Was Woman Afado to Work?

Southland Times, Issue 14800, 17 November 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

Was Woman Afado to Work?

An interesting legal decision rendered in Chicago is thus described in the American Lawyer (New York) :— " A woman can not be a vagrant, because woman was not made to work," was the novel decision of a jury in Chicago recently. The case on ttial was that of a woman 26 years old, who, it was charged, had begged at Michigan A venae houses for tbe last three years. Kate Kaae Rossi defended the prisoner. After the testimony had been taken Mrs Rossi set forth her view of the case, but failed to oonvince the justice that woman was not made to work. Finding her ideas nob in accord with those of the Court, Lawyer Rossi demanded a jury trial, and twelve men were empanelled. To then she repeated her arguments in greater detail. The vagranoy statute, she said, defined a vagrant a« " any person who is idle, remains idle, and refuses to work." A woman, she decland, never could coma under that provision, aa woman was not made to work. Castosi, history, and tradition were oalled upon to Bhow one instance in which woman waa regarded as a being who bad been created to work. She quoted poatry to show that woman was made to live a life of luxury. Did the jury remember the woman who wore " ringa on j»er finger* and belli on her toes?" Did they

recall the line from the poet : •' Woman, woman, lovely woman ?" How could "lovely woman " be supposed to handle mortar on a cold day ? Of course, woman had been compelled to work during the laet couple of cbdturies, but that wan owing to the fact that man, through his inability to provide for her, had compelled her tD make a Blave of herself. In so doing, man had gone against rature. The fact remained that not one line in all history showed that woman was intended to toil. Tradition, the attorney said, was above all law, and tradition showed that woman was a doll to ba petted. That being established, she argued, woman did not come under the baa of the statute as a person who should be apprehended if not " workißg." The jury promptly returned a verdict supporting the theory of the defence, and the prisoner was discharged.