The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1858-05-01

spectacles. When we see women like
Florence Nightengale watching the sick
and wounded; women ike Grace Darling
going upon stormy sea to save mems
lives; when We see Mrs. Patten steering
the ship home; when We see a woman,
ignorant and poor, escaping from land Of
slavery, and yet going back eleven times
at the peril of her life after her own flesh
and blood, and bringing back three of
them, We may look in vain for greater
heroism, and pray that she may be en-
abied to go back and come again seventy
timesseven. Great applause, at the close
of which a hiss, when the applause rose
again louder than before, and so for three
or four times, till all Kisses were COM
pletely drowned in applause. | com
menced with the understanding that /
was to speak only for myself, but it seems
I have said something which has dis
pleased some one and caused hiss;
have only to say this: When I was boy
| was once chasing colt across field,
but it seemed as if should never be able
to catch and mount him, and at last had
nearly come up to him, when a goose
started up in front of me, spreading its
wings and Kissed; but yaulted over the
goose, and on the colts back, for l was
bound to be there; and so here, I will
proceed with my lecture. Laughter. I
The right of these women to do these
things is where Washington's right was;
the power is the right. Is man talking
in public foolishly. sophistically or worse,
more to be respected than woman who
asks the right to the money she earns to
buy bread for her starving children, and
that it may not be stolen from them by her
drunken husband? The State must show
that women are incompetent before it dis
franchises them, and by what authority
they are determined to do SO. If bearing
arms be the test, the reply is that many
men are excused, and many women in the
day of trial will not be excused. I 1 do
not suppose that, if the polls were to
be opened tomorrow, many but the igno-
rant women would avail themselves of it.
They would do as the men do now. You
have to look on the sloth Of the parlor
and not on the slime of the grog-shops
for the cause Of bad government. When
/ voted for President | entered line with
ten or twenty men, and in ten minutes
had done all / could to make Mr.. FIRE.
mont President. Applause. Is it i'm
proper for a woman to spend half an hour
at the polls and highly proper to be
crowded for hours into lecture-room or
church, to hear prurient poems il play
or see the pretty spectacle of the opera?
Unwomanly for woman to drop ballot
in box; but quite modest and lady-1ike
to whirl in polka in the arms of man
she never saw before, and have her cheek
famed by his tipsy breath? That there
are children now in some cities who will
one day walk with their wives to the
ballot-boX as they now do to the theater
or lyceum, just as firmly believe as l do
that women are quite as well informed as
the men on political subjects. / believe
that our women are as intelligent as their
gardeners, or as those of our fellow-citi-
zens who land here ignorant of our laws,
language and customs, but whose eyes are
Amounted with political sight by the tobac-
co spittle of the City Hall. l know how
busy and dangerous is prejudice in all its
different forms; but it is our duty in this
matter to keep ourselves free from pre-
judice, and to call our friends around us
with sacred hospitality, and be ever gen.
erous to every movement which tends to
the welfare and elevation of our common
humanity. Great applause.