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Prototyping Python

Dashboards for

Scientists and

Engineers

Build and Deploy a Complete

Dashboard with Python

Padraig Houlahan

Prototyping Python Dashboards for Scientists and Engineers:

Build and

Deploy a Complete Dashboard with Python

Padraig Houlahan

Flagstaff, AZ, USA

ISBN-13 (pbk): 979-8-8688-0220-1

ISBN-13 (electronic): 979-8-8688-0221-8

https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-0221-8

Copyright © 2024 by Padraig Houlahan

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Paper in this product is recyclable

To my mother, Kathleen (Moriarty) Houlahan. Teacher.

(Born 1927, Brandon, County Kerry, Ireland)

Table of Contents

About the Author

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������ix About the Technical
Reviewer
�������������������������������
������������������������������xi
Acknowledgments
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
���������������xiii Introduction
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������������xv Chapter
1: Working with Python
�������������������������������
����������������������������1

Coding Design: Python and OOD

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������1

Python Data Types

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����4

Lists, Tuples, and Sets

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�����������������������6

Dictionaries
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������9

Series
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
���������������11

Dataframes
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������12

The Spyder IDE

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������23

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������25

Chapter 2: Reactive Programming with PLOTLY and

DASH�����������������27

Getting Started with PLOTLY

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�����������������27

Getting Started with DASH

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������32

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������38

Chapter 3: Working with Online Data

�������������������������������
������������������39
About the ATADS Dataset
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������������39

ATADS Screen Scraping

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������������45

Converting Excel to CSV with Data Cleanup

�������������������������������
�������������������������48

Table of ConTenTs

Managing and Keeping Our Files Up to Date

�������������������������������
�����������������������49

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������51

Chapter 4: Planning the Dashboard Prototype

�������������������������������
����53

Overview
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������53
Project Tasks
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������57

Trends and Forecasts

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������������������59

Other Design
Considerations�������������������������
�������������������������������
�����������������������61

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������62

Chapter 5: Our First Dashboard

�������������������������������
���������������������������63

The atads�py File

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����64

The atads_layout Class

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������67
The atads_figures Class
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������������70

Initialization
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������70

Class Methods
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��73

Fine-Tuning with CSS

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������������������85

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������88

Chapter 6: Dashboard
Enhancements�������������������������
������������������������89

Adding the Banner and the Instruction Panels

�������������������������������
��������������������92

Monthly and Weekday Histogram Panels

�������������������������������
�����������������������������96

The Spectrum Panel

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������������������100

Quantifying Weekly and Seasonal Effects

�������������������������������
��������������������������105

The Final ATADS Dashboard

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������113

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������114

Chapter 7: Hosting an Application on a UNIX Server

������������������������115

Creating the Python Environment

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������117

Running a Flask Application

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����������������119

vi

Table of ConTenTs
Using uWSGI
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
���������121

Using GUNICORN
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��122

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������123

Chapter 8: Deploying Your Project As a UNIX Service

����������������������125

Creating a Hello World System Service

�������������������������������
������������������������������127

Using NGINX to Share Your Hello World App

�������������������������������
�����������������������128

Adding the Dashboard Project to Your Server

�������������������������������
��������������������131

Creating the Dashboard System Service and Deploying with NGINX

����������������133

Securing Your Server

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������������135

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������137

Chapter 9: The BTS T100 Dataset: Interacting Controls and

Tables
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��139

The BTS T100dm Dataset

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������140

Prototyping a T100dm Display

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������140

Managing Modes and Interacting Menus

�������������������������������
���������������������������144

Figures and Tables

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������������������146

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������149

Chapter 10: Creating a Web Portal

�������������������������������
��������������������151

Troubleshooting WordPress
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�����������������155

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������162

Chapter 11: Using Our Dashboard for Data Visualization and

Analysis
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������������������163

Airport Type, Trends, and Location

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������164

Airshows and Seasonal – Using Spectra

�������������������������������
���������������������������166

Incorporating Models
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������������������������173
vii

Table of ConTenTs

Media, Presentations, Reports, and Projects

�������������������������������
���������������������177

Summary���������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
������������������181

Chapter 12: Afterword

�������������������������������
�������������������������������
��������183

Appendix A: Utilities for Managing ATADS Data

�������������������������������
�185

Index
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
�������������������������������
����197

viii
About the Author

Padraig Houlahan has a diverse career,

spanning research, teaching, and IT

management. He has worn multiple hats over

the years, functioning as a scientist, software

developer, college professor, flight instructor,

and IT director. Throughout his journey, he

has maintained an enduring fascination with

the art of uncovering patterns within data.

His M.A. research involved searching for,

and placing upper limits on, gravitational

waves in Lunar Laser Ranging data, while his

Ph.D. research introduced an innovative pattern recognition approach
for characterizing the structure of astronomical nebulae. Since then,
his focus has pivoted toward aviation-centric software projects. These
ventures involve real-time tracking and visualization of aircraft to aid
in traffic flow analysis. Furthermore, he has played a pivotal role in
rendering extensive datasets accessible to both students and faculty,
benefiting airline and airport operators alike. Teaching has always
held a special place in his heart, driven by the joy of witnessing
students derive satisfaction from acquiring new knowledge and
insights.

ix

About the Technical Reviewer

Shibsankar has 10+ years of experience

working in IT where he has led several data

science initiatives, and in 2019, he was

recognized as one of the top 40 data scientists

in India. His core strength is in deep learning,

NLP, and graph neural networks, whereas

he has also spent time solving problems in

computer vision. He has experience working in

the domain of foundational research, fintech,

and ecommerce.

He is currently working at Optum as a principal data scientist.

Before that, he worked at Walmart, Envestnet, Microsoft Research,

and Capgemini. He pursued a master's from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Bangalore.

xi

Acknowledgments

While writing this book was a solitary endeavor, it could not have
happened without the influence of an ecosystem of family and friends
who help me keep my sanity, an ecosystem that includes the
following people.

My wife Tania, a voracious reader and lover of animals and of the

outdoors, who faces the daily challenge of managing her “grumpy old
man in training” all the while working in physical therapy, teaching
Aikido, learning mandolin, and wildlife sketching.

My mother, a remarkable individual born in a very remote part of

Ireland, one of the most intellectually curious people I ever met, who
became a teacher and who cultivated a love of learning and culture in
all her children.

