re dead letters are enforced to-day.

The bills introduced by women in the Legislature have been chiefly
such as were designed to improve social conditions. The law raising
the "age of protection" for girls, the law giving the mother an equal
right in her children, and the law creating a State Home for Dependent
Children were secured by women in 1895. In the next session they
secured the Curfew Law and an appropriation for the State Home for
Incorrigible Girls. By obtaining the removal of the emblems from the
ballot, they enforced a measure of educational qualification. They
have entirely answered the objection that the immature voter would be
sure so to exaggerate the power of legislation that she would try to
do everything at once.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said that when she viewed the exhibit of
woman's work at the Centennial, her heart sank within her; but when
she bethought her to examine into the part women had had in the work
accredited to men, she took new courage. In like manner much of the
legislative work women already have done in Colorado is unchronicled.
When a woman finds that there are several other bills besides her own
advocating the same measure of reform, she wisely tries to concentrate
this effort, even if it is necessary to let the desired bill appear in
the name of another. Many excellent bills for which they receive no
credit have run the gauntlet of legislative perils piloted by women.

A notable instance of this is what was called the Frog-Blocking Bill,
for the protection of railroad employes, which was introduced by a man
but so ably engineered by Mrs. Evangeline Heartz that upon its passage
she received a huge box of candy, with "The thanks of 5,000 railroad
men." While she introduced a number of bills herself, only two of them
finally passed--one compelling school boards to hold open meetings
instead of Star Chamber sessions, and the present law providing for a
State Board of Arbitration. In order to make the latter effective it
should have a compulsory clause, which she will strive for in the
Legislature of 1901.

LAWS: While the laws of Colorado always have been liberal to women in
many respects, there are a few notable exceptions.

The first Legislature of the Territory, in 1861, passed a bill to the
effect that either party to the marriage contract might dispose of
property without the signature or consent of the other. The men of
this new mining country often had left their wi