_Be it enacted, &c., as follows_:--
SECT. 1.--When a man dies, having lawfully disposed of his estate
by will, and leaving a widow, she may, at any time within six
months after the probate of the will, file in the probate-office,
in writing, her waiver of the provisions made for her in the will;
and shall, in such case, be entitled to such portion of his real
and personal estate as she would have been entitled to if her
husband had died intestate: _provided, however_, that, if the share
of the personal estate to which she would thus become entitled
shall exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars, she shall, in such
case, be entitled to receive in her own right the said amount of
ten thousand dollars, and to receive the income only of the excess
of said share above said sum of ten thousand dollars during her
natural life. If she makes no such waiver, she shall not be endowed
of his lands, unless it plainly appears by the will to have been
the intention of the testator that she should have such provisions
in addition to her dower.
SECT. 2.--Upon application, made by the widow or any one interested
in the estate, the judge of probate may appoint one or more
trustees, to receive, hold, and manage, during the lifetime of the
widow, the portion of the personal estate of her deceased husband,
exceeding ten thousand dollars, of which she is entitled to receive
under this act.
SECT. 3.--The twenty-fourth section of the ninety-second chapter of
the General Statutes is hereby repealed.
Approved April 9, 1861.
In a case on trial in the Superior Court to-day (Oct. 3, 1861),
Chief-Justice Allen ruled, that the law of 1855, allowing married
women to do business on their own account, separate and apart from
their husbands, did not exclude them from entering into
business-partnerships with men other than their husbands.
[43] On the 7th of April, 1861, the Ohio Legislature passed a bill
concerning the Rights and Liabilities of Married Women.
SECT. 1 conveys the impression, that all married women may control
their rents and issues of real estate belonging to them at marriage,
or separately received after.
SECT. 5, however, says "that this law shall not affect any
rights which may have _become_ vested in any person at the time of
its taking effect;" which, of course, cuts off from its beneficial
results all persons previously married.
It seems a perfectly simple matter to a woman to obviate the
difficulties and disappointments which arise in this way.
Let parties married under the old law, but desiring to benefit by the
new, go before a magistrate, and state their wish; and then let the
decision in their favor be published in the regular way.
Such a method would not benefit parties at variance; but it would
benefit a large class of women engaged, or desiring to engage, in
independent business.
The Ohio law repeals a former law of 1857, which secured to all
married women the control of the sale or the disposal of personal
property exempt from execution: so its benefits are of a nature by no
means unmixed.
[44] See note, page 349.
[45] See Appendix.
[46] This passage was originally prompted by some reflections on the
changes which have occurred in domestic life in Boston.
Here the family, even among those of the highest social rank, had once
a sacred simplicity pleasant to remember. Men were accustomed to take
their three meals with their wives and children. The latest
dinner-hour was two, p.m.; and suppers were unheard of. The evening
party began at seven; and young girls went freely and uninvited from
house to house, with their needle or their book.
How greatly all this is changed, my readers, many of them, feel still
more deeply than I; and, with this change, the formation of "clubs" of
various kinds has brought about others far more important.
A young married lady of rank and fashion was lately lamenting to me
the isolation of husbands and wives, fathers and children, consequent
upon club-life.
"But," she concluded with a sigh, "if my husband had no club, he would
expect a hot supper for a friend two or three times a week; and how
could I ever accomplish that?"
This _indolence_ of _women_ lies at the bottom of many serious social
evils. The woman who will not, health and fortune permitting, make
herself responsible in such a case for any number of hot suppers,
deserves to see her own happiness wither, her own hearth made
desolate.
It is needless to add, that if women would educate themselves to be
true and noble companions to their husbands, and resign on their own
part all that is unsound, and therefore unbecoming, in fashionable
life, hot suppers would cease to be a desideratum, and men would pass
pleasant evenings without them.