My friend Dr. Otto Franz, an astronomer whom I met while working at

Lowell Observatory, now retired and living in Texas, who still stays in
contact with weekly Facetime sessions, with whom I have the
privilege of discussing topical and scientific issues with someone who
was a child in Austria during the Nazi occupation, who offers
eyewitness testimony and insights into extremism, historic and
current. His appreciation of the importance of bringing data to life,
and seeing the merits in my work, is greatly appreciated.

My friends Bill Burke (a superb luthier and musician) and his wife Pat
(who meticulously documents historic archeological sites) for their
regular wonderful conversations – on all things; and close friends Tim
Sober and Carol Kennedy, Barry Malpas and his wife Anne Wittke,
and Klaus Brasch for our regular conversations and sanity-saving
rambling social and political reviews.

xiii

aCknowledgmenTs

And I must also mention Dr. Darrel Smith, a long-time friend and
professor of Physics, Dr. Jules Yimga (Chair, School of Business), and
Dr.

Zafer Hatahet (Dean, College of Arts and Sciences) all at Embry-

Riddle Aeronautical University (Prescott, AZ) for their positive
responses to the software development efforts which are the focus of
this book.

Truly, it does take a village to raise a child!

xiv

Introduction

I wrote this book for a past me. I’m now retired but have maintained
a lifelong interest in programming; there’s just something very
satisfying in developing a piece of code that solves a problem.
Frankly, it’s empowering; you have a solution that gets the job done.
I have had the good fortune of having worked on software projects
that were done mainly to support academic research – research in
astronomy and aviation-related studies, which have been my main
interests – not programming.

I like programming, but it’s simply a way to get me to where I want

to be.

Sometimes, it’s the journey, but for me, it’s mainly the destination.

I am not alone. There are countless researchers and grad students

and data analysts who program, but whose main interest is not
programming.

Being able to code is simply a necessary skill. It’s the norm for
academic types to write unique custom software tailored to a specific
purpose or a narrowly crafted dataset. University departments,
whether scientific or business or engineering, will rarely devote time
to teaching graduate student workers and young faculty to program;
they are expected to sink or swim. They will write code that would
fail to consider multitudes of possible scenarios or input format, for
example. “Need to enter a number?

Well, make sure you use three significant digits for that column, or
the code might crash!” – this probably happens more often than
many would like to admit. The point here is not to assign blame, but
to be realistic; very often, code is written in a very functional, get-it-
done style, to simply… get it done. It’s not about being the cleverest
or the fastest, but simply getting to the destination.

xv

InTroduCTIon

There will be conflicting forces. As a team member, there is often a

need to share your code and make it available for others to use, so
they can get their work done. An Object-Oriented Design makes this
much easier.
Sometimes, the code takes on a life of its own and becomes a badly
needed resource, a service if you will, to a broader interest group.
Your supervisor or manager is not really interested in the details, just
the results, and so a little more effort on the journey is warranted.
And this is where dashboards enter the picture – they represent an
encapsulation of your knowledge codified into a controlled look and
feel and access. A particular kind of programming really, but to the
nonspecialist, another hill to climb.

There have been many times when I found myself in such a position
and wished I had some complete examples to look at, to see how
things were done, and so this is the sense in which I say this book is
written to a past me. In showing how a dashboard was built around
an important aviation dataset, I hope I can help others benefit and
expedite their own projects without facing the often-daunting
headwinds of learning new technologies and techniques all by
themselves.

Why Dashboards?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

—Fred R. Barnard

All data is ultimately a collection of bits – ones and zeros really. It can
be stored in various forms from disks to paper, but to be useful it
needs to be understood and accessible, both of which benefit from
being able to readily visualize what the data represents and from
being able to analyze and share it. Dashboards (graphical displays
using features like buttons, sliders, menus, and graphics) have
emerged as powerful tools to address these needs. When well
designed, you can encapsulate the problems xvi

InTroduCTIon

of data management, display, and access into a self-contained

project, allowing collaborators to work remotely if needed, all the
while providing a focus for the research effort’s needs to manage the
data centrally.

Well-designed dashboards should make their data as intuitive and

functional to the user as possible. By intuitive, I ideally mean the user
should see compelling graphics and results that are easy to
comprehend.

It might not be possible to avoid long tables of data, but in general,

well-designed graphical elements are more effective than raw
numbers for initial explorations. Part of this is simply human nature.
We are visual creatures. Of course, students and researchers need to
get into the weeds with the algorithms and raw data, but eventually,
that data must be reduced into usable summaries and statistics for
practical use by themselves and external users.

To be functional, a dashboard needs to meet the designers’ goal of

making the data’s attributes of interest accessible. A large dataset
might contain more information than the designer is interested in. So,
the designer’s task is to figure out what part of the dataset to use
and to create displays and tools to reveal the embedded traits of
interest; the designer must regularly choose between too little and
too much. If they include too much information, they run the risk of
overwhelming the nonexpert; too little, and their dashboard appears
to be inconsequential. For these reasons, designers must always keep
the end user in mind and be willing to revise their dashboards
accordingly.

There are multiple ways a dashboard might be built and accessed like
web based, application based, and desktop based. A web-based
dashboard has an advantage as it offers freedom to the developer to
maintain an operating system–specific environment and
configurations. This makes them more stable and greatly simplifies
the development process – the designer only needs to develop for a
single platform. At the same time, the distribution problem is solved.
A dashboard on a server can be shared with any other computer on
the Internet.
Good dashboard projects are therefore a reflection of carefully
planned data analysis, reduction, presentation, management, and
dissemination.

xvii

InTroduCTIon

The Importance of Data Visualization

The main dashboard we will build in this book allows the user to
explore the government’s airport operations dataset (ATADS) that
tracks various types of daily operations for more than 500 US
airports. Operations include the kind of flights (military, civilian,
commercial), the conditions (whether they were conducted using
Instrument Flight Rules [IFR] or Visual Flight Rules [VFR]), and
whether they were local or itinerant. VFR operations are permitted
when the weather conditions meet certain minimum visibility and
cloud clearance criteria and are normally used by private pilots and
small air taxi or commercial companies. One cannot assume IFR
flights happen under inclement weather since larger commercial
airlines will use these by default for safety.

A dataset such as this contains a wealth of hidden information that is

hard to appreciate without seeing it graphically, so we can answer
basic questions concerning activity trends. But if we pay close
attention, we will also discover other features that would be difficult
to detect from inspection of tabular data by itself, some of them
being quite fascinating in their own right, and so a graphical
inspection of the data is very important since it will very likely lead to
further questions to explore.

