Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/460

 Some Delights of the Legal Profession. voice of public opinion is often heard and heeded in legislatures and in judicial tri bunals; and reason also, which is sometimes obstructed and delayed, still shows progress and prevails wherever men make laws or interpret them. Nothing could better illus trate the progress of reason and of public opinion in matters legal than the evolution of the rights of women, as now recognized by the law of the State of New York. It used to be, and not so long ago, that when a woman married all her personal property went to her husband. If she had cash, he was privileged to take it and spend it. If she had promissory notes or open accounts, he alone could sue upon them and the proceeds belonged to him. She could not bring an action to redress an injury to her person without her husband's concur rence. It was lawful and proper for the husband to whip his wife, if she did not obey him. He was not permitted to knock her down with a stick, but he could administer moderate correction with a switch and could abuse her within the limits of reason by word of mouth. Moreover, they used to have what was known as the clicking stool, into which common scolds were put; and it must have been a spectacle worthy of a kodac to see a fussy woman fastened in one of these instruments of torture and ducked a few times in the water. It was held, how ever, that merely scolding once or twice did not make a common scold, and there is no trace of any effort anywhere in legal history to prevent a woman from freeing her mind mildly concerning any of the matters offen sive which were done for or concerning her by her lord and master, man. Great changes have come over the spirits of men with regard to the rights of women. These fascinating creatures have so used their wiles on the sterner sex that, since the time of Elizabeth, when their emancipation seems to have begun, they have so com pletely captured the minds and souls of men that they have yielded to them vastly more

421

than they have retained for themselves. Thus at the present time in the State of New York a woman may hold her real estate or her personal property in her own name. She may sell or give away the same without any regard whatever for her husband. It is true that she may not sell her real estate without recognizing the right of her husband to some share therein, provided she has children by him, and she may not dispose of her personal property by will so as to cut off her husband from his share thereof. She may make a contract with her husband, how ever, just as though he were some other man, and if she gets the better of him the law makes no objection. If she brings an action for divorce against her husband, she may compel him to pay for her counsel and her legal expenses, but the husband has no such right as against the wife, even though he be penniless and she have a million. The hus band is compelled to pay all the necessary living expenses of his wife, but she is under no obligation to contribute a penny toward his support. Whilst it used to be so that her earnings belonged to her husband she is now entitled to keep all she can make or to spend it, according to her own sweet will, regard less of the needs of her spouse or her off spring. It may be added that this is the law in other States besides New York; and so, that dreadful day seems not so far distant when women will not only practice lawr and medi cine, but vote and make political speeches, sit in legislatures and Congress and on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, and in short completely vanquish man from the realm of his aforetime lordship and leave him nothing to do but to drive delivery wagons, to cook the dinners and to look after the babies! Seriously, this evolu tion of the rights of women, as disclosed in the law, shows how amenable the minds of people are to reason and to public opinion. This, again, is but another instance of the many cheerful aspects of the legal profession.