WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 648, 21 April 1870, Page 3

WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA.

I (Pall Mall Gazette.) Whatever else New York legislators may be, they certainly cannot ho accused of want of gallantry, if the New York Tribune correctly reports the.laws of the State. That unpolite journal, not content with disputing the justice of the complaints made by the lady agitators for women's rights, publishes a brief summary of the laws ' of the State relating to women to show ■ : that those complaints are unfounded. From this summary it appears that women are legally capable of marrying and of making a will two years earlier | than men ; and that sisters and broth- ■ ers share alike in the estate of an in- ; testate parent. If a woman marries, : ; the enjoyment of her property is sel cured free, from her husband's control. I Her earnings, also, are absolutely her ; own. Her husbaud is bound to sup- : port her, no matter whether she has money or not; she need not employ a penny of her money on her own sup- ; port, but may even run him into debt \ for that purpose, if he does not provide i adequately for her wants. On the ; other hand, she cannot be required to contribute in any way to her husband's support, even to pay the cost of keeping him in the county poor-house. Her consent is necessary to the sale of any land her husband may purchase to extinguish her dower right; but if !she has land she may sell it without her husband's consent. Her husband cannot deprive her after his death of a life-interest in oue-third of all his lands, but she can cut him off without an inch of her land or a cent of her money. Again, a married woman cannot be imprisoned in any civil suit for any cause whatever. If she commits an assault, or destroys or appropriates her neighbor's property, her unlucky husband must pay the costs and damages, or go to trial for her misdoings. In regard to the custody of children, in cases of separation, the courts have a large discretion, in the exercise of which they almost always, we are told, lean to the mother's side.