This ability to support visual inspection of graphical data is an

important feature of many dashboards and is essential in ours. After
we are done developing and deploying our dashboard, in a later
chapter, we will demonstrate how powerful it is in providing insight
into the ATADS dataset and hopefully encourage and motivate you to
explore your project’s data.

Finally, an important aspect of this book is not just showing how to

design, build, and deploy a dashboard, but since we are using an
important dataset from the aviation industry, we also address issues
of how our dashboard can support research and aviation
professionals and business students pursuing a career in aviation
management. There are scenarios we will explore as part of
demonstrating the project’s xviii

InTroduCTIon

usefulness, and it is hoped that all readers will appreciate how what
might be perceived as a fairly dry dataset actually presents wonderful
opportunities for, and naturally suggests, topics for further
exploration.

Having been a researcher and scientist, I have always enjoyed

digging deep into data to see what’s hidden beneath the surface,
which is why I think it’s important to explore how the dashboard can
help reveal and document behaviors and events such as hurricanes
and pandemics. Hopefully, these explorations will motivate those
interested in other datasets.

Why This Book?

This book is intended for those who work with data and also have the
need to share insights regarding data. An essential aspect is a desire
to help their end user “lift the veil” and understand underlying data
features such as trends and patterns. Large organizations can have
teams of developers and experts to achieve these goals, but many
who could benefit from such capability (e.g., college faculty and
graduate students) work with minimal resources and need to take a
jack-of-all-trades approach to building applications; they need to
solve the data access, data importation, data display, analytical tool
build, server operating system management, and deployment
problems (if your dashboard is wildly successful, you will need a
scalable solution!). All these must be done in a realistic manner.

Some corners can be cut – there are fewer deployment concerns if

the project is behind a firewall or if the users are all experts, and
primitive graphics can work if there are deadline constraints.
Regardless, there is a daunting task and skillset list the graduate or
faculty member must master.

This book is intended to show how a complete dashboard-based

project can be created and deployed. I will use some government
aviation datasets as core material, and I will show the various design
issues and solutions I encountered in developing an online
dashboard. In taking a step-by-step approach, I hope newcomers will
see how this can be done xix

InTroduCTIon

and encourage them to do it for themselves. I hope the reader finds

it useful to have the diverse underlying issues addressed in one
volume with personal observations included along the way.

There are many online resources that can show you how to make a
simple dashboard or that offer solutions created by others that can
be licensed. There are few, if any, that demonstrate a complete
solution incorporating real-world data access and download,
comprehensive reactive programming, and server configuration
issues. The obvious reason is that it takes a considerable effort to
organize and present such a complete overview, such as this work,
and this is beyond the scope of most online articles. Perhaps not too
unfairly, many online examples teach how to draw a stickman when
what you really need to know is how to do a portrait.

In this book, we address the “complete solution” for the core

application and provide the user with complete code examples and
the needed server configurations. This should serve as a powerful
self-contained resource to learn from, and to refer to, since there
were many times when working on various research projects, I found
myself at a point where I felt I understood the broad strokes of a
coding issue, but, frustratingly, just needed a little extra help in the
form of seeing how someone else solved an issue, and this was all I
needed to move forward.

No question having complete examples to refer to is both a

tremendous time saver and stress reliever.

There is no need to be a computer expert to achieve this, but

computer expertise is still needed. Most researchers and students
these days have experience with some programming, system
administration, and basic web HTML hacking and could learn how to
build dashboards for themselves. For this reason, when discussing
code examples, only the major features will be addressed; the
assumption will be that the reader will be able to understand a
function’s working from reading the code combined with their
understanding of coding basics.

xx

InTroduCTIon

I have also taken the liberty of addressing some issues related to

data analysis and interpretation for aviation professionals specifically
interested in aviation datasets, and this goes beyond the basic task of
creating a dashboard. I include a discussion showing how our
dashboards can provide insight into many aviation issues ranging
from the impact of hurricanes to pandemics, and I even include
discussions on how to create models to test your understanding and
to help incorporate spectral analysis into your work. I realize spectral
analysis of airport operations data is surprising perhaps, but why not?
The techniques are universal, and it was interesting to see how it
worked out and it raised interesting questions in its own right. And,
of course, these discussions can be generalized to non-aviation
projects. So, in this book, we will build a custom tool and show how
to use it, which is a valuable part of the feedback used to refine our
designs.

I will note that dashboards will evolve. In other words, you don’t
have to achieve every desirable outcome in your first attempt. Start
with a simple goal such as displaying a time series of a single data
type.

Figure out how to import and display the data; at this point, you have
made significant inroads into the I/O and graphics display problem.

Next, start adding tools like linear models for trend analysis or panels
to display important statistical values. And that’s it! Well, almost. As
you work with your data and your dashboard, you probably will have
“Aha!”

moments where new ways to visualize the data pop into your mind,
and so displays will have to be modified or new tools created. The
project will evolve. However, even as large datasets are continuously
updated, their corresponding dashboards should eventually stabilize.
Done right, this is a wonderful outcome for any research project, a
resource to be shared with end users – public or academic. And let’s
not forget the benefits your colleagues will gain by not having to
reinvent the wheel.

xxi

InTroduCTIon

How to Use This Book

Depending on what programming challenges you face and your stage

of completion, your approach to how you might use this book will
vary greatly. It would fall into one or more of the following strategies:

• As a general reference on how to build and deploy a

Python dashboard.
• As a template: Here, you would download the code

examples from the publisher’s website to explore

the various solutions and to modify them to suit

your purpose. You would provide your own CSV file

collection and modify the names and labels so that

the drop-down menus and equation strings would

be appropriately populated. The result would be a

dashboard tailored to your project.

• As a resource: See how to work with PLOTLY/DASH

when first learning reactive programming.

• As a guide on how to deploy a Python application using

NGINX and GUNICORN, with a discussion of how to

use CSS to control your dashboard’s screen layout.

