The Press., 1894-04-05
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
A Relic of Barbarisrn.

"a law document. It declares itself on it's back to be an assignment of dover in William Sturtevant's estate. It is dated October ', 1785, and at that time was duly sworn to and entered in the registry office at Plymouth, Mass. Three signatures are affixed to it, those of the men empow- cred to set off Mistress Joanna Sturtevant's dower-in other words, her "thirds.''
 Being appointed, empowered, and di- rected" so to do, they proceed to assign her first 'tthe four chambers and bedroom chamber and half of the garret, taking it at the southerly side, and also privileg in the oven and in the kitchen to wash in and bake in, and also write in the seller, with the privileg to go to and from each and every place above mentioned, and al- so rite in the dore way to lay fuel"
 There is a touch of pathos in that item, poor old woman. We feel glad, at least, she was permitted to lay down her armful of fagots, and rest before toiling upstairs to her four chambers. When she was a bride, young and light of foot, she would not have minded it. But then she was not shut off to portion of the house the whole was hers to go where she liked.
 Observe with what care her right of way to the oven and kitchen to wash and bake is set down. Otherwise, notwithstanding this write, she might have been shut off from any use of these privileges, unless, like her own barn-yard fowl, she could have taken q short flight thither.
 As she mixed her small loaf of brown bread, prepared her pot of beans, and made her modicum of pies up there in those chambers, so familiar, and yet so unfamiliar ill their later use, she must often have thought regretfully of the ease with which she did her baking in the days when she had the use of ample buttery, so handy to the oven-only 8 step back and forth. But now, after all things are ready, she must carry them laboriously, one by one, down the stairs. The with cred old hands, worn and weak through hard work. will be somewhat tremulous, and the pumpkin pies will slop over dear! dear!
 She was also given the use of one-third of the corn house, ''the southeast COT, ner," but her use of the barn was limited to one-sixth, being "half of the leanteI and the now over it;" and-mark again how carefully her rights are attended to- "a privileg in the barn fore to thrash and carry in fodder, and yuse it to fodder il out, and also a privileg to 90 to asad From EtAe 6tsga to saaapgoue.
 Did she have to keep strictly to the path thither, or was it permitted her oc- casionally to stray one side?
 A third of the orchard was also set of to her-the dear old orchard, with its wide spreading trees, wherein she had so loved to walk after the days work was done, hearing the robins sing among the apple blossoms in May, and where she had watched the fruit come to it's crimson and gold maturity for nobody knows how many years. It is not at all likely that her favorite seek-no- further and high-top sweeting and pearmain could have all come within the portion allotted her. Her feet must often have turned involuntarily in their direction, movement checked by the thought that she was trespassing
 She had her third of the "meadow and parster lands' assigned, and also a DOT. tion of the cedar swamp-a valuable bit of property in those days. It was only the Improvement" of all these. however that was hers; she could sell right il none of them. When she died, her thirds went to the heirs who already had the other two thirds; and these heirs may have been her own children, or, if she was childless, her husbands cousins twenty degrees removed.
 What an irony was that law which Jeff to the weaker vessel" to the woman considered incompetent to have the charge of money, or even the guardianship O her children, the merest fraction of hel husbands property! We should say, log ically, that such a creature, so helpless so incapable, should have had the amples provision made for her.
 This time-stained document has beer read at sundry times to groups of selec young women. It is interesting to watcl the changing expressions of their faces a it's import dawns on them-incredulity disgust, and final burst of indignation
 "You don't mean to say that it is req paper"
 You don't mean to tell us that tffa
 was the way our grandmothers were treat
 ed when their husbands died!"