NOTE: Mrs. Emelie Bedot had a vision. She was a strong woman and her feminism was clear and simply stated. She demanded that the government enforce a wife’s complaints against her husband, so that wherever she felt her needs were not being met the government would step in, sieve the disobedient man, tie him to a post, strip of his upper clothing, and slash his back with a horsewhip for all to see. It is a wonder that a husband might consider giving his attention another woman, who would certainly exhibit a character less admirable, less independent, less “strong woman” in nature, less “empowered.” [UHoM]
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FULL
TEXT: OAKLAND. Jan. 22.—”Of course I horsewhipped my husband and I will do it
again whenever I meet him if the law refuses to supply a whipping post to punish
men who ill-treat their wives, the women must take the law into their own
hands.”
That
was the startling manner in which Mrs. Emelie Bedot, her teeth clenched and her
dark eyes snapping, admitted this afternoon that she had chastised her erring
spouse in the public streets of Oakland. Mrs. Bedot thinks there is no disgrace
attached to the publicity of the whipping, she is a wronged wife, she declares,
and since the law will not avenge her wrongs she is privileged to seek her own
method of punishment.
The
whipping of Henri Bedot by his wife was the second instance of its kind in
Oakland within twenty-four hours. Saturday night a woman supposed to be Mrs.
Mallory horsewhipped a man who said hl« name was Schwartz in front of Fred
Ohe’s saloon at Fortieth street and Ban Pablo avenue.
This
was followed last night at Twenty-Fourth street and Broadway by the whipping of
Bedot by his wife. When seen at the home of a friend on Sycamore street, where
she is staying temporarily, Mrs. Bedot to-day said:
I
came with my husband from our farm in Glenn County two weeks ago. We quarreled
at the farm over a servant girl that I think my husband was paying too much
attention to although he declared that I was neglecting his meals. We went to
San Francisco and took rooms on Third street, between Mission and Howard.
It
was our idea in going to San Francisco to sell our property interests and
separate. But my husband was reluctant, about coming to a settlement and I
learned that he was pending his money on a woman who lived in Oakland. I
followed him over here last night and saw him go into a house in Piedmont.
I am
not familiar with the streets and don’t know just where it was but I waited for
him a couple of blocks away and when he alighted from a car to transfer at
Twenty-fourth street and Broadway accented him. When he said it was none of my
business what he was doing there I grabbed a whip from an express wagon and
gave him a good thrashing.
I’ll
repeat the chastisement every time I meet him until he makes a settlement of
our property interests and we are legally separated.
Our
farm is worth about $15,000 and he has several thousand dollars in a bank at
Willows. All I want is justice. I have no fear of arrest, as my husband would
not dare to have things I know told in court.
[“Will Horsewhip Husband Again – Mrs. Bedot Determined to
Get ‘Justice,’” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Jan. 23, 1906, p. 6]
(NOTE: The original text used the spelling “Emelie, while
the illustration uses “Emilie.”)
***
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