substance and her money, and spend it in foolish speculation; or, worse
still, in gambling, drunkenness, and debauchery. He may maltreat her and
insult her by the presence in her own house of his mistress. If, no
longer able to endure his brutality, she is obliged to leave him, he
may, unless the law grant a divorce and alimony, keep possession of her
houses and lands, while she must leave home and children behind, and go
out upon the world penniless. She can not force him to return one dollar
of the wealth that was her own; and after the separation, unless legal
papers warranting it have been executed, he can follow her and collect
her scanty earnings. Thousands upon the back of thousands of times has
all this occurred. Does not civilized law give a woman a lien upon her
husband's property? and does not this counterbalance his lien upon hers?
About as equally as are all other privileges balanced between the
sexes; no more.

She has no legal voice whatever in the management of her husband's
estate. His real estate is the only thing upon which she has any claim,
and this is only a life interest--after his death--of the one-third of
the estate; and of this she may only draw the interest upon the
valuation. She may refuse to bar her dower[K] in a sale of land, but if
the bargain goes on, her refusal does not invalidate the title; all she
can do is, in the event of her husband's death, to claim her interest on
her "thirds." This is all she can claim. The furniture of her home, the
very beds which she may have brought to the house, are included in the
inventory of her husband's effects; and, unless she agrees to accept
them as part of her thirds, she may be left without, one on which to
rest her weary limbs; and that, too, though the property may have been
purchased with money brought by her into the matrimonial firm; or though
she may have been the working-bee who in reality acquired it. This is
not an overdrawn picture. It is the law in civilized countries; and men