Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-11-19
HAS APPEALED TO HIGH
EST COURT In LAND
Has Husband the Right to
Whip His Wife.

iWdSLhHSlOH, IL. u, November IT, :
Attention wives! There is now before
the United States Supreme court a
case that is of vital Importance to
every one of you. A wife has appealed
to the highest tribunal in the land to
know if her husband has a right to
beat her.
To the layman, and especially to tie
laywoman, it would seem that the wo-
man might confidently expect a favor
able decision.
The wife who thus seeks a formal
adjudication upon the rights of man
is Mrs. Susie E. Thompson, of this
city. She asserts that her husband
beat her SO severely on seven different
occasions that she is entitled to $40
600 damages for the injuries she re-
ceiyed. Mrs. Thompson sued her hus-
band for damages to this amount, but
the judge said she had no standing in
court, because it was her Husband who
had administered the beating. If it
had been anybody else she would have
had right to sue, bIt ats it was her
own husband, she had none.
Mrs. Thompson, however, wasn't TO
be put off so easily If tile dover
COUNT wouldn't give her what she deem
ed justice, She would go to the high
est court in the land And she did
Mrs. Thompson may not succeed
In fact, there is precedent to make
one think that she will not, for all
such cases heretofore have been thrown
out of the courts, and as there
is no statute upon which She can
base her case. 1t is true she could
have had Mr.. Thompson arrested, or
she could have sued him for a sepa-
ration on the ground of cruelty and
the court would have granted it, and
compelled him to support her, but a
wife cannot collect damages from her
Llusband--that is, If the Supreme
court follows precedent.
Women We're ChatteIs.
And it is not so very long ago that
| it was considered perfectly right ana
proper for husband to beat his Wife
whenever he happened to think she
needed it, and in some countries such
is the case even to this day. Dit is
only recently that wife has ceased
to Ibe in the eyes of the law a chattel
THAT is to say, personal possession
of her husband, an article with which
he could do as The liked, if he Only
remained faithful to her. In these
days, when women are really privi,-
eyed beings, having many legal rights
that men have not, it is really amaz
ing to look back few years and see
in what abiect slavery a woman plac-
ed herself when she welded.
When William the Conqueror had
completed the task of sHbjugating En-
gland, lie proceeded to give it alwa7
i'm small parcels to the knights and
barons who had followed him during
the conquest. William arranged mat
ters SO that a womim couldn't secure
a piece of land, and women have been
trying for close onto nine hundred
years to acquire the privileges from
which William tke Conqueror deibar-
red them.
That women were nothing but mere
chattels, to be bought and sold like
horses or COWS, was so generally rec
ognized in eaTlier times that in Magma
Charter it was so declared There
are ancient records in England, called
the pipe rolls, which contain tile &C
counts of the royal excaequer in those
Norman and Plantagenet days. In
them may be found such entries as
these:
Lash Bride on Wedding Day,