Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/880

Mrs. J. Pinkney Smith edits the "Social Melange" of the States. Among the regular Sunday contributors are Miss Corrinne Castillanos, who buzzes as the Society Bee, and Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis, known as the "Texas Song Bird." Mrs. Ada Hilderbrand, editor of the Courier at Gretna, did the printing for the Woman's Exposition.

New Orleans has a Woman's National Press Association of which Mrs, E. J. Nicholson is president; a Christian Woman's Exchange, Mrs. R. M. Wamsley, president, doing a business of $45,000 a year,^[1] a Southern Art Union and Woman's Industrial Association, with Mrs. J. H. Stauffer and others on the auxiliary executive committee, and a Woman's Club,^[2] originated by Miss Bessie Bisland who was the president of the club for the first year, 1885.

The laws of Louisiana relating to women have been given by Judge E. T. Merrick, a well-known legal authority and for ten years the chiefjustice of the Supreme Court of the State:

The rights of married women to their estates are probably better secured in Louisiana than in any other of these United States. The laws on this subject are derived from Spain. Certain provinces of that kingdom were conquered and for centuries held by the Visigoths, among whom, as among the Franks at Paris, the institution called the community of aquets and gains between husband and wife, prevailed. In Spain, as in France, there were certain provinces in which the ancient Roman law continued in force, and they were called the provinces of the written law. In these (called also the countries of the dotal regime) there was no community between the spouses of their acquisitions. Both of these systems are recognized by the Louisiana civil code, but if the parties marry without any marriage settlement the law implies that they have married under the regime of the community. To prevent error it is proper to observe that there have been three civil codes adopted in Louisiana, viz., in 1808, 1825 and 1870. The marriage laws are substantially the same in all, but bear different numbers in each code. The following references are to the code of 1870. Except in a very limited number of cases the husband and wife are incapable of making binding contracts with each other during the marriage. Hence all settlements of property, to be binding, must be executed before marriage and in solemn form, that is, before a notary and two male witnesses having the proper qualifications. The betrothed are granted considerable liberty over the provisions of their marriage contract, as the following quotations show:

Art. 2,325. In relation to property, the law only regulates the conjugal association in default of particular agreements, which the parties are at liberty to stipulate as they please, souls! they be not contrary to good morals and under the modifications hereafter prescribed.

Art. 2,326. Husband and wife can in no case enter into any agreement or make any renunciation the object of which would be to alter the legal order of descents, either with respect to themselves, in what concerns the inheritance of their children,

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1. The officers of the Christian Woman's Exchange for 1885, were: President, Mrs. R. M. Walmsley; Vice-Presidents, Mesdames T. G. Richardson, M. W. Bartlett, Albert Baldwin, John R. Juden, J. H. Allen; Recording Secretary, Mrs, Theo. Auze; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. E. J. Wharton: Treasurer, Mrs. S. H. Davis; Acting Treasurer, Mrs. F. N. Griswold; Board of Managers, Mesdames S. Landrum, M. C. Jennings, B. D. Wood, A. Brittin, Percy Roberts, S. Delgado, F. N. Griswold, E. L. Wood, Wm. Muller, E. Ranlett,G. W. Pritchard, L. P. Wayne, T. H. Holmes, J. B. Wallace, Albert Baldwin, P. N. Strong, K. Fuhri, S. H. Kennedy, H. J. Leovy, John Parker, R. M. Walmsley, T. G. Richardson, Theo. Auze, E. J. Wharton, S. H. Davis. M. W. Bartlett, D. A. Given, John R, Juden, J. H. Allen, Fred. Wing.
2. The original members of the Woman's Club were: Miss Bessie Bisland, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Baker, Miss C. Farrar, Mrs. J. M. Ferguson, Miss M. E. Hagan, Miss J. E. Linsler, Miss H. D. Pickens, Miss M. Siebold, Mrs. M. J. C. Swayze, Miss E. Schrieves, Miss M. Manning, Miss P. Teiltebaum.