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About The illustrated west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1891-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1891)
THE ILLUSTRATED WEST SHORE. 257 has made such a convention as we are entering upon to-night possible and full of pleasant anticipation." The laws of China recognize seven causes for divorce. They are: lasciviousness, jealousy, barrenness, theft, disobedience, leprosy and talka tiveness. The laws are for the protection of men; the y)men do not seem to be considered worth legal protection ; a man is liable to punishment if he retains a wife who has been guflty of adultery. An eloping wife may be sold by the husband, and if she marries while absent from his house, she must suffer death by strangling. The legal power granted to men over their wives is often tyrannically used and many instances are on record of the lowest kind of brutality being practiced. Polygamy is everywhere, and when a rich man has chosen his first wile with feet small enough to please him, he takes from two to five more whose feet may be of more useful size, but they must all be subject to the command and control of the small-footed one, the reason appearing to be that superior birth and breeding are thus marked. Of course these very small feet are not useful for walking, and the danger of falling and fracturing bones on using any activity renders a woman very help less and all but useless. Dr. Simms. The great danger to the United States from the present large foreign immigration lies in the fact that the mass of the immigrants come from the most ignorant and superstitious elements of other lands, says the New York Press: The Italian nation, for instance, is noted in its better element for refined culture and respect for the ties that hold society together. Among the Polish Jews there are doubtless worthy people. But the trouble is that the immigration to the United States includes a very large proportion of the worst elements of these and other races elements that European countries are very glad to get rid of and that the kings, who abhor our institutions, take a sinister pleasure in seeing dumped on our shores. Self protection, the first instinct in individuals and nations, dictates that something must be done to restrict the admission to this republic of elements not only undesira ble, but dangerous, and of no appreciable value in adding to the material or intellectual wealth or military strength of the United States. A uniform currency has been the dream of financiers for generations. The present coinage system of France was established at the beginning of the century was adopted twenty odd years ago by the nations of the Latin union Belgium, Italy and Switzerland and has since been extended to Spain, Greece, Roumania and Servia. But its friends have never been able to intro duce it into England, Germany, Russia or Turkey. Some day an interna tional convention in which all the commercial nations of the world will be rep resented will probably agree upon an international coinage. The choice will be between the system of the Latin union and the system which it is now pro posed to inaugurate with the American international dollar. Experience will indicate what coins public convenience requires, is perhaps it would be prema ture at this time to hazard predictions on the subject. But it stands to reason that any new scheme of metallic currency must be based on the decimal sys tem. R. P. Journal. There is no serious objection to the submission of the question of woman suffrage to the voters of Ohio at the November election. If a majority of the men desire that the women shall be allowed to vote, and the women them selves desire to enter politics, why, all we have to say is that the legal bars should be let down. But should the question be submitted, and should it carry in the popular election, the proper thing would not be to resort to the plea practiced by some high authorities in the Methodist church respecting the admission of women delegates to the general conference. This issue was submitted to a church membership vote, and when it became apparent (hat the women had secured a majority their opponents immediately concocted a scheme to set aside the returns on the plea that a full vote had not been cast. That sort of business may work in the church, but it will not do in politics. Cincinnati Castile. Several petitions have been circulated in Stockton and San Joaquin county, praying the assembly to pass the woman suffrage bill. Several hun dred gentlemen ol property, headed by the mayor of Stockton, have signed the petition which was presented only to those who appear on the assessment roll. The ladies signing own prosily to the amount of over one million dollars, and seven of the number are worth over one hundred thousand dollars each. ABOUT WYOMING WOMEN. There is a movement on foot to establish a magazine in Cheyenne not devoted alone to " women," but entirely managed by women editors, women type setters and women binders. The financial outlook is promising, and there is a score of brilliant women writers that will lend their influence to the work. Mrs. Geo. Brown is the court stenographer, and it is churned that for rapidity and accuracy, she is the peer of any reporter (he court has ever had. Miss Nellie Francis Milburn has accepted a position in the office of Lacey & Van Da Vanter, as stenographer. Beside being a capable business woman, she is a writer and poet. Miss Grace Hcbard, of Cheyenne, and Mrs. A. N. Quinn, of Evanston, have been appointed regents of the state university. Miss Minnie Slaughter has been appointed state librarian by Gov. Barber, who believes that the women who exercise the right of suffrage are entitled to recognition in the fill ing of offices. Tkerest A. Jenkins. A meeting of the council of the general federation of women's clubs will be held in Orange, N. J., on the third Wednesday o( May. This council is composed of the officers of the federation, including the presidents of all fed erated clubs, who are ex-officio vice presidents of the federation. The meet ing is for important business and consultation. The council will be enter tained by the woman's club of Orange, and the luncheon and reception in its honor will be at the residence of Mrs. Edison, wife of the inventor. Notices of the proposed business will be sent to the presklents of all the clubs, so that those who cannot attend may write their views. The federation now includes more than eighty clubs. Dr. Mary A. Latham, of Spokane, Wash., is praised by a townswoman as an able and successful physician and a woman helpful to other women. Dr. Latham recently contributed to the Spokane Cnroniih an article on " Women in the Profession," in which she says: " We hope to have, before many months roll round, a medical college for women somewhere in the state of Washington, maybe in Spokane. But for the big fire and consequent hard times, something would have been done before now." As a result of an experiment recently made at the National Soldier's home in Milwaukee, Wis., trained women nurses will hereafter be employed at all the branches of that great institution. The Inter-Oiean says: "This is a good thing all around ; the old soldiers are sure of tender and skillful nursing, and a field of usefulness in which woman is making herself invaluable is greatly broadened." An exchange says that Kansas has reason to be proud of her women office holders. Mrs. Kellogg, of that state, makes an admirable attorney gen eral, and Mrs. Salter who is now serving her second term as mayor of Argo ma is said to have done all the housework for her family of five people, as well as given due attention to her public and social duties during her tenure of office. Bills have been introduced in the senate to make women eligible as notaries public, and to authorize married women to organize corporations, and to be officers thereof. The need of the latter bill grew out of the case of the New Century club, of Philadelphia, which could not organize a slock company to erect a club house, because married women could not legally do so. Miss Jennie E. Hooker, of McCutchanville, Ind., won the CoimojkiliUtn prize of J:oo for the best article of 4,000 words written by a fanner's daughter, describing farm life, with suggestions as to the best means of making fann life attractive and happy. More than 100 writers competed for the prize. Miss Emily Howard, director of the First National bank, at Auburn, N. Y., is the first woman in the United Stairs to hold such a Kisition. Miss Howard is rich and for srvcral yrars has maintained at hrr own home a school for farmers' sons and daughters. I would rather have one ballot than fourteen Influences. Mary A. Rifiley.