The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-06-24
POOR CHILDREN!
Big Names for Youngsters of the Fut-
ure If This Idea "GOes.'

Baltimore Sun.
Among the reforms which the coming
woman will probably insist upon, when
she has secured her full legal and political
rights, will be modification in the present
custom which requires her to adopt the
name of the man whom she marries. La
dies of advanced ideas have long main
tanned that this custom was a relic of BAR
barism, as well as a badge of servitude.
Its origin can be clearly traced 20 the I'M
civilized ages of rapine, when a wife was
captured, not courted; won after the fash
ion of RomHlus, not wooed after the man
ner OF Romeo. In barbarous times and
among savage people if man wanted
wife he would go out and hunt one, just
as he would food or some other thing es-
bagged her would take her home and set
her TO cooking and making herself gen
right of capture. and he called her by his
name TO prevent any mistake in the mat
ter of title. Possibly. originally, he may
have branded her with his mark to keep
thieves and unprovided bachelors from help
ing themselves to his stock. AS time went
on. however, and women became more
captured. their disposition to run away
from wife-hunters apparently decreasing In
precise proportion to the increase in their
number, and IL became unnecessary to do
more than bring them into the household
camp and give them the name Of their
owner.
The custom of forcing the wife to assume
her husbands name, and regarding her
sort Of matrimonial chattel, finally be-
herself came to acquiesce in it as a mat
ter of course, and even to take pride In
ii. But there is clearly neither logic nor
justice in ii, and the coming woman is
likely to protest against it as a survival
of barbarism and as a mark OF inequality.
If man nowadays. when he feels in want
of wife, went out as he did in the early
ages and captured one, there would be
some reason for imposing his name upon
her. But, in point OF fact, he does not co
all the hunting and capturing at the present
day.
He is quite frequently the hunted and the
captured, and IL is the height of audactty
for him in such cases to expect his captor
to take his name and allow him all tie
honors OF war. Apart from such considersL-
why a woman should take a mans name
when she marries him than that the man
should take hers. II there Is to be
When John Jones marries Mary Smith
why should he not be known Mr.. Mary
Smith, rather than she as Mrs. John Jones?
What has been logic for the goose all these
years ought to be logic for the gander ura-
der the new dispensation: Under the old
custom we have had innumerable Mrs.
Generals. Mrs. Presidents. Mrs. Doctors.
etc. The wife, It must be admitted, nearly
always is Mrs. General in point of fact, but
y to not take be S Se t as %ea 1 f6
has one, as she Is sure to have under
the better regime that is promised US. If
like, the man could be conveniently and
accurately described as the husband OF Mrs.
Bishop or Mrs. Judge So-and-So, giving
him the benefit both of her glory and her
maiden name.
Before the fall of man and the period
when he was forced to capture his wives
there appears to have been perfect equity
and equality in the matter OF names in
matrimonial contracts. When Eve married
she did not change her name to Mrs Adam.
| She insisted on preserving her individuality
and her family identity by retaining her
maiden name. Nor do business partners at
| the present time surrender their names
| when they enter into these relations. Why
| should not something OF the same sort be
| done in matrimonial partnerships. If Il
woman named Green should marry man
| named Dunn, for instance. the firm could
| be known as Green, Dunn & Co., the COM
| pany being the general name for the chill
| dren. If Mrs. Green should have son
| John who should marry woman named
| Brown he could sign himself John Green
| Dunn Brown In this way the family pedi-
| gree could be preserved in the names and
| the family tree could be easily climbed
| The fact that family names would soon
| grow long the titles of some OF the
| foreign princes who marry American girls
furnishes no valid objection TO this sug-
| gestion, but rather an aristocratic charm