nder this law of
class legislation, liable to be advertised as having left
the husband's bed and board, wherefore he will pay no debts
of her contracting. And how is it if she remains on this
until her continued residence upon it has enabled her
husband to prove up? Does she then share in its benefits? Is
she then half owner of the land? By no means. Chapter 3,
section 83, article V. of the Code, says: "No estate is
allowed the husband or tenant by courtesy upon the death of
his wife, nor is any estate in dower allowed to the wife
upon the death of the husband."

This article carries a specious fairness on its face, but it
is a bundle of wrongs to woman. By the United States law,
only "the head of the family" is allowed to enter
lands--either a preemption, homestead or tree claim. In
unison with the United States, the law of Dakota (see
chapter 3, section 76) recognizes the husband as the head of
the family, and then declares that no estate in dower is
allowed to the wife upon the death of her husband. Neither
has she any claim upon any portion of this land the husband,
as head of the family, may take, except the homestead, in
which she is recognized as joint owner. The preemption claim
upon which, in a comfortless claim-shanty, she may have
lived for six months, or longer, if upon unsurveyed land, as
"the reasonable place and mode of living" her husband has
selected for her, does not belong to her at all. She has no
part nor share in it. Upon proving, her husband may at once
sell, or deed it away as a gift, and she has no redress. It
was not hers. The law so declares; but she is her husband's,
to the extent that she can be thus used to secure 160 acres
of land for him, over which she has no right, title, claim
or interest. I have not space to pursue this subject
farther, but will assure the women of Dakota that reading
the code, and the session laws of the territory will be more
interesting to them than any novel. If they wish to still
farther know their wrongs, let them look in the code under
the heads of "Parent and Child," "Crimes Defined," "Probate
Co