The Saint Paul globe., 1900-03-08
STILL HAS SOME RIGHTS.

STILL HAS SOME RIGHTS.
In every community there are always
certain number of unprogressive people
who find themselves entirely out OF touch
with the advances of their time So
there can be found many men who still
refuse to accept the splendid advances
which the world has made in the direc-
ton of extending to the fair sex the
largest possible measure OF civil rights
and privileges. These misguided mortals
take exception foolishly enough to the
exalted status conferred on woman, and
from time to time one of them Is heard
in remonstrance against woman's being
enabled TO do pretty much what she
pleases with what is her own. They in
sist that under the rules of law now
governing the relative rights and PRIV
ileges of a man and his wife the woman's
position may be summed up in the old
sophism: Whats yours is mine and
what's mine is my own
Such view as this is utterly unwar-
ranted. Man still has his rights in the
commonwealth. His position with refer
ence to his better half is yet far from
being that of unredeemed serfdom. He
may come and go as he pleases. There as
no legislative regulation against his car
rying night key. and If things do not
happen to suit him he is at liberty to
discard them provided he leaves an ade-
quate financial equivalent behind him.
His personal rights are by no means
wholly ignored. whatever may be said of
his rights of property.
From time to time we have very cen
vincing proof offered through the daily
press that absolute as are women's rights.
they do not extend to the complete in
vasion of the domain of his individual
liberty. 1t is but a short time, for In
; stance, since a dispatch from Chicago
made it plain that the courts of this
country will not compel any American
male to work on the wood pile of his di-
yorced wife. In the case In which that
decision was given, the ex-husband had
peremptorily refused to take UP his famII>
lar occupation of splitting the family's
wood after the decree of divorce had
been entered against him. He was ar
rested. But his counsel at once secured a.
writ OF habeas corpus, and the court in
granting him his discharge from jail laid
down the principle which IS now firmly
embodied In our judicial system, that
woman cannot always eat her domestic
cake and have it.
Still another and later vindication of
the domestic rights Of male persons has
been secured through the courts of ST:
Louis. 1t was only last week One Rich
ard MaetZald was arraigned on the
charge of chopping down his own front
door with an ak. The report does not
say whether he stood charged with hay.
ing perpetrated a burglary after the
fashion most prevalent In ST. Paul under
the former police administration. or mere,
ly with disorderly conduct But the re-
suit of his trial was his discharge as a
free man. The court In that case rose to
the full height of the occasion. In the
assertion of mans right to choose his
own way for opening his front door, and
declared the law to be that:
"A husband paying rent and owning his
own furniture has perfect right to his
homestead; lf his entrance is baked,
ne may take an ak and chop down
Whatever he pleases In order to gain ad-
mission to his residence"
1t will thus be seen how ill-founded are
the complainings Of those gangrened old
bachelors and disgruntled Benedicts who
claim that mans inaiienable right to
life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Is invariably sacrificed on the altar of
matrimony.