Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — The Wives of Barca. [ARTICLE]

The Wives of Barca.

In the valley of the Barca in Abys-' sinia there is, according to a recently returned traveler, a community where the women, without holding a meeting or agitation of any kind, have emancipated themselves. All the women work'hard while the men are idle, but by way of compensation the house and 'all it contains belongs to the wife. At the least unkind word she turns the husband out at night, in storm or rain, and he can’t come back.; .until he makes amends by the gift of a cow. ' The wife considers it a abuse the husband, and if she enough to show any love in life or grief at his death spg,.would be scorned by her tribe. The wife, without any reason, may strike her tent and go, taking with her one-third of ,the joint possessions. The husband, unless he is traveling, may not live out of his tent, but the wire may go to her parents for a year and annul for the time her own marriage. In all of this the secret of emancipation toward which women are blindly struggling is hidden. The emancipation of the wife comes only when she entirely supports her lord and master, thus rendering herself indispensable to his comfort. And possibly emancipation on these terms might not foe as desirable as the present regime of shopping in the morning, taking a nap in the afternoon, and accompanying somebody to the theater at night.