s, weaving-looms, or stoves put up for
use.

2d. The family Bible, family pictures, school-books, and books
not exceeding in value fifty dollars.

[Mrs. Hallock here interjected, husbands had better give their
wives cheap books].

3d. Ten sheep and their fleeces, and the yarn and cloth
manufactured from the same; one cow, two swine, and the pork of
such swine. [Laughter],

4th. All necessary wearing apparel, beds, bedsteads, and bedding;
the clothing of the widow and her ornaments proper to her station
(as to ornaments, tastes differ as to those proper to her
station), one table, six chairs (suppose there were seven or ten
children, what then? queried Mrs. Hallock [Laughter],) six knives
and forks, six tea-cups and saucers, one sugar-dish, one
milk-pot, one tea-pot, and six spoons. "So great a favorite is
the female sex of the laws of England and America," says
Blackstone.

Mrs. ROSE protested against _one_ tea-pot; the law didn't mention
tea-pot at all. [Great laughter].

Mrs. HALLOCK: Oh, yes! but not a coffee-pot. [Renewed laughter].

Mrs. GAGE: In Ohio they give twelve spoons. [Convulsive
laughter].

Mrs. HALLOCK: We'll get up a delegation to Ohio, then.

Mrs. FARNHAM: I would say that I will give up all these things if
the State will only give us in return one of our children.
[Applause and laughter].

Mrs. HALLOCK: Isn't it a pity that our laws--are they ours?

Mrs. ROSE: No.

Mrs. HALLOCK: Well, then, your laws. It is a pity that those
statutes should not be revised so as to give a widow a carpet and
other smaller articles of luxury. [Great laughter].

And such was the boasted "protection" secured to the wives and mothers
by the laws of the most civilized nations on the globe, and such the
law-makers in whose hands woman's interests were supposed to be
secure, when we began our battle for equality. Class laws, class
legislation, legalized robbery from the unborn child, down to the
commonest necessaries of life, has been the "protection" woman has
complained of from fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Those just
awaking to an interest in this reform, see but the smoke of the former
battles; they can not appreciate all the tyranny from which this
agitation has freed them. Step by step, custom by custom, law by law,
a partial victory has been