He could even will away an unborn child, to some
other person than the mother. And in many of the states the law still
prevails, and the mothers are still utterly powerless under the common
law.
I doubt if there is, to-day, a State in this Union where a married woman
can sue or be sued for slander of character, and until quite recently
there was not one in which she could sue or be sued for injury of
person. However damaging to the wife's reputation any slander may be,
she is wholly powerless to institute legal proceedings against her
accuser, unless her husband shall join with her; and how often have we
heard of the husband conspiring with some outside barbarian to blast the
good name of his wife? A married woman cannot testify in courts in cases
of joint interest with her husband. A good farmer's wife near Earlville,
Ill., who had all the rights she wanted, went to a dentist of the
village and had a full set of false teeth, both upper and under. The
dentist pronounced them an admirable fit, and the wife declared they
gave her fits to wear them; that she could neither chew nor talk with
them in her mouth. The dentist sued the husband; his counsel brought the
wife as witness; the judge ruled her off the stand, saying "a married
woman cannot be a witness in matters of joint interest between herself
and her husband.
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