omenal, and has its usual influence on the ommunity. The important and extensive anufactures carried on here, in addition to he vast coal industry, gives Scranton a large opulation of foreign laborers, which seems ot congenial to quiet and restful life, giving, s it does, an element of unrest and of uninelligent ambition not directed, to the best hings. Even little children labor in the mines and oal-breakers,* coming up to the upper world s begrimed by contact with the sooty rock arbon as are their fathers who do the ming. I think they are employed in picking he slate out of the coal-an endless and a weary task, but a work which must needs be one faithfully. Sometimes these infantile oilers are caught in the machinery used and readfully injured or killed. The laws of Pennsylvania, I think, forbid the employnent in mines of such little children; but he parents desire it, as their wages add somewhat to the family stock, and the fathers, as rule, it is said, spend a large proportion of heir large wages at the cruel drinking-houses. They have small, unadorned homes, and could readily, it would seem, provide such comforts as they have but for this costly and ruinous vice, which our great prayer-founded State nourishes by her laws. The best protection from oppression of the children of the Commonwealth would surely be the overthrow of the liquor traffic. These ittle lads, if they escape the perils of the nines and coal-breakers, are soon to be our voters, and, untrained by intellectual or right moral culture, they are to ordain national policies, and must be of more power to make or mar the common weal than the wisest and purest of the womanhood of Pennsylvania. Think of these things, O countrymen and brothers! We linger a day with dear friends who live on the elevated outskirts of Scranton, and then pass, on the 17th, to Lehigh Gap, where is another delightful hostelrie, and where we find a group of valued friends who, are glad to initiate us in all the mysteries of another summer retreat, conveniently near to Philadelphia. The weather has softened into delightfully mild autumn temperature, and we are glad to linger here, in this deep narrow valley, in which the Lehigh river finds its way through the Blue Ridge. The *The Scranton Truth says that Mr. C. W. Zeigler, of Providence, Pa., has invented a machine which is likely to do away with the hand labor ef children in separating the slate from the coal at collieries. The machines are already in use at several collieries, and if their performance is satisfactory they will aid in abolishing a most toilsome and injurious form of -child labor. nearness of the opposing mountains and their steepness make this a very picturesque place. The geological features are of deep interest, as we are on the crest of one of the greatest anticlinals in Pennsylvania. Here two systems of gently south-dipping rocks turn over and descend vertically. Mauch Chunk is only a few miles away with its Summit Coal Mine, famous for its 60 feet thick open quarry. This region, if I rightly understand, gives exposures of the whole Devonian Geological era-the era of the introduction and development of fishes, or the second day of creation. S. R. LEGAL RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN.* The subject of the property of a married woman in its relation to the creditors of her husband, having claimed the attention of the Adult Class of our First-day School, I have thought it proper to present the subject before you in detail. Though the law of the present day has much more respect for the right of a married woman to the exclusive control of her individual estate than had the law of forty years ago, yet legislation on this subject has been long in reaching its present status, and possibly has not yet attained its ripe develop ment. In Pennsylvania, prior to April 11, 1848, by the act of marriage a woman may be said to have made an assignment of herself and of all her property to her husband absolutely. Her husband became entitled not only to all her personal property and to a life estate in her houses and lands, but also to whatever property she might acquire during their marriage as the result of her skill and industry. Her personal property might have been taken in execution and sold for the debt of her husband as also might the right of possession of her houses and lands during the lifetime of the husband. Except in the execution of a power over property held in trust for her, she could make no will, and had she made a will while unmarried, her subsequent marriage operated as a revocation of it. These rules were the outgrowth of the old common-law principle which had its origin in antiquity and which endures to the present day, "that husband and wife are one in law; that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or, at least, is incorporated and consolidated in that of her husband, under whose wing, protection and cover she performs everything." But on the 11th of April, 1848, our wise * Read at the Teachers' Meeting of the Darby Firstday School. men at Harrisburg saw fit to alter this condi- | petition has not been presented, then the tion of the law to a great degree, and by an three following hypothetical cases will serve act which might be termed a proclamation of to illustrate the position in which the law of emancipation of a married woman's purse, the present day places the separate earnings decreed that thenceforth every species of pro- of a married