Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-04-12

But, unfortunately, the new Republic started
with the old English Common Law as the basis of
its legislation under which the wife is creature
whose legal existence is swallowed up in that of
her husband, and gradually, as men devoted more
Time TO law, Woman's assistance as partner in SUBJ
dung this wilderness, and winning national indie
pendence was forgotten, and thus it happens to-
Gay that we find woman a political outcast in
country nominally ruled by "the people," els
gracefully catalogued with idiots, unatics and
criminals, as the only adult unfit to express her
legal opinion on any question of State or national
Importance.
Yet, Notwithstanding this outcast, in Massa-
chusetts alone, during the past Twenty-Five years.
women have been compelled to pay sixty-three
millions of dolas in taxes to the Statel Accord
ing, then, to the definition furnished us by the
men of our own country, the women of the United
States are today purchasing their life and peace
sat the price of chains and slavery" they are po-
ltica slaves, too ignorant to understand their own
oppression.
For less reason than this the uncomfortable
Russian women are Drawing the risk of being ex-
lied to Siberia To those whose idea of slavery is
based only upon the analogy of the negro in
Southern cotton field, it may seem preposterous
to apply that term to the well-fed, we'll dressed,
well-amused women of this country, who are as
ignoby satisfied with their condition as tanned
canary with its cage. But this is how others see
her. A learned Hungarian Dr. Emil Reich, ex-
plains in his "I1isory of Civilization the differ
ence between old Roman slavery and modern
negro slavery by comparing the mild subsection of
the Roman slave to that of American women. He
has examined our laws and consulted our jursts,
and thus he concludes, "In point of law slave
was no living being at all unable to possess, to
own, to testify, left to the mercy of his master.
But in point of law many things have a totally
different aspect from what they in social way,
as instanced by the difference between the legal
and the social position of women in the United
States of America.
The American wife, he explains, takes her lords
name as did the Roman slave, she cannot testify
for nor against him; her contracts are void, nor
can she make will without his consent; she does
not own her own children, cannot choose her resi-
dence; illegally she is nothing, but socially she is
everything 1t was inst so with the Roman
slave ''He was trusted with the most delicate
errands, sometimes all of his lords money was
placed in his hands, his lord borrowing money
from him, he was actually the debtor of his own
slave; frequently his lord left him considerable
legacy, still more frequently he made him the sole
heir. In many cases the lord wanted
to be united with his slave in the same tomb"
DR.. Reich, it may be said in passing, is opposed
to the Embarrassment of American women. He
evidently thinks slavery is rather good thing
for other people. But he seems unconscious that
many of our laws have been relaxed through the
efforts of the few women who, forty years ago,
began to demand recognition as married partners
instead of married slaves There are now four
States out Of forty-two which acknowledge the
mothers equal right to joint guardianship of her
children.
But it should not surprise us that many women
are coutentedly dwelling as interiors, apparently
Indifferent to the contempt heaped upon them by
the laws. They have simply not yet attained the
power to see themselves as others see them. The
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