The morning call., 1894-06-13
IN A LITERARY SENSE.

Mrs. Mary Putnam jacob has delivered
an address before the New York consti-
tutlonal convention which is declared to
have been a very creditable production in
literary sense. But il is said to be dis
appointing as a presentation of the argu-
ment upon which suffrage is demanded for
women. The weakness of the address as
we gather from the synopsis given Is in
extravaganza of statement. For example,
she declares that the denial of the right of
suffrage to women constitutes them an
fallen class" and argues that an alien class
is a danger to the state. Now women
who do not want suffrage do not consider
themselves aliens. Neither can it be said
that women have no voice In framing
laws. In the past it has been held better
for both men and women that the right of
suffrage should be limited to men. Women
have acquiesced cheerfully in that division
of powers. They haze found that their
separate in terests have been quite as well
cared for as il they had had vote 10 the
election Of legislators. OF course 1t is
generally held among men that when the
time comes that women desire to assume
an equality Of power and of responsibility
the way shall be opened for them to do So.
But good many men think that women
will lose more by the exercise of the
suffrage than they will gain. One of these
sympathetic men who evidently under
stands his subject enumerales some of the
rights the monster man has bestowed upon
the so-called fallen class:
For more than thirty years all the women OF
New York have been able TO enjoy their own
property whether inherited or acquired.
without control or interference from any mau.
married woman may carry on trade, busl-
ness or profession and keep her own earnings
for herself alone. She may sue and be sued
and make contracts as freely and inde-
penGently an unmarried woman or man.
She may sell or transfer her real as well as her
personal property just as she chooses. And
she is not liable for her husbands debts or
obliged 10 contribute to his support. Mean
while a husband is obliged TO support his wife
and her children. He is liable for the price OF
all ''necessaries" purchased by her and for the
money borrowed by her for their purchase;
and "necessares" are literally construed as
commensurate with her husbands means her
wOnted living as his spouse and her station In
the community"
A man who obtains a divorce cannot ask
for allmOny; a woman who obtains one is
entitled to 1t and 10 continue TO receive II even
If she remaTrles. A woman in business can
not be arrested Ia an action for debt
fraudulently contracted, as a man may be-
Every woman enjoys certain exemptions from
the sale Of her property under execution, but
only man who has and provides for a house
hold or family is exempt In the same way.
woman is entitled TO one-thlTd OF her hus-
bands real estate at bis death and cannot be
deprived of 1t by Will, and no real estate can
be sold by him during his lifetime unless she
signs of this dover right. husbands right
TO portion OF his wife's property begins only
after the birth OF living child, and even then
she need not have his consent to sell II during
her lifetime and may deprive him of it alto
gether by will.
There is more Of the same sort, but this
will give food for thought for one day.