woman. perty which might belong to a single woman shall continue the property of such woman as fully after her marriage as before, and also, that all property which might accrue to a married woman during her marriage shall be her own separate property and not liable for the debts of her husband. By another section of this act she was invested with the power to make a will, provided the will be executed in the presence of two witnesses, neither of whom was her husband. The act, however, did not deprive a husband of any interest in the estate of his wife vested in him by a marriage prior to the passage of the act. Thus were husbands shorn of a large measure of their autocratic rights over the purses of their wives in this memorable year in the history of women's progress. But the act of 1848 being in derogation of the common law, has received a strict interpretation, and in construing the meaning of its phrases, the Judges have not stretched its words one jot beyond their literal meaning. Though a married woman's separate estate is no longer liable for the debts of her husband, yet where husband and wife live together, the presumption of law is that the personal property on the premises belongs to the husband. Should the household goods actually be the property of the wife, she must be prepared to rebut the presumption against her by showing clearly either that she was the owner of the goods before her marriage or that they were purchased by her with her separate funds or given to her since her marriage, else they may be swept from her by her husband's creditors. Hence how important it is that married women should preserve the means of proving how they came into possession of their own household goods. Although the act of 1848 was designed to protect a married woman's separate estate from attack by her husband's creditors, yet it did not cover her separate earnings during marriage, and it required the act of 3d of April, 1872, to provide the means whereby she might protect her title to the fruits of her industry during marriage. The latter act provides in substance that on presenting her petition to the Court of Common Pleas of the city or county where she resides, stating her intention to claim the benefits of this act, the separate earnings of a married woman of the State of Pennsylvania shall thereafter accrue to such married woman independently of her husband or his creditors. But suppose this Suppose a married woman to be a physi cian of professional ability and to have acquired a lucrative practice, yielding her a good income. This income, being the fruit of her own skill and industry, belongs to the husband. He may appropriate it to his own use in the same manner as he could appropri ate all the personal property of his wife prior to the act of 1848, and as to creditors of the husband, the fruits of her professional reputation are his property. Suppose a wife should embark in business with borrowed capital alone, but should so prosper in her business that the debt for the original capital should be paid out of the profits and a considerable surplus be accumu lated. This surplus is the property of the husband, as the credit on which she started in business is nothing in the eyes of the law, except it be the credit of the husband. But suppose she began business with capi tal which had belonged to her before her marriage or had come into her possession since her marriage in such manner as to become her legal separate estate, then would she alone be entitled to the fruits of her business. Though her skill and industry, as well as her capital, were elements which contributed to the growth of her profits, yet her title to the capital entitles her in the eyes of the law to the fruits which it has borne, just as posses sion of the soil gives one the title to the crops, no matter who may have tilled it. J. T. B. Upper Darby, Pa., 9th mo. 1st, 1884. AT MONTREAL. EARLIEST VEGETABLE LIFE. Near the close of the meetings of the Brit ish Association at Montreal, Sir William Dawson, the venerable President of the McGill College, Montreal, presented a valuable paper treating of the more ancient land floras of the old and new worlds. He argued that in the Laurentian period vegetable life is probably indicated on both sides of the Atlantic by deposits of graphite found in certain horizons. There is good evidence of the existence of land at the time when these graphitic beds were deposited, but no direct evidence as yet of land plants. The carbon of these beds might have been wholly from sub-aquatic vegetation, but there is no certainty that it may not have been in part of terrestrial origin, and there are per haps some arguments in favor of this. The solution of the question depends on the possible discovery of unaltered Laurentian sediments. After discussing the ancient land floras of the Silurian, Devonian and other periods, Sir William Dawson predicted great discoveries in unravelling the affinities of the coal formation plants. Among the other papers read at this section was one by Edward Wethered on the structure of English and American coals, his conclusions indicating a common origin. Canadian geologists have distinguished themselves in the proceedings of this section, mathematical and physical, having read a series of learned papers and discussed all questions with intelligence and original power. TO O. W. H. ON HIS SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY. James Russell Lowell, United