Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-26

to prevent it. He put all the things up at
"vandue," as the country folks called a
public sale, in order to turn them into
money-although her father had offered to
pay for them privately, as her family
wished them as souvenirs. The case
stirred up the people, and reused pub
lie opinion, and with the same reason
existing and being promulgated all over the
state as aetuated the people of New York, q
law to the same effect was passed in the
same year in Pennsylvania. History re-
cords that here in Pittsburg and other parts
OF the State such serious opposition came
from the bench and bar that Mrs. Swisshelm
was herself frightened. But the first one to
congratulate and cheer her was young
lawyer named Edwin W. Stanton, who be-
came the great 'Iron" Secretary of War in
the Rebellion.
THE HISTORIANS GRIEVANCE.
Mrs. Swisshelm's own grievance was that
her mother had bequeathed her some prop
erty, and that it was the intention OF her
husband to turn it into money to use as he
pleased. This the law gave him the right
to do. The money he intended to put into
improvements upon his mothers estate at
SwlssYale, while his wife would not be per-
sOnallv benefited to the extent of dollar.
But there is much yet to be done in this
country to secure justice, and it behooves
women to move in this matter for them
selves as did the radical sisters in 1848.
Even in New York, which took the lead in
this first great reform, it is yet true, as Mrs.
Devereux Blake related at the International
Council, that an honorable wife has no legal
claim upon her own child-that her husband
can will it away from her before it is born,
If he chooses. This seems incredible, but it
is matter OF legal fact A man who is a
tyrant may take Just such means to make
his wife wretched under sanction of law.
1t has taken long fight in the Massa-
chusetts Legislature to secure to a widow the
right to place in the family burial lot.
Although woman's place is asserted con-
stantlY to be at her home, yet, under Mrs.
Blake's study of the legal disabilities of
women, she found that in more than half
the States wife has no legal home, and has
only the right to remain $40 days" after her
husbands death in his home without being
charged with rent by his estate. At the
same council she related that it took the
Strong-minded women of Massachusetts IL
years of hard work to secure to married
women, in that enlightened State, the own
ership OF their own clothes.
CHANCE FOR IMPROVEMENT YET.
These instances show that while in the
earlier centuries of the Christian era it took
hundreds of years to secure reform in legis-
lation, yet even in these days of widely
ditfused knowledge and intelligence it takes
time and work, and vast deal OF both, to
move legislatures to consider equity in their
enactments, and to weaken the opposition Of
those who by virtue of brains and capacity
should be most likely to discern their
justice.
The good man who claims that the State
makes a good enough will for him is GER
tainly not familiar with the law, and the
fact that upon very many widows its hard
ships and grievances fall with crushing
weight at time when sorrow makes them
least able to bear them. In numberless
cases, especially where estates are small,
the law is positively inhuman.
However, let US think upon our present
mercies, and urgently search for more with
persistent effort. For many of the sisters
the promotion of temperance leads ali other
labor in the line OF reform. This is noble
and arduous work, to which they have de-
voted all ofS their energies, moral support
and the power of organization.
THE W. c. T. q. TROUBLE.
But in this grand body, working for a
common cause, it seems sad that secession
should arise on the most vital point. The
seeding element sets forth its undying de-
Votion to the complete prohibition of the
liquor traffic and opposition to politics; but
how this is to be effected without legislation,
which means politics, they do not say. The
workers intend to press earnestly for the
adoption of local option law. To do this
how are they to keep out of politics? They
want the counties to give a popular vote
against license. How are they to secure
that popular vote when only half
of the citizens are permitted to vote?
They propose to work for temperance ex-
clusively, and refuse the use the very weapon
that would be most effective. What they
most especially need is to go into politics,
and 60 in with might and main. Every
cause needs to go into politics in represent
ative government. No reform in laws can
be effected without politics-not in the
narrow sense of the use OF that expression
but in the broad principle of free republi-
can government which recognizes that the
of equity is the business of
every citizen of community for the safety,
honor, and welfare OF all concerned.
BESSIE BRAMBLE,