• As a resource to augment your current development

efforts: For example, to see how borders, titles,

equation strings, and mouseover text are created and

curve fit and Fourier techniques implemented.

xxii

InTroduCTIon

• As a how-to when getting started with some file format

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
In Louisiana, according to the civil code of 1824, the partnership of
gains arising during coverture exists by law in every marriage,
without express stipulation to the contrary. But the parties may
regulate their married obligations as they please, provided they do
nothing immoral. The wife's property is "dotal." What she brings, her
paraphernalia, is "extra-dotal." The dowry belongs to the husband
during marriage; and he has the administration of the partnership,
and may alienate his revenue, without his wife's consent: but he
cannot convey the common estate. If, before marriage, he should
stipulate that there should be no partnership, his wife preserves the
entire control of her own property. Her heirs take her separate
estate; even money received by her husband on her account. If
there be no agreement as to the expenses, the wife contributes one-
half of her income. Her landed estate, whether dotal or not, is not
affected by his debts. She is a privileged creditor, and has the first
mortgage on his property.
If the parties have agreed to the "partnership of gains," the common
property is liable for the debts of either. On the death of either party,
one-half of the property goes to the survivor; the other, to the heirs
of the dead partner.
You will perceive that this law seems a loose mixture of the Roman
or dotal system with the German communal law, based on the
partnership of gains; but the common law takes it for granted that
the partnership exists, where there is no express stipulation to the
contrary. As a public trader, the wife may bind herself in whatever
relates to her business, without her husband's consent,—may even
make a will; and reference is made to the "Code Napoléon," in the
same way, to all appearance, that we refer to the common law of
England.
The estimate of woman upon which the "Code Napoléon" is founded
has the same effect upon her earnings as the English common law.
As, in marriage, the policy has been to keep her subordinate and
inferior; to give her no privileges which should lead to
independence: so, in business, the effect of the law is to keep the
price of her work down, and give her as few escapes from household
drudgery as may be; to offer her, in fact, no temptation to escape.
As polishers, burnishers, and copper-workers; as glove-makers,
enamellers, and wire-drawers; as flax-beaters and soakers; as
spinners, gauze-workers, and winders; as basket-makers, and
temperers of steel; as knife-handlers, embroiderers, and wheel-
turners; as velvet-makers, cockle-gatherers, and ivory-workers; as
packers, knitters, satin-makers, and folders; as picture-colorers, and
workers in wood; as casters, weighers, and varnishers; as shoe-
makers, strap-makers, lace-makers, and cocoon-winders,—the
French employ many women; and the estimate of the law is
practically indicated, there as well as here, in the price of the labor
done.
The highest wages marked upon my list are those paid to the
workers in a porcelain factory, who received one franc and fifty
centimes a day, or thirty cents. The lowest are those paid to cockle-
gatherers and lace-makers; that is, from twenty to twenty-five
centimes, or from four to five cents a day.
The fact that the poor lace-makers, who lose their eyesight and their
lives bending over their bobbins, are paid the same wages as the
loitering girls who pick up gay cockles on the beach, shows how little
the price of the labor depends on the value of the work done, and
tells the whole story in a breath. The wages of the needlewomen of
Paris have been diminishing ever since 1847, and, according to the
"Revue des Deux Mondes," now average only from twenty to twenty-
five cents a day.
 II.
THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW.
 "And we, perusing o'er these notes,
May know wherefore we took the sacrament,
And keep our faiths firm and inviolable."
King John.

N approaching the subject of English common law, we come

I nearer to our own special interests. Twenty years ago, I am safe,

I think, in presuming that this law was the basis of all our
legislation in regard to woman, if we except that in French or
Spanish territory; and, in criticising its provisions, I shall criticise all
that is objectionable, whether in the laws that have been changed,
or in the laws that remain to be changed, in our own States.
If we were to examine the literature of England with reference to
this subject, we should probably find from the beginning many
protests against the present position of woman. It is never safe, for
instance, to assume what poets may or may not have said. If Dryden
could get so far as to say that there is "no sex in souls," one would
think the gentle Chaucer and heavenly-minded Daniel doubtless
discerned still deeper things; but of lawyers we may say with some
truth, that their early protests were so quietly made as scarcely to
be recognized, or were made for the most part by unread and
anonymous writers.
In the "Lawe's Resolution of Woman's Rights," published in the year
1632, there seems to be a distinct recognition of the true nature of
the law:—

"The next thing that I will show you," says the author, "is this
particularity of law. In this consolidation which we call wedlock
is a locking together. It is true, that man and wife are one
person; but understand in what manner. When a small brooke
or little river incorporateth with Rhodanus, Humber, or the
Thames, the poore rivulet looseth her name; it is carried and
recarried with the new associate; it beareth no sway; it
 possesseth nothing during coverture. A woman, as soon as she
is married, is called covert; in Latine, nupta,—that is, 'veiled;' as
it were, clouded and overshadowed: she hath lost her streame.
I may more truly, farre away, say to a married woman, Her new
self is her superior; her companion, her master."
Still farther: "Eve, because she had helped to seduce her
husband, had inflicted upon her a special bane. See here the
reason of that which I touched before,—that women have no
voice in Parliament. They make no laws, they consent to none,
they abrogate none. All of them are understood either married
or to be married, and their desires are to their husbands. I know
no remedy, though some women can shift it well enough. The
common lawe here shaketh hand with divinitye."