States minister in England sends his friend Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes this playful and loving tribute on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Such cordial and hearty words of praise coming over the seas from such a friend and critic as Lowell, must have been truly precious to the recipient. Dear Wendell, who need count the years With poets? What Time's fruitless tooth With gay immortals such as you Whose years but emphasize your youth? One air gave both their lease of breath; The same paths lured our boyish feet; With dust of saints and scholars sweet. If I, with too senescent air, Invade your elder memory's pale, The oriole's fledgelings fifty times Have flown from our familiar elms; As many poets with their rhymes Oblivion's darkling dust o'erwhelms The birds are hushed, the poets gone The phrase that stuck but never stung. You keep your youth as yon Scotch firs, Whose gaunt line my horizon hems, Though twilight all the lowlands blurs, Hold sunset in their ruddy stems. You with the elders? Yes, 'tis true, Who tempered wisdom with a smile. Outlive us all! Who else like you Could sift the seedcorn from our chaff, And make us with the pen we knew Deathless at least in epitaph? My God, I thank thee who hast made So full of splendor and of joy, So many glorious things are here, I thank thee more that all our joy That shadows fall on brightest hours; So that earth's bliss may be our guide, And not our chain. -Adelaide A. Procter. What matter though we seek with pain If lured thereby we climb to greet THE duty of doing, not great things, but what we can, is the very top and sum of human obligation. One can't get beyond it: one ought not to stop this side of it. It means the doing of everything you can, and chiefly it means the doing of things that issue out of the heart toward God and man. It means the setting aside of the self, and laying out one's best energies in unselfish, not to be requited, service. It means not merely occupation, industry, attainment, but noble industry, occupation, attainment; not merely busy hands, but busy affections, sympathies, purposes. You cannot sum its almost limitless significance.-J. F. W. Ware. ITEMS. HANS MAKART, the celebrated painter of "The Entry of Charles V into Antwerp," died in Vienna on the 3d inst., after a painful illness of two weeks' duration. WOMEN are to be admitted to lectures in University College, in Toronto, and the concession is regarded as a great victory for the friends in Canada of the higher education of women. THERE is said to be a growing sentiment in Virginia in favor of higher education. The colleges of the State are well equipped, and are rapidly increasing the number of their students. THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology has this autumn the largest freshman class in its history. It will number nearly three hundred. Sixty-three belong to the Lowell School of Design. THE average attendance of pupils at Indian schools during the last fiscal year was 3,919 at boarding, and 1,759 at day schools, a total attendance of 5,678. There are 40,000 Indian children old enough to attend school. AUSTRIA is going into electric railways on a liberal scale, an extensive system of communication being planned, the cost of which will be several millions of florins. The projected system is expected to revolutionize street travel in the chief Austrian cities. THE Postmaster of New York is informed from San Francisco that the mails from Yokohama, of September 14, Hong Kong, September 5, and Shanghai, September 2, are due in New York for first carriers' delivery on Wednesday, October 8. the most beautiful things of the kind imagin able. On a piece of cream-colored stone appear the image of a fish, six inches in length, re sembling a trout, in black, flinty-looking stone more perfect than it could be painted. The fine bones in the fins and tail in each rib are clearly defined-even the small scales can be plainly seen. The backbone is in relief, and every vertebra can be easily counted. A LARGE number of art exhibitions are an nounced for the present fall in different parts of the country, indicating a marked advance in attention to art through the country at large. Among the most important of these may be noted the Southern Exhibition, at Louisville, Ky., August 16 to October 25; the Industrial Exhibition, at Cincinnati, September 3 to October 4; the Inter-State Industrial Exhibition, at Chicago, September 3 to October 18; the Exposition and Music Hall As sociation, at St. Louis, September 3 to October 18; the New England Institute, at Boston, September 3 to November 4; the International Exposition, at Milwaukee, September 6 to October 11; the North Carolina State Exposi tion, October 1 to November 28; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, at Philadelphia, October 30 to December 11; the Autumn Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, at New York, November 3 to November 29; the Philadelphia Society of Artists, November 17 to December 13; the World's Industrial Exposition, at New Orleans, December 1 to May 31; the Illinois Art Association, at Chicago, in December; the Winter Loan Exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum, in New York, November to April. NOTICES. A Conference on Temperance will be held at Friends' Meeting house, Bart, on First-day, the 12th inst., at 2 P. M. Henry T. Child is All are invited. THE total eclipse of the moon was success-expected