The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-09
WOMEN'S RIGHTS.
The Case of Lizzie SChauer
of New York Attracts
Interest Here.
JUDGE HUDsPETH's OPINION
Police Justices and Chief Murphy
Say Women Have the Same
Rights as Men on the
Streets.
JUDGE HUDSPETH'S OPINION

The case of Lizzie Schauer of New York
is exciting a great deal of interest par
ticularly among women who are obliged
for many reasons to be in the public
street after nightfall
This Lizzie Schauer was recently ar
rested by a policeman and arraigned
before Magistrate Mott, of New York
City. as common night walker. and
preper pe Mno Object The fne
mitted her along with drunks and Grim
inals to the workhouse on BlackwelPs
Island.
Lizzie's statement was that she was
looking for her aunt whose address she
didn't know, and when the officers ar
rested her she was then making m
ment was not believed. Her friends
are indignant at what they term an out
have been begun to set her free. These
friends insist that a woman has just as
much right on the street at all hours oI
the night as a man. and the police are
exceeding their authority IN interfer-
ing with women who are conducting
themselves with propriety.
This question of womanS rights on
the streets was referred to those COM
petent to define them in Jersey City,
and their PoheyE views are
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas;
said:-''There must of course. be proof
moral pSpposes %pma The 'ne poce have 9er
power to pick up a woman and appre-
hend her without cause. The cause
must not be merely circunstantial: it
must be evidence to show that she Is
night walker.
"A woman has a right on the street
by day or night the same as a man. But
her presence would excite notice where
the presence of a man would not. Ord;n.
ariy "a woman would be an object of
on the street was for perfectly proper
purposes or necessity. obliged her to be
there she would be the, one most likely
is liable to insult. There. is. no lues-
ton, and | say SO emphatically, of a
sae as ese Of Sh 'ne man aefaT and she % Is no no
more subject to arrest than is a man.
1.-THE police haye no right 10 dub
the street. She must solicit or the po-
lice must know that she is a common
strumpet and on the street for immoral
woman of unsavory character may be
poses. pose - The s fact + + her repataslon Win
sor her arrest would be that she WIS
there for soliciting or for purposes Of
soliciting,
Police Justice ]. Herbert Potts said
s1That case to which you rafer is open,
think. to explanation, | cannot see
myself aay;s why a woman man has not ;gila egnal
always that she conducts herself prop
erly A woman at night would be the
subject NOd 1nQlllIsy Dy the pCllce, sUut LIE
police ought to be extremely careful be-
fore arresting. any one as common
street walker
Chief Of Police B. Murphy said;-'So
far as the 2egan status of the matter is
concerned a woman has the same. rights
on the streets as man. The OLD idea
that woman of responsibility would
not be seen on the streets at night IS
man is compelled to go on the street
for doctor, for instance. business of
many kinds NAV call her out and in
stead of a policeman looking on the
wrong side of that fact. that she IS
there for Improper purposes. he should
patrol closer to her for her protection.
Any police officer who cannot at a
glance determine whether a woman is
or is not respectable, ought to go back
to the School of Destruction
Police Justice William P. Douglass
said:-"The rights of women on the
streets at night are precisely the same
as those of a man. The rule is,, how
ever, that in big cities when women are
found on the street at late hours and can
not give any good account of themselves
they are taken in and held until they
can and then are discharged. OF course
policemen must be extremely careful in
making such arrests"