Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine spoke in the same
place. Mrs. Ruth D. Havens of Washington, D. C., lectured on The Girls
of the Future before the State Teachers' Normal Institute.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: Petitions have been sent to the
Legislature from time to time, by the State association and by
individuals for woman suffrage with educational qualifications, the
opening of State colleges to women, the appointment of women
physicians in the prisons and insane asylums, women on school boards,
proper accommodations in jails for women prisoners and the separation
of juvenile offenders from the old and hardened. None of these ever
has been acted upon.

In 1898 a bill to permit women to serve as notaries public was vetoed
by the Governor as unconstitutional.

Dower and curtesy both obtain. The wife inherits a life interest in
one-third of the real estate. If there are children she has one-third
of the personal property absolutely; if none, one-half. The husband
inherits all of the wife's personal property whether there are
children or not, and the entire real estate for life if there has been
issue born alive. If this has not been the case he has no interest in
the wife's separate real estate. The homestead, to the value of
$2,000, is exempted for the wife.

By Act of 1900, a married woman may dispose as though unmarried of all
property heretofore or hereafter acquired. She can sell her personal
property without her husband's uniting. He has the same right. She can
sell her land without his uniting, but unless he does so, if curtesy
exist, he will be entitled to a life estate. Unless the wife unites
with the husband in the sale of his real estate, she will be entitled
to dower.

By the above Act a married woman may contract and be contracted with,
sue and be sued, in the same manner and with the same consequences as
if she were unmarried, whether the right or liability asserted by or
against her accrued before or after the passage of the act. The
husband is not responsible for any contract, liability or tort of the
wife, whether the liability was incurred or the tort was committed
before or after marriage.

There has been no decision as to the wages of a married woman since
the above Act; but it is believed they would be held to belong to her
absolutely, even if not engaged in business as a sole trader.

The father is the legal guardian of the minor children, and may
appoint a guardian for such time as he ple