to address the meeting. fully observed in London on the 4th inst. It was total in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. In London it began at 9.33 P. M. and passed off at 1.16 A. M. The eclipse was only partial in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The moon here rose eclipsed and the observation passed off about 7 o'clock. THE water power of the Falls of Niagara is being utilized in Buffalo, twenty-two miles distant from the great cataract. For the last ten days, says the Buffalo Commercial, the electricity by which all the telephones in this city have been run after dark has been generated at Niagara Falls by water power and the magnetic current transmitted over a telephone wire. THE Committee on Revision of Studies, of the Board of Education, have decided to recommend to the Board the introduction of lessons in plain sewing in two of the schools for girls, the George G. Meade and the George W. Nebinger Schools. It is said the plan has been successfully tried in other cities, and for a year or two past sewing has been taught at the Girls' Normal School. THERE has been dug up at Echo, Umatilla county, Oregon, a fossil fish, which is one of A Conference on Temperance, under the care of the Quarterly Meeting's Committee, will be held at Friends' meeting-house, Haverford, Pa., on First-day, the 19th instant, at 21 P. M. All are invited. The Tenth Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union will be held in Harrisburg, October 15th, 16th, and 17th. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston; J. Ellen Foster, of Iowa; and Mary Lowe Dickson, of New York; and other well-known speakers will be present. The special line of work of this organization, for the coming year, is to secure a law requir Upon the Human System," to be taught in all ing the "Effects of Stimulants and Narcotics schools under State control. Abington First-day School Union will be held at Horsham Meeting-house, on Seventhday, the 18th of 10th mo., at 10 o'clock. Carriages will meet the 8.30 train from Third and Berk streets, at Hatboro. J. Q. ATKINSON, } Clerks. ANNA MOORE, "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE.' "" VOL. XLI. PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH 25, 1884. No. 37. EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY AN ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS 01MUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS MADE TO JOHN COMLY, AGENT, AT PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 1020 ARCH STREET. TERMS:-TO BE PAID IN ADVANCE. The Paper is issued every week. The FORTY-FIRST Volume commenced on the 16th of Second month, 1884, at Two Dollars and Fifty Cents to subscribers receiving it through mail, postage prepaid. SINGLE NUMBERS SIX CENTS. It is desirable that all subscriptions should commence at the beginning of the volume. REMITTANCES by mail should be in CHECKS, DRAFTS, or P. 0. MONEY-ORDERS; the latter preferred. MONEY sent by mail will be at the risk of the person so sending. AGENTS:-Edwin Blackburn, Baltimore, Md. Benj. Strattan, Richmond, Ind. Entered at the Post-Office at Philadelphia, Penna. as second-class matter ILLINOIS YEARLY MEETING. We have been kindly furnished with the advance proof of the extracts of this Yearly Meeting, but having already given our readers some account of the proceedings, we will omit the routine business common to all Yearly Meetings of Friends, and give only the new features presented, together with some of the reports of their Committees engaged in charitable work. It will be remembered that this Yearly Meeting is the youngest of our band, and this session, held at Clear Creek, Putnam County, Illinois, the 15th of Ninth mo. was the tenth annual session. After the usual answers to the queries the standing Committees reported as follows: The committee to which was referred the clause of discipline relating to secret societies, made the following report, which was accepted: Report. We have endeavored to give careful and serious thought to the subject referred to us, and are united in judgment that while the clause of discipline regarding secret societies, exhibits an earnest desire for the welfare and preservation of our members from the dangerous association of oath-bound degrees, it is advisory in its nature, and does not subject our members to disownment when violating its advice. The following letter from Joseph Walton was read as a response to an epistle sent by this meeting last year to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of another branch of Friends. It was directed to the care of the Publishing Committee for printing with the minutes. Moorestown, Burlington Co., N. J.,) Jonathan W. Plummer: Esteemed Friend. It is my duty and pleasure to inform thee that I was requested by the Yearly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, which finished its sittings on the 25th inst., to acknowledge the reception of the communication of Ninth mo. last, from the body for which thou acted as clerk. In accordance with an ancient rule of our discipline, it was referred to a verbally appointed committee for examination, who made a full report respecting it to the Meeting. The Committee, it was evident, were very favorably impressed with the document itself, and with the brotherly spirit which it breathed. Their statement of its contents awakened a similar feeling, in the meeting at large, with desires for an increase of that love |