In this plain statement of the old black-letter book lies the root of
the evil with which we contend: "All of them are married or to bee
married, and their desires are to their husbands." Woman, single,
widowed, or pursuing an independent vocation, never seems to have
entered the head of the law, as a possible monster worth providing
for. The world of that day believed in the sea-serpent, but not in her.
This book, "The Lawe's Resolution of the Rights of Woman," was, so
far as I know, first brought under our notice by Mrs. Bodichon's
quotation, in her "Brief Summary of the English Law." Then a few
copies found their way to this country, and into the hands of curious
persons. People began to wonder who wrote the quaint old book. In
pleading before our own Legislature in the spring of 1858, I was
myself asked by the committee who was its author; and I think it but
right to rescue from oblivion the probable name of this early friend
to woman and justice. It is always difficult to trace an anonymous
book, and, this time, more difficult than usual, as it was probably
published after its author's death.
Sir John Doderidge, to whom my attention was directed by an
eminent antiquarian, was an able lawyer, and an industrious
compiler of law-books of a special kind. He was from Devonshire,
and admitted as a barrister in 1603. He was successively appointed
Solicitor-General, Judge of the Common Pleas and of the King's
Bench. Among the works known to be his, yet not commonly
included in the list of his works, are the "Lawyer's Light," published
in 1629; and "The Complete Parson," with the laws relating to
advowsons and livings, in 1670,—books of the same class, character,
and appearance as the "Lawe's Resolution."
As he died in 1628, I was at first inclined to suspect the fairness of
this inference: but a further examination showed that all his
publications were posthumous; which accounts, perhaps, for the
candor of their covert satire. A few particulars of his life and
standing may be gained from the new Life of Lord Bacon, where
Hepworth Dixon says that "the Solicitor-Generalship, vacant once
more, is given, over Francis Bacon's head, to Sir John Doderidge,
Serjeant of the Coif." In 1606, when Sir Francis Gawdy dies, "Coke
goes up to the bench; and Doderidge, the Solicitor-General, ought,
by the custom of the law, to follow Coke, leaving the post of Solicitor
void: but Cecil raises Sir Henry Hobart, his obscure Attorney of the
Court of Wards, over both Doderidge and Bacon's head, to the high
place of Attorney-General." Since that day, Bentham and Catharine
Macauley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and John Stuart Mill, have made the
same complaint; sustaining it, however, by vigorous argument for
woman's full emancipation, and a demand for the right of suffrage.
Let us look at this English law. So far as it affects single women, it is
very simple.
A single woman has the same rights of property as a man; that is,
she may get and keep, or dispose of, whatever she can. She has a
right, like man, to the protection of the law, and has to pay the
same taxes to the State.
"Duly qualified," she may vote on parish questions and for parish
officers; and "duly qualified," in England, means that she shall have
a certain amount of property, and so a vested interest in the
prosperity of her parish. If her parents die without a will, she shares
equally with her brothers in the division of the personal property;
but her eldest brother and his issue, even if female, will take the real
estate as heirs-at-law. If she be an only child, she inherits both
personal and real, and becomes immediately that most pitiable of
creatures, an heiress.
The church and all state offices are closed to women. They find
some employment in rural post-offices; but there is no important
office they can hold, if we except that of sovereign. This is
sometimes spoken of as an inconsistency; but if we reflect upon the
position of a constitutional sovereign, whose speeches are the work
of her minister, and whose actions indicate the average conscience
of a cabinet council, we shall find her legally but very little more
independent than other women technically classed with minors and
idiots.
There have been a few women governors of prisons, overseers of
the poor, and parish clerks; but public opinion still effectually bars
most women from seeking or accepting office.
The office of Grand Chamberlain was filled by two women in 1822.
That of Clerk of the Crown, in the Court of Queen's Bench, has been
granted to a female; and, in a certain parish of Norfolk, a woman
was recently appointed parish clerk, because, in a population of six
hundred souls, no man could be found able to read and write!
In an action at law, it has been determined that an unmarried
woman, having a freehold, might vote for members of Parliament.
Mr. Higginson tells us that a certain Lady Packington returned two.
In all periods, there have been women who have held exceptional
positions, under peculiar influence of wealth or rank or
circumstances; and though this has not affected the position of other
women, or given them any more freedom, yet it is valuable in itself,
because it has kept the possibility of their employment always open,
and acted like a practical protest against the law.
The Countess of Pembroke was hereditary Sheriff of Westmoreland,
and exercised her office. In the reign of Queen Anne, Lady Rous did
the same, "girt with a sword." Henry VIII. once granted a
commission of inquiry, under the great seal, to Lady Anne Berkeley,
who opened it at Gloucester, and passed sentence under it.
Some of the old legal writers averred, that a woman might serve in
almost any of the great offices of the kingdom. Lately we find it
stated that a woman may be elected as constable, since she can hire
a man to serve for her; but she may not be elected overseer of the
poor, because, in this case, substitution, if not impossible, would be
difficult!
What were the peculiar political excitements which enabled Lady
Packington to return two members of Parliament, we are not told;
but it is quite certain that women of twenty-one, duly qualified,
cannot and do not vote for members of Parliament by virtue of that
decision. In rural districts, where personal influence weighed a good
deal, such a vote might be courteously winked at. A woman of
property and standing, in Nova Scotia, has in this manner, for more
than forty years, cast her annual vote, without rebuke or
interruption; but, should any number of women act on this
precedent, a legal restraint would doubtless be laid.
No single woman, having been seduced, has any remedy at common
law; neither has her mother nor next friend. If her father can prove
service rendered, he may sue for loss of service.
In what "bosom of divinitye" does this law rest? Here is a remedy for
the loss of a few hours, but no penalty held up in terrorem, to warn
man that he may not trifle with honor, womanly purity, and childish
ignorance or innocence.
In the eye of this law, female chastity is only valuable for the work it
can do. It must not be thought, however, that the English common
law stands alone in this moral deformity. Under the French law,
female chastity does not seem of any worth, even in consideration of
the work it can do. In honest indignation, Legouvé exclaims,—

"Let a man, who has seduced a child of fifteen years by a

promise of marriage, be brought before a magistrate. He has
under the law a right to say, 'There is my signature, it is true;
but I deny it. A debt of the heart is void before the law.'"

Thus everywhere, in practice and theory, in society and in law, for

rich and poor, is public purity abandoned,—the bridle thrown upon
the neck of all restive and depraved natures.
Manufacturers seduce their work-people; the heads of workshops
refuse to employ girls who will not sell themselves, soul and body, to
them; masters corrupt their servants. Out of 5,083 lost women
counted by Duchâtelet at Paris in 1830, there were 285 domestic
servants seduced, and afterwards dismissed by their employers.
Commission-merchants, officers, students, deceive the poor girls
from the province or the country, drag them to Paris, and leave them
to perish. At all the great centres of industry, as at Rheims and at
Lille, are societies organized to recruit the houses of sin in Paris.
This is well known to be true of all the large English towns; yet the
law is powerless, and philanthropy interferes with no other result
than that of driving these societies from one post to another.
Can women be expected to believe that the law would be powerless,
if there were a sound public opinion behind it to sustain the law; if
there were any desire on the part of the majority of men that it
should be sustained? "Punish the young girl, if you will," continued
Legouvé; "but punish also the man who has ruined her. She is
already punished,—punished by desertion, punished by dishonor,
punished by remorse, punished by nine months of suffering,
punished by the charge of a child to be reared. Let him, then, be
struck in his turn. If not, it is no longer public modesty that you
defend: it is the 'lord paramount,' the vilest of the rights of the
'seigneur.'"
In the laws which regard single women, we object, then,—

1. To the withholding of the elective franchise.

2. To the law's preference of males, and the issue of males, in
the division of estates.
3. We object to the estimate of woman which the law sustains,
which shuts her out from all public employment, for many
branches of which she is better fitted than man.
4. We object to that estimate of woman's chastity which makes
its existence or non-existence of importance only as it affects
the comfort or income of man.

