Part 13

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That dull thud which was heard in the direction of Springfield, Ill., was Senator Shaw, of Decatur, being dropped from his committee chairmanships because he presented a resolution to repeal the woman suffrage law.

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The wife of Congressman Taylor, of Colorado, says the women of that State have found that it does not take as long to vote as it does to match a piece of silk. It is to be hoped not or the worst fears of the “antis” as to the neglect of the home and family would be more than realized.

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Sir Almoth Wright says that women ask for the suffrage because they “have not been taught the defects and limitations of the feminine mind.” This is not because Sir A. W. and men of his stripe haven’t wasted a good deal of more or less valuable time pointing them out; but in another chapter he says, “Failure to recognize that man is the master lies at the root of the suffrage movement,” and to this the women plead guilty when they can stop laughing.

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The French courts have decided that a married woman may spend as much on clothes as the rent of her home. If she lived in New York she could dress like the Queen of Sheba.

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The big council of the Chippewas in Wisconsin recently declared for woman suffrage. The Indians know what it is to be without a vote; they are not like the chesty white men, who never did a thing to earn one and therefore don’t want to share it.

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A New York paper said, after the recent primary elections, that “the people seemed inflexibly determined not to rule.” Before this statement is accepted give that half of the people a chance who have been trying to get it since 1848.

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Miss Ida Tarbell says, “I don’t take much interest in magazines for women only, as I am incapable of differentiating women from the human race.” It is only when it comes to having the right of individual representation that Miss Tarbell would differentiate women from the rest of the human race.

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At the anti-suffrage headquarters opened in Washington at the time of the parade they announced that during the first four days two thousand persons registered. Some of the suffrage mathematicians figured out that this would mean a registration of more than one person every minute for eight hours of every day—a manifest absurdity. It seems sometimes as if the sole object of the suffragists was to be disagreeable.

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The Sir Almoth Wright who has recently written a book on woman suffrage which can’t be mentioned in good society is the same individual who last year put forth a treatise against taking a bath; but really he should have allowed an exception after reading his book.

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The “antis” say that when legislators favor woman suffrage because they think the women will vote for them, they forget the women who don’t want it and will vote against them to get even. True, and they don’t take into account what a tremendous power these women are already with their “indirect influence.”

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The egg crop is said to be worth as much to the country financially as the cotton crop and far more than the wheat crop, and women to be responsible for nine-tenths of the poultry crop. It might also be said that the hens are responsible for all of it but they don’t belong to the sex that does the crowing.

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What are the women coming to? A man jumps up in the midst of an eloquent speech by the president of the National Suffrage Association and asks her to marry him, and she answers that she would rather have a vote than a husband! The time was when a woman would rather have a husband; but then she never had had a chance to know the value of a vote.

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According to the society notes our women will now have to wear gowns made by American dressmakers: All right; it doesn’t matter who makes a woman’s dress if only they will make enough of it.

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Sensible women are terribly mortified sometimes as they look at the fashion illustrations in the Sunday papers, but when they turn to the next page and see the baseball pictures they feel that in the ridiculous women have been outclassed.