Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/890

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Arkansas.
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that money. The wife is entitled to half the community whether she owned any of the original stock or not. She has a life interest in the homestead; no deed of trust can be put upon it, nor can it be mortgaged. It can only be conveyed from her by actual sale with her written consent. Under our latest revised statutes women have the right of suffrage, but have never exercised it; nor is the subject agitated to any great extent.

Three years ago, when the State University was built, it was decided that it should be coëducational, and young women are now being educated there side by side with young men. Texas has many liberal men and women. It is generally remarked that the women of the State are better educated than the men.

Miss Julia Pease, a Vassar graduate and daughter of the late ex-Governor Pease, has charge of 6,000 acres of land. She lives in the family mansion at Austin with her mother, and in addition to her other duties superintends the education of the three children of her deceased sisters.

Mrs. Rogers, the "cattle queen" of Texas, inherited from her first husband a herd of 40,000 cattle. The widow managed the business, and in due time married a preacher twenty years younger than herself, who had seven children. She attends to her estate herself, rides among her cowboys on horseback, and can tell just what a steer or cow is worth at any size or age.

The largest individual sheep-owner is a woman, known all over the State as the "Widow Cullahan." Her sheep, more than 50,000 in number, wander over the ranges of Uvalda and Bandern counties, in the southwestern part of the State. Their grade is a cross between the hardy Mexican sheep and the Vermont merino. They are divided into flocks of 2,000 head each, with a "bossero" and two "pastoras" in charge of each flock. At the spring and fall shearings long trains of wagons transport the "widow's" wool to the market at San Antonio.

Texas has two female dentists. Mrs. Stocking is one of the most successful dental surgeons in the State. The other, Miss Emma Tibler, went from Kentucky to Texas for the purpose of teaching. Finding this profession full, she studied dentistry and is now a successful practitioner of Cleburne.

The youngest telegrapher in the world is probably Hattie Hutchinson, in charge of an office in Texas. She is only ten years old.

III.—Arkansas.

Under date of March, 1868, Miles L. Langley writes from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in regard to the efforts for equality in the constitutional convention:

Arkadelphia, Ark., March 5, 1868.

Susan B. AnthonyDear Friend: With a sad heart but an approving conscience, I will give you some information relative to the action of our constitutional convention on the franchise question.

The new constitution—a copy of which I send you—makes no difference between men, on account of race or color and contains other excellences; but alas! it fails to guarantee to woman her God-given and well-earned rights of civil and political equality.

I made a motion to insert in the constitution a section to read thus: "All citizens twenty-one years of age, who can read and write the English language, shall be eligible to the elective franchise, and be entitled to equal political and legal rights and privileges." The motion was seconded