The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-11-28
EVOLUTION OF RIGHT LAWS FOR WOMEN

For nearly two thousand years the
world has been growing more kindly dis
posed toward its inhabitants. 1t is a bet.
ter place to live iE than ii used to be,
for m mankind, as we'll as for womankind.
But it IS safe to say that women have
been reaping larger harvests of good for
themselves than men have for themselves.
In all honor to the men, let it DO said
that they have sowed most OF the fair
harvests which women have profited by /;
and in Justice to the women, be it also
said thht they had been So long time
starved, SO stuntea and dwarfed and
MANNED BY their imprisoned existence
that they needed help IN sowing that
they might also reap harvest OF pro-
gress.
The better times all around began with
the civilization OF Christianity. That
has been the potent, nfiuence for human
ity. guiding 1t to q higher and better way
of living, wherever II has found fol-
lowing. Before 1t came it is difficult to
trace the pa.h of woman upward AMI
outward. That path wavered and
changed its direction many times and in
many lands, for ii needed the fresh im-
petus of Christianity to keep its course
steady and towards the right. And in
proof of that fact it is only necessary to
look at the women Of those lands today
following other rellgions-China, India.
Turkey. Their laws respecting women
are those OF a thousand years ago.
Woman under the old Roman Law was
one OF her male relatives. She could
not dispose of any Of her property. with
out his consent. She had no voice in
public, and she could not legally inter-
vSne in the government of the family.
It is uncomfortable that she did not
sometimes do the latter without "a
right Her husband even had the power
of death over her.
The historian Gibbon states that there
was In Rome temple to the goddess who
presided over tho peace Of murrag es,
But" Gibbon says. ''her very name
Viflplacs, the appeaser Of husbands
shows that repentance and submission
as though the wife were always at fault.
IL Roman woman died intestate her
property descended to her chilrden. But
If she had q daughter, ma rrieu' neither
the daughter nor her descendants had
equal rights to her property. Only rsla.
tives by males we're in the order OF sue
cessiOn. These laws existed until 526 A. D.
At the character OF woman rose, as she
was lifted above the low moral plane Of
Ter former lite. her legal rights increased.
the most ancient German customs were
those of the Scandinavian races. With
them woman carried arms by q cham .
pion, pleaded and sat IN justice through
. representative, and even had property
that she could call her own.
The early German bought his wife, and
possessed the power OF tUtelage over her.
This right passed from the woman's IA
He. in turn, could sell her, or punish
her. or even kill her. But II be killed
her "unustly' he had to pay q heavy
fine to the parents who had sold her to
him. In tn face OF the facts 10 is assert
ed by some writer's that 'German tutel-
age was more in the interest of the wom-
an and ward than OF the husband and
guardian"
France was the ,st to abolish tutelage,
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
After the fall OF Journalism no guardian
was appointed for a girl not u minor, or
for widow. Such woman or girl
could enter courts plead,giv bail. BIZ ar
bitrntor and render testimony in civil or
criminal cases. But il she married she
became legally nothing.
Matters were some what balanced at
that period, and until quito recently. by
the fact that the Jaw presumed that any
crime committed by the wife in the pres
,nce Jf the husband was done ut his die
tation. and that be was responsible for
il. II was wnen poor M. BUNDLE found
out this legal principle and was informed
that lin the eye OF the law" he was the
more guilty OF the two--it was then that
circumstances goaded him to saying: "If
the law supposes that, the law Is a ASA
idiot. IL that's the eyes of the law, tbs
law Is q bachelor, and the worst l wish
the law is that mis- eye may be opened by
experience.
In many parts OF Europe for many GEN.
tur' es there was preference for male
heirs. In Frame children could not
share alike until 1871.
T.telage OF women was not abolished in
Germany until between 1873 and 1888.
England retained the idea If the infer
iority OF women in marriage longer than
France. A sentence from Sir Thomas
Smith, uttered In 1871, shows how the
woman question was looked upon in that
seen, somewhat rigorous towards the
wives. yet for the most part they can
handle their husbands 20 we'll and so
dulvly, and especially when their bus-
bands be sikke, that whore the la " giveth
them nothing, their husbands at their
death vt their own good will give them
ALI. This argument IS very often heard
, against woman's suffrage today. Is it
masculine to prefer being liam boozled"
into thing rather than to grant it free
ly and fairly?
Certainly the old English laws do seem
somewhat rigorous" A woman, then.
must have been compelled to be Every,
very good. or elyo her life must have
been frightful. Indeed, she had to forfeit
her life II she was convicted of certain
crimes, such as sitchcraft, or treason. A
woman was executed for petit treason in
ENGLAND as late as 1884. The law per-
milling public whipping OF o wUman was
not abolished until the time of George
Ill. And, as everyone knows, wives were
frequently ducked for ecolding.
- The modern ioea OF absolute partner
ship betwsen husband and wife is not to
be found IN old English law. Blackstone
rays the husband ana wife form but one
person: that 10, the husband.
In our own land our laws naturally fol-
owed those OF England. hut the last
century has been one of such great pro-
gress and enlightenment that many, IN
deed nearly all, OF the old oppressive ana
unjust laws regarding women have been
swept away. Those laws which merged
. wife's legal existence in that OF her
husband were abolished by the middle of
the century in nearly ali Of the states.
Now, in the United States, to quote from
recent article in the Forum, "Women
have position of at least full equality
with men in every respect so far as re
lates to the holding and dispUsing of
property or the capacity to make con-
tracts or the disposition or custody Of
children.'
In addition to these advances in the
laws for women, the ballot, with full