position developed in the House, but after some amendments it passed, but failed in the Senate.
In 1899 a Municipal Suffrage Bill was again introduced and reported upon favorably, but on the third reading it was rejected in the House, and defeated by 9 ayes, 12 noes in the Senate. A bill also was presented providing that any woman who pays taxes on real estate wherein she resides may vote at any meeting upon questions of taxation or appropriation of money. This passed 'the House, but was rejected in the Senate. The House refused to concur, and the Senate adhered to its former action.
There have been hearings before the Judiciary Committees of several Legislatures for the purpose of securing a Reformatory for Women. Members of the Woman's Aid Society of Hartford and others equally interested have appeared in its behalf.
The law regarding the property rights of women upon the statute books of to-day, except one amendment, was passed in April, 1877, and reads as follows:
The dower rights of women married before this date are: A life estate in one-third the husband's realty and one-half his personalty absolutely, unless they shall have made together with their husbands a written contract and recorded the same in the Probate Records, in which they mutually agree to abandon their respective common-law rights in the property of each other, and to claim in place thereof certain other rights as provided by statute made in 1877 as below. The husband before that date took the whole of the wife's personal estate absolutely and the use for life of all her real estate.
Women married on or after April 20, 1877, and those married earlier, who have made and recorded contracts with their husbands as above stated, have no dower rights, and their husbands have no rights by curtesy, but both have, in place of these, rights more valuable.
Where there are children, the survivor is entitled to one-third of