We do not mean that the present interpretation of the common law

does not sometimes show a more liberal estimate than the law itself,
but rather that the existence of this law, unrepealed, unchristianized,
is a forcible restraint upon the progress of society.
"A legal fiction," says Maine in his "Ancient Law," "signifies any
assumption which conceals, or affects to conceal, the fact, that a
rule of law has undergone alteration, its letter remaining unchanged,
while its operation is modified." Such fictions may be useful in the
infancy of society; but, like absurd formulas and embarrassing
technicalities, they should give way before advancing common
sense, before the diffusion of general intelligence and a common-
school system, which is destined to qualify the humblest man for a
full understanding of the law under which he lives.
We have now to consider the laws concerning married women. "On
whatsoever branch of jurisprudence may lie the charge," says a late
reviewer, "of working the heaviest sum of suffering, perhaps we shall
not err in saying that the sharpest and cruellest pangs are those
which have been inflicted by our marriage-laws." In making our
abstracts, we have need to avoid the absurd complications which
confuse, not only simple-minded people, but lawyers themselves;
and, to avoid any charge of ignorance or mistake, we will, as far as
possible, adopt the language of Mrs. Bodichon's "Summary," which
has stood for six years before the English public without
impeachment.
We shall not discuss the question, as to what constitutes fitness for
marriage in the eye of the law. In Scotland and in England, the
consent of the parties is said to be the "essence of marriage;" but,
alas! in how many cases is this "consent" taken for granted only, it
being, in fact, the most baseless of legal fictions!
In commenting on the English law as compared with the Scotch, the
reviewer adds, "A code so unsatisfactory, so unsettled, and by every
alteration coming so palpably near to their own system, is one which
Scotchmen may be pardoned for declining further to consider, and
which certainly they cannot be expected to recognize as the model
to which their own should be conformed."
The rule of the English law was, at the institution of the Divorce
Court, that the wife should have the same domicile as her husband,
and that within English territory. A dishonest domicile barred her
claim to divorce; and the husband who abandoned his wife, and
fixed his residence abroad, effectually bound her to him. Justice has
of late been done, because it was justice, heedless of the question
of domicile.
There are in relation to this subject many provisions which wrong
men and women alike; and, if there are any which especially wrong
woman, they wrong man in a still higher degree through her. As an
example of the former class, we may take the impossibility of release
from a hopelessly insane partner, which makes the point of the
wonderful story of "Jane Eyre."
Now, several things are quite evident to the eye of common sense:—

First, That the insane partner should be properly provided for

during life, in the upper classes, by the sane partner; in the
lower, by the parish or state.
 Second, That as it is a sin against God and society to bring
children into the world, born of a hopelessly insane parent; so,
on the other hand, it is a sin against God and society to compel
any man or woman to a life of hopeless celibacy.
Third, That, if the law does use this compulsion, it is responsible
for the vicious connections that inevitably grow out of it; "car
les mauvaises lois produisent les mauvaises mœurs."[35] I
should not turn aside from my main point to consider this, even
for a moment, if it were not a striking instance of the want of
common sense which afflicts the common law, and if I had not
in my own experience been made aware of its frightful results.
Within the limits of one small parish in the city of Toronto,
Canada West, I found four instances in which men of the middle
class had taken the right of divorce into their own hands, and
were illegally married a second time. These persons, if not
markedly religious, were respectable, orderly members of
society, living properly in their families, supporting the wives
they had left, and justifying the course they had taken. Two of
them had left England on account of the hopeless insanity of
their wives, and two on account of their hopeless immorality;
the latter, cases in which the law would have granted a divorce,
but at an expense which the husband could not pay. When I
first heard this account of one person, I resented it as a slander,
and went to console the afflicted wife, who was overwhelmed
by the supposed rumor.

