from
executions. Such creatures ought to be
castigated until our noble state is entire
ly freed from all of their kind -
"Why has this law never been
amended?''
The judge smiled. 81 asked that ques-
ton of another man, - he said, land
the answer was that there were too many
id rascals that wanted such hiding
place kept in reserve for their use should
they need it. But, of course that is not
the reason. l presume that decision of
the court has prevented further legisla-
tive effort III this direction. 1t is decided
i'll other states, even where there was no
constitutional mandate on the subject,
that the legislature, upon failure of the
wife to register her property us required 81
may declare it subject to the community
or family debts; ana l do shot
think that our present supFeme
and appellate courts would beg con-
trolled by the obiter dicha ia
the early case referred to. 1t is lament Il
able, and yet true, that there istsssaesfF
another state in the Union where lafks
rs Il whole, offer so much cover and so
many tentativeS to fraud us these of
Texas.
If the Sabine were only the st. Law
renee what Il gathering, what gather
ing there would be! The man who paws
!. debt in Texas because he has to pay is
q fool who has sighted abundant oppor-
tunities which the law has stretched
forth to him i'll vain. -
The reporter here protested that he had
searched the state without success !
for dishonest man, and further
said that he had known rascals and |
thieves to come here from other states |
and after Il stay of only few months go
away entirely cured and honest to the !
core, AMI he asked how that was to be |
accounted for.
at is i'll the air, - said the judge, cit |
undoubtedly must be in this glorious air |
of ours, which, when it blows upon a man !
so regenerates him that neither legisla-
lures nor courts, nor height nor depth,
nor any other creature can persuade him
to be a rascal. Our laws are all passed |
only to protect us against the rascality of
nOn-residents who might otherwise de-
vour Us. -
"'What do you think of the material of
our new legislature?''
''Wen, if they are all such men as
those of them l know personally, and
happen to recall just at this moment,
DR.. Tolar of Abilene, C. L. Connellee of
Eastland, and Judge Brown of Sherman,
it will be the best legislature we have
had. Those are all men of excellent
Judgment, wen posted in practical bust
ness matters, and Judge Brown is fine
lawyer besides. Their work VIII be on
the broad gague plan, and viii compare
i'll strength and finish with that magnifi-
cent building wherein they shall deliber-
ate, -