THE DELIGHTFUL PLACE FOR THE LADIES.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1156, 6 March 1874, Page 3

THE DELIGHTFUL PLACE FOR THE LADIES.

[NEWS OF TJrK WOltLp.J The iblloiviug particulars occur in a letter from San Francisco:—A. lady here is so thoroughly independent of her husband that she may not only embark in any business without his consent or knowledge, but she may actually, if she pleases, engage him as a servant, pay him wages, and, whilst still living with him as his wife, hold herself entirely free from any of his actions, debts, and liabilities. I have seen, over and over again, wife, husband, and childdren, enter a cab, the wife leading the way. I have seen her coolly give the conductor cash or car tickets, as the case might require, order her husband to stop the car when necessary, get out first unaided, leaving the husband to extricate and follow with the children, and sail grandly away on the sidewalk in serene unconcern at any difficulty he might find in following. I Have seldom seen a woman attending to her children in any public conveyance or street. But I have hundreds and hundreds of times seen men out with swarms of ihem, sometimes alcne, sometimes preceded by a grand lady, who may be discovered accidentally to belong to the I roup by any change of position which ; brings them altogether for the moment, Large families, by the way, are the rule'in this State; heaps of people quite young themselves have quivers very full indeed. Young ladies do not pay any great respect to either mamma or papa ; and it is not at all uncommon to see in the newspapers, where everything is reported which English people keep to themselves, that " Miss So and So gave a ball last night at the residence of her parents, "ctc.,tfcc. The young lady is usually called the " fascinating hostess," and hereafter follow not only notices of the young ladies' costumes, but statements of what the reporter thought of their appearance, as thus: "Miss Ella Blank, a lively brunette looking particularly charming in pink tarlatans, with natural flowers in her luxuriant and jetty ringlets ; but the beautiful and accomplished Miss Dash an exquisite blonde, who debuted on this occasion; and whose sparkling saliies, not less than her unsurpassed personal appearance, secured her a crowd of admirers during the whole evening." Within this last week a woman debated, in the law courts, under the following circumstances :—"She stated that she kept a butchery," — amjlice, butcher's shop, —" that the defendant had seized the stock and fixtures of the same for a debt if her husband's whereby she had been prevented from serving certain boarding-houses with beef, and had sustained serious loss of custom, wherefor she prayed recompence and damages. Being cross-examined, she deposed that she employed her husband to manage her butchery for her, giving him his board for his services, and teu dollars a month for spending money, but that the business was entirely her own, and that he had no part in it but that of a servant. She further stated that the meat in the shop at the time of the seixurc was worth twenty-five dollars ; that it was ordered for certain boarding-houses; that she would have made fifteen dollars by the sale, but had lost her profits and customers too. The judge declared the law was entirely in her favour, and the opposing counsel agreed with him.