The husband met me at the door, with an honest, unabashed, but

distressed face. "Don't deny it to her," said he. "I never committed
but one sin, and that was when I kept it from her. She was a sweet,
pious creature; and I feared she would not consent."
This man told me that he sent six hundred dollars yearly to his
insane wife; that this kept her better than he could afford to keep
himself and his family: "but," said he, "her station was always higher
than mine."
In the other cases, the men had told their stories, and the wives had
consented to the arrangement. It is obvious, that, if a wife wished to
withdraw from a husband in this manner, she could not do it, on
account of property restrictions, and the common unfitness for self-
support.[36]
In the marriage of a minor, the consent of the father, or of a
guardian appointed by him, is necessary, but not that of the mother:
another indication of the estimate the law puts upon woman, as
compared with man; and this estimate, whenever and wherever it
shows itself, has the effect to depress every woman's desire to fit
herself to be a good citizen; and, when she fails in citizenship, man
must fail also, as is ably shown by De Tocqueville.
"A hundred times in the course of my life," he says, "I have seen
weak men display public virtue because they had beside them wives
who sustained them in this course, not by counselling this or that
action in particular, but by exercising a fortifying influence on their
views of duty and ambition. Oftener still, I have seen domestic
influence operating to transform a man, naturally generous, noble,
and unselfish, into a cowardly, vulgar, and ambitious self-seeker, who
thought of his country's affairs only to see how they could be turned
to his own private comfort or advancement; and this simply by daily
contact with an honest woman, a faithful wife, a devoted mother,
from whose mind the grand notion of public duty was entirely
absent."[37]
A man and wife are one person in law: a wife loses all her rights as
a single woman. Her husband is legally responsible for her acts: so
she is said to live under his cover. A woman's body belongs to her
husband. She is in his custody, and he can enforce his right by a writ
of habeas corpus.
This last is one of the points in which the public feeling is so far
before the law, that the latter could never be wholly enforced.
If a woman were unlawfully restrained of her liberty, her husband
might take advantage of a habeas corpus to get possession of her;
but it is not probable that any court, in England or this country,
would now grant one to compel a wife to live with her husband
against her will. Still, the estimate of the marriage relation which
such laws sustain is so low, that one never can tell what will happen.
In the year 1858, a curious but unintentional satire on the judicial
position of the husband occurred in one of the London courts. A
delicate, much-abused woman, unmarried, but who had been, in her
own phrase, "living for some time" with a man, brought an action
against him for assault. Erysipelas had inflamed her wounds, and
endangered her life.
"Had she died, sirrah," said the magistrate, addressing the criminal,
"you must have taken your trial for murder. What have you to say in
your defence?"
"I was in liquor, sir," pleaded the man. "I gave her some money to
go to market. I told her to look sharp; but she was gone more than
an hour, your worship: so, when she came back, I—I was in liquor,
your honor."
The magistrate leaned over his desk, and, speaking in the most
impressive manner, thus endeavored to cut short the defence:—
"This woman is not your slave, man. She is not accountable to you
for every moment of her time. She is not," he continued with
increasing fervor, but a growing embarrassment,—"she is not—she is
not"—
He paused; but the throng of wretched women who crowded the
court interpreted the pause aright, and were not likely to forget the
lesson.
A suppressed titter ran through the court: for every married man
knew that the words, "she is not your wife," were those which had
sprung naturally to the worthy magistrate's lips; and must have
passed them, had not honest shame prevented.
The man then attempted to defend himself on the ground of
jealousy: but this was instantly set aside; the unmistakable
impression left on the mind of the court-room being, that the
illegality of the relation was wholly in the woman's favor.
Since the war, freed-women at Beaufort, S.C., have refused marriage
for this very reason.
Women long ago understood this, and literary gossip gives us a late
instance in a maiden aunt of Sir Charles Morgan. This woman,
descended from Morgan the buccaneer, has more than once turned
the scales of an Irish election. When she once arrested a robber on
her own premises, and held him fast till the arrival of an officer, the
gentlemen of the neighborhood advised her not to prosecute.
"It is well known," they argued, "that you refuse to employ a single
man on your premises, and you may be marked out for the revenge
of the gang."
"Justice is justice," she exclaimed in reply; "and the villain shall go
hang!"
It was quite natural that we should find this woman telling Lady
Caroline Lamb that no man should ever have legal rights over her, or
her property. A wife's money, jewels, and clothes become absolutely
her husband's; and he may dispose of them as he pleases, whether
he and his wife live together or not. Her chattels real—that is,
estates held for a term of years—and presentations of church livings
become absolutely his; but, if she survive him, she may resume
them.
Under such a common law as this, it is not surprising to find
something needed which is called equity. Therefore, if a wife, on her
marriage, gives all her property to her husband, the said equity
(Heaven save the mark!) will, under certain circumstances, oblige
him to make a settlement upon her. That is, when the wife has an
interest in property which can only be reached by the husband
through a court of equity, that court will aid him to enjoy it, only on
condition that such part as it thinks proper shall be settled on the
wife.
The civil courts in England cannot compel a man to support his wife:
that is left to the action of the church, and her own parish.
A husband has a freehold estate in his wife's lands as long as they
both live.
Money earned by a married woman belongs absolutely to her
husband.
By her husband's particular permission, she may make a will; but he
may revoke his permission at any time before probate,—that is,
before the will is exhibited and proved,—even if after the wife's
death.
The custody of a child belongs to the father. The mother has no right
of control. The father may dispose of it as he sees fit. If there be a
legal separation, and no special order of the court, the custody of
the children (except the nutriment of infants) belongs legally to the
father.
Except the nutriment of infants! Here is a hint from the good God
himself. Should we not think, that the first time these words were
written down, and men were compelled to see the natural
dependence of the child upon the mother,—to detect the obvious
laws of nurture, natural and spiritual,—the right of a good mother to
her child would have made itself clear?
Yet, to this day, there are many States of our own Union where a
mother can better authenticate her right to a negro slave than to the
young daughter who is bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh!
If the direct influence of Christianity did not, in some measure,
modify the influence of the law in social life, there would be no such
thing as a mother's exercising maternal authority over a son. No
matter how wise, how old, how experienced, she may be, she never
possesses, in the eye of the law, the dignity of a boy who has just
attained his majority. Sufficiently instructed in legal maxims, he can
always resist her, under the influence of the most besotted or
unprincipled of fathers.
The word of a married woman is not binding in law, and persons
who give her credit have no remedy against her.
The moral results of such a law are sufficiently obvious, not only in
England, but in our own country. The statute-book does not, cannot,
stand absolved, because public opinion in the present day abhors
and contemns the woman who assists her husband to defraud his
creditors, or takes refuge from her own debts behind this disgraceful
cover. Yet, if the law gives her husband her property, it ought surely
to hold him responsible for her debts. And this is what society calls
protection!
As a wife is always presumed to be under the control of her husband
(numerous instances to the contrary notwithstanding), she is not
considered guilty of any crime which she commits in his presence.
When a woman has consented to a proposal of marriage, she cannot
give away the smallest thing. If she do so without her betrothed
husband's consent, the gift is illegal; and, after marriage, he may
avoid it as a fraud on him: a strong temptation to any woman, one
would think, to give away her all. You see here what estimate the
law puts on property, as an inducement to marriage. This provision
evidently grew out of the exigencies of the time, when marriage
among the Anglo-Saxons was a pure matter of bargain.
As a protection against the common law, it is usual to have some
settlement of property made upon the wife; and, in respect to this
property, the courts of equity regard her as a single woman. Such
settlements are very intricate, and should be made by an
experienced lawyer.
The wife's property belonging to the husband, should her scissors,
thimble, or petticoats be stolen, the indictment must describe either
of these articles as his!
Of divorce it is only necessary to say, that a divorce from the bonds
of matrimony in England could be obtained only by act of
Parliament; the right of investigation resting with the House of Lords
alone. Until the passage of the New Divorce Bill, only three such
divorces had ever been granted to a woman's petition. The expense
of the most ordinary bill was between three and four thousand
dollars.
Nor need we dwell long on such laws as relate to widows. You may
be interested to hear, that, after her husband's death, the widow
recovers her right to her own clothes and jewels; also that the law
does not compel her to bury him, that being the duty of his legal
representative.
The indignation which we might naturally feel at the suggestion that
a wife could forsake her unburied dead, cools a little as the law goes
on to state, that a husband can, of course, deprive a wife of all
share in his personal estate. Very graciously, also, the widow is
permitted to remain forty days in her husband's house, provided that
she do not re-marry within that time!
The result of a great deal of reading of a great many law-books is
only this,—that we are more firmly convinced than ever, that the
most necessary reform is a simple erasure from the statute-book of
whatever recognizes distinctions of sex. You should make woman, in
the eye of the law, what she has always been in the eye of God,—a
responsible human being; and make laws which such beings, male
or female, can obey.
Even Christian, in his edition of Blackstone, said long ago, that there
was no reason why civil rights should be refused to single women. In
every respect but this, the single woman is independent; but let her
take to herself a husband, and the law steps in to protect her, and
she finds herself in a position of what is called "reasonable
restraint." He may give her, says Blackstone, moderate correction;
he may adopt any act of coercion that does not endanger life; he
may beat her, but not violently. She may, by her labor, support him:
but she cannot prevent him from bestowing her earnings, should he
happen to die, upon those who have most wronged her in life; his
mistress, it may be, or his illegitimate children. Do you tell me that
men of good feeling never act on such laws? Why, then, should men
of good feeling be unwilling to wipe them from the statute-book?
For the most part, it is upon women of the lower class that the
property-laws most hardly press. It was the suffering of this class,
years ago, when the common law of Massachusetts was the same as
that of England, that first roused my interest, and excited my
indignation; but the story which the Hon. Mrs. Norton tells us shows
that this class of women are not the only sufferers.

