State. The fact is, the women
there have got their feet on the necks of the men. But this don't
satisfy them, and they are all the time crying out for more, as the
Scripture says, like the leeches--which is a passage of Scripture that I
never have quite understood, because leeches in our day suck your
_blood_ without asking, and I never yet heard of one who went farther
than a bite in the way of crying out.

"Excuse me," says I, drawing breath, "if I sometimes digress, and turn
down a Scripture path in search of scientific truth or illustration. I
was saying that a woman in New York State is to all intents and purposes
master of herself--herself and husband too. If she has money when a poor
fellow marries her, it is all her own to do with as she has a mind to,
just as much as if she had never been married at all. But he has to
support her, anyway, keep up the house, pay all the bills, settle her
debts, if she is mean enough to make them, and she can be hoarding up
her own money all the time, while he has no more right to touch a cent
of it than the man in the moon.

"More than this; when he dies, she comes in for a full third of his real
estate for life, and has half his personal property, to sell, give away,
or do with as she pleases. If _she_ dies, he cannot touch a red cent.
Then, again, she can sell all the real estate that belongs to her,
without so much as asking his advice, but he cannot sell an acre or a
wood-shed, and give a clear title, without her written name to the deed.
Then, again, if he earns money, the law makes him support her; if she
earns money, he has no right to a cent of it.

"Poor, downtrodden creatures are these women of New York State--don't
you think so," says I. "Is it a wonder they get dissatisfied with their
hardships, and hanker after more power, more freedom, and less work?
When marriage is so profitable, is it strange that some of them want a
great deal of it, and go through the divorce courts three or four times
with a rush, picking up scraps of alimony and leaving scraps of
reputation along the way.

"If it wasn't that I mean to stand by my own sex through thick and thin,
I should say that the laws lean a trifle over on the woman's side in
York State; but, being a woman, I keep a lively thinking, while the
other poor, downtrodden souls rush to the women's rights meetings, and
wring their hands in desperation over the wrongs I have just explained."

"But what has this to do with yo