shares exceed five in number, when
she may have one-fifth.

The father is legally entitled to the custody and control of the
children, and at his death may appoint a guardian to the exclusion of
the mother. The husband must furnish necessities for the family
suitable to their station in life.

The "age of protection" for girls still remains 10 years, with a
penalty of death, or if recommended to mercy by the jury, imprisonment
in the penitentiary at hard labor not less than one nor more than
twenty years.

SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage.

OFFICE HOLDING: In December, 1884, Representative Martin V. Calvin
introduced and carried through the Legislature, under most unfavorable
pressure, a bill to render women eligible to employment in the State
House. Besides the large number engaged in manual labor, a woman is
now postmaster of the House of Representatives, and many others are
employed as stenographers, typewriters and engrossing clerks, the
Governor himself having a woman stenographer.

In 1896 Representative J. E. Mosley succeeded in having an ancient law
amended, by which women were made eligible to the position of State
librarian; but none has been appointed, although one is now assistant.

In the opinion of State School Commissioner G. R. Glenn, women are
eligible to sit on School Boards, but none ever has done so. Within
the past two years the Board of Education in Atlanta has appointed a
Board of Women Visitors to the public schools, but they can exercise
no authority. Lately they have been permitted to be present at the
meetings of the board as listeners but they can have no voice.

In July, 1895, a committee, Mrs. F. S. Whiteside, chairman, appeared
before the city council of Atlanta with a petition asking for a police
matron, signed by more than 1,000 well-known citizens. On the same day
a committee of the W. C. T. U., Mrs. McLendon, chairman, presented a
similar petition from temperance people.[228] The matter was referred
to the police committee, who "laid it on the table" and it never was
heard from afterward.

In 1897 a woman was employed by the Ladies' Society of the First M. E.
Church South to stay at police barracks and serve as matron. In May,
1898, she was engaged by the city at a salary of $20 per month, but
was dismissed without warning in June of the same year. The different
organizations of women protested so vigorously that the position of
police matron was created by the city