"I have learned the law piecemeal," she says, "by suffering all it
could inflict. I forgave my husband's wickedness again and
again, and found too late, that, in the eye of the law, practical
Christianity, the forgiving unto seventy times seven, was a
condonation which deprived me of all protection. My children
were stolen from me, and put into the vilest custody, where one
of them afterwards died for want of a mother's commonest
care. My husband brought an action against his kindest friend,
of whom he borrowed money and received office. The jury
listened with disgust, and gave their verdict against him. Then I
was told that I might write for my bread, or my family might
support me. My children were kept away, as their residence with
me would make him liable for my debts.
"When my mother died, and left me, through my brother, a
small income, he balanced the first payment by arbitrarily
stopping his own allowance. For the last three years, I have not
received a farthing from him. He retains all my personal
property which was left in his home, the gifts of the royal family
 on my marriage, articles bought with my own earnings, and
presents from Lord Melbourne. He receives from my trustees
the income which my father bequeathed to me, which the 'non-
existent' wife must resign to the 'existent' husband.
"I have also the power of earning by literature; but even this
power, the gift of God, not the legacy of man, bears fruit only
for him. Let him subpœna my publishers, and enjoy his triumph:
he has shown me that I was not meant to write novels and
tales, but to rouse the nation against such men as he, and such
laws as they sustain. Let him eat the bread I earn; but it shall
be bought with the price of his own exposure. If law will not
listen to me, to literature I will devote my power, and secure for
others what I have not been able to secure for myself."

No wonder that provident parents circumvent such a common law by

a settlement before marriage! There is no chance for a partnership
of gains or losses in England.
As we have already said, all sexual laws ought to be wiped off the
statute-book; but the Hungarian law which was in force until 1849,
when the German law was introduced into Hungary, is a comment
on the absurdity of the English.
"No countrywoman of mine," said a proud sister of Kossuth, "would
ever submit to such a marriage settlement as is common in
England." In Hungary, inherited property could not be devised by
will, and all unmarried women were considered minors. As soon as
she married, a woman came of age, and into the full control of her
estates. She could make a will, and sign deeds; and was not
responsible for her husband's debts or the family expenses. As a
widow, she was guardian of her children, and administrator on her
husband's property. So long as she bore his name, she could
exercise all his political rights. She could vote in the county elections,
and for deputies to the Diet. Trained up under such a law, what
could the Hungarian woman think who found herself for the first
time in the power of the English law?
Among the refugees whom the misfortunes of a leading Hungarian
family drove to these shores was one woman of the highest natural
gifts, the best social station. She was married to a man, handsome,
accomplished, and reckless, but hardly patriotic enough to have
need to fly with her. In the city of New York she opened a boarding-
house of the highest class, by which she strove to support herself
and her children. A fascinating hostess, a skilful manager, she
succeeded, as might be expected. Soon her improvident husband
followed her. At first, he did not attempt to annoy her; but, in time,
some one was found cruel enough to expound to him the English
common law. He stared, refused to believe; but finally entered his
wife's house, seized her earnings, compelled her boarders to pay
their money into his hands, stripped her of all power to pay her rent
and provide for her family, and then took himself off, enraptured,
doubtless, with his brief experience of English and American liberty.
Stripped of peace, position, and property, the injured wife had no
longer courage to struggle. In underhand ways, to evade the unjust
law, her personal friends settled her upon a little farm, where her
shattered hopes found a short repose.
A few years ago, an American woman of captivating address gained
great reputation in Paris as a milliner. She had a profligate husband,
whom she invited to tea every Sunday, supplying him at that time
with a sum for his weekly expenses. In an evil day, seduced by
promises of high patronage, she went to London. She was very
successful; but in a few months her husband surprised her, seized all
she possessed, and, turned adrift on the streets, she went back to a
country where the law would protect her industry. Marriage has been
sought only to legalize a theft,—to apply the words of Wendell
Phillips, when "union was robbery." A respectable servant, who had
laid by a considerable sum, was sought in marriage by an apparently
suitable person. On the day before the marriage, she put her bank-
book into his hands. After the ceremony, he said to her, "I am not
well in health, and do not feel equal to supporting a family: you had
better go back to service." Naturally indignant, she responded, "Give
me, then, my bank-book."—"I am too feeble to spare the money," he
replied. She went back to service, and has never seen him since;
but, of course, she has been often obliged to change her name and
residence to protect herself from a long succession of extortions.
We see thus, that if a woman is able to conquer her fate, and to
gain a livelihood in spite of a dissolute or incompetent husband, her
home is not her own. Her husband's folly may, at any moment,
deprive her children of bread.
I have said that there was no woman so pitiable as an heiress. I said
it advisedly. I thought of the long persecution she must bear from
unwelcome suitors,—of all appreciation of her personality, ever so
lovely or gifted or individual, sunk, as it must be, in the mire of her
money.
Mrs. Reid says, justly, that this money is not so much her own as a
perquisite attached to her person for the benefit of her future
husband; the larger portion of which will eventually pass to his heirs,
whether of her blood or not. If forced from ill treatment to leave his
roof, the law will return her but a scanty pittance.
The nature of the law itself, and that estimate of woman on which it
is based, are so identical, that we are compelled, as we turn over its
pages, to treat these two points as one.
"For one-half the human race," said Mrs. Reid years ago, "the
highest end of civilization is to cling like a weed upon a wall;" a
curious instance of the power that the use of language has over a
fact. There is nothing captivating in clinging like a "weed to a wall;"
but most women are satisfied to hang like the "vine about the oak."
It is a great misfortune, that this estimate of woman not only
governs the courts in their decisions, but enters into and moulds all
the movements of society. Such an estimate leads to constant
contradictions; being, as it is, directly the opposite of the fact in so
many cases, and of the Divine Will in all. In a book on woman
recently published by a lawyer in England, I found a pithy paragraph
to this point, concluding some observations on the comparative
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