Part 12

Prince, inquire no more, I pray, Whither antis disappear. Suffrage won; they melt away, Like the snows of yester-year.

Thoughts at an Anti Meeting

There are no homes in suffrage states, There are no children, glad and good, There, men no longer seek for mates, And women lose their womanhood.

This I believe without debate, And yet I ask--and ask in vain-- Why no one in a suffrage state Has moved to change things back again?

A MASQUE OF TEACHERS

AND

THE UNCONSCIOUS SUFFRAGISTS

The Ideal Candidates

(A by-law of the New York Board of Education says: "No married woman shall be appointed to any teaching or supervising position in the New York public schools unless her husband is mentally or physically incapacitated to earn a living or has deserted her for a period of not less than one year.")

CHARACTERS

Board of Education. Three Would-Be Teachers.

Chorus by Board: Now please don't waste Your time and ours By pleas all based On mental powers. She seems to us The proper stuff Who has a hus- Band bad enough. All other pleas appear to us Excessively superfluous.

1st Teacher: My husband is not really bad----

Board: How very sad, how very sad!

1st Teacher: He's good, but hear my one excuse----

Board: Oh, what's the use, oh, what's the use?

1st Teacher: Last winter in a railroad wreck He lost an arm and broke his neck. He's doomed, but lingers day by day.

Board: Her husband's doomed! Hurray! hurray!

2nd Teacher: My husband's kind and healthy, too----

Board: Why, then, of course, you will not do.

2nd Teacher: Just hear me out. You'll find you're wrong. It's true his body's good and strong; But, ah, his wits are all astray.

Board: Her husband's mad. Hip, hip, hurray!

3rd Teacher: My husband's wise and well--the creature!

Board: Then you can never be a teacher.

3rd Teacher: Wait. For I led him such a life He could not stand me as a wife; Last Michaelmas, he ran away.

Board: Her husband hates her, Hip, hurray!

Chorus by Board: Now we have found Without a doubt, By process sound And well thought out, Each candidate Is fit in truth To educate The mind of youth. No teacher need apply to us Whose married life's harmonious.

(Curtain.)