titled to a fraction thereof as dower. In thirtysix States the wife has no right to her own children, for the law gives the father legal control and guardianship of them.*

Thousands of husbands, when they die, leave wills which are marvels of injustice and cruelty. Men have even willed from their wives the very property that they received through their marriage. Even the guardianship of children has been given to others. In nearly every State, the father is next of kin to the children, the law thus averring that the father is, in its eyes, a nearer blood relation than the mother. To illus

*A father may, without the mother's consent, by his last will or testament, appoint a guardian for his child, born or unborn. This guardian will have control or management of the child's property, and, in case the mother dies while the child is still a minor, he will be entitled to the custody of the child, and the mother can in no way prevent his having it.

If the father dies without having appointed a guardian, and it becomes necessary to appoint a guardian of the person and estate of the child, or children, the Probate Court appoints said guardian, but the Probate Court is not bound to appoint the mother. It may appoint a stranger, and that, too, without the consent of the mother.

trate: A boy fourteen years of age was killed by a railway train some time ago. His father having permanently deserted the family, the boy helped toward the support of the family. The mother, therefore, brought suit against the railway company to recover damages for her loss. The case was decided against her because, by the statute of the State in which the accident happened, the next of kin to the child is the father; and the mother was, therefore, entitled to no damages. In one State the husband may perpetrate any wrong, outrage or infamy against a wife; but under no conditions or circumstances can she divorce him. In the same State the husband may make contracts which, for years at a time, will bind his infant girls (as soon as they are six years of age) to labor as factory hands. The children can be compelled to work for twelve hours a day. The mother has absolutely no redress at law. Large numbers of these little girls receive only from six to ten cents a day for their work, and many of them work from six o'clock at night until six o'clock the next morning.

In five States husbands can bind their little

girls as factory hands for years (they usually only live four years after being thus bound, and those who live longer are mental and physical wrecks). The helpless wife has no redress; she cannot interfere. In whole sections in the South in the country districts women have practically all the work to do; and they support their children and their husbands. In one of the oldest States the law allows male brutes to lead girls of seven years of age to their ruin; in six of the States at ten years of age; and in four of the States at twelve years of age. The helpless mother has no right to change these laws.

By the wills of some of our millionaire magnates, the faithful wife and mother finds herself poor compared with any of her own sons, and one son is made the head of the family, with the lion's share of those millions left to him to do with as he sees fit. Please remember that there is only one country in Europe (England) where the law of primogeniture prevails, and even in that country the eldest son is simply a life tenant of the real estate. This is an entirely different matter from a boy inheriting the

American millions-both personal and real estate -to do with as he pleases.

In all the States a man is privileged to enter any occupation, profession or trade which is supposedly a feminine vocation. The law does not protect women against such encroachments by men. In nearly all the States, women, on the other hand, are refused the right to enter certain refined, elevating and suitable occupations, in which they might make honest livings, the men being protected by law against such invasion. In the "free republic" there are dozens and dozens of other sustained laws, equally inequitable, touching woman's relations to man. Some of these laws pass belief. And yet, an ignoramus or liar will tell you that the laws in America are more generous to women than to men! The "age of consent law alone stands as a monstrous contradiction to any such declaration in every State in the Republic.”

And, referring to women in general, wher ever they perform the same service as men, they usually get far less remuneration, the various local governments paying them generally, even

as teachers, only about one-third of what men receive.

And all the things you have heard about the courts being so much more tender to women than to men, are just so many baseless fabrications. Out of tens of thousands of similar incidents, I especially recall that on the very day the Republic sent to a Royal Court as its Minister a man who had murdered his rival and had not even been indicted for it, a woman who had killed her rival under the identical circumstances was sentenced to be hanged. The same court which one week exonerated a brother for killing his sister's traducer, the next week sentenced a girl to life imprisonment for killing her seducer. The same court which awarded a boy $3,500 damages against a company for the loss of his left hand, awarded a poor girl only $2,500 for the loss (under the exact circumstances) of both her feet. In the same city where a woman was sentenced to prison for five years for stealing a ring, a man was sentenced to prison for five years for killing his wife. Besides, in one city alone, 500 respectable women were arrested in forty