it be raised from 10 to 18, and the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union from 10 to 21. Many petitions had been sent
to previous Legislatures by both these organizations, but this was the
first time a bill had been presented and carried to a vote.

The bill to admit women to the State University was not considered by
the Legislature of 1900.[226]

The State W. C. T. U. has been laboring to secure the passage of a law
for scientific temperance instruction in the public schools since
1890, when Mrs. Mary H. Hunt of Massachusetts, who was the first woman
to speak in the capitol building, addressed the Legislature. The bill
passed both Houses in 1894, but was vetoed by Gov. William J. Northen
because no provision had been made to require teachers to stand an
examination on the subject.[227]

Since 1857, when the law which gave a husband the right to whip his
wife was amended, there have been some favorable changes. In 1866 a
law was enacted allowing a married woman to own property, but not
including any wages she might earn.

In 1891, when a married woman was suing for personal injury in a
railroad accident, Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley decided that the
amount of a wife's recovery for physical damages "is not to be
measured by pecuniary earnings, for such earnings as a general rule
belong to the husband and the right of action for this loss is in
him." In 1892 Judge Thomas J. Simmons rendered practically the same
decision, and in 1893 ruled again: "Inasmuch as the earnings of the
wife belong to her husband, her individual and personal damages can be
measured only by the consciences of an impartial jury."

In November, 1895, when William H. Flemming (now a member of Congress)
was Speaker of the House of Representatives, he offered a bill which,
as he said, "was to complete the good work begun with the Married
Woman's Property Act of 1866, by making a wife's labor as well as her
acquired property her own." It passed the House by 98 ayes, 29 noes,
but was killed in the Senate.

As the law now stands a married woman in Georgia can control her
earnings only if a sole trader with her husband's consent by notice
published in the papers for one month, or if living separate from him.

Dower obtains but not curtesy. If a husband die intestate, leaving a
wife and issue, the wife may elect to take dower--a life interest in
one-third of the real estate--or she may take a child's share of the
whole estate absolutely, unless the