The Portland daily press., 1869-05-15
Celestial, Kites.

A Mrs. Vernon then advanced to the front of
the platform and with violent gesticulations
and remarkable facial eontortions, began read
ing printed pamphlet on Celestial Kites,
by the aid of which, in her hands, it is claimed
that the Select" could reach better sphere
This paragraph occurs in the report of the
second days proceedings of the Equal Rights
Association which has just concluded its ses-
sion in New York. These celestial kites" all
ways appear in woman suffrage meetings, and
it is not the fault of the reporters If they do
not receive due attention Thoughtless and
prejudiced persons always see the kites and
nothing else They conceive on that account
a distaste for the serious and important mat
ters that constitute the real objective point of
reform meetings and which have only an acc-
dental relation to the kites Satire is imme-
diately on the Qui Uive as soon as it is an
nounced that woman suffrage convention is
10 be held, aud there is no doubt that a report
er who should fail to End food for laughter in
the DIRE ss, demeanor and language of the per-
sons composing it would be instantly dis
charged from any first class daily From time
imm emorial the angular gestures, sharp fea-
lures and unfeminine garb of woman agitators
have been godsend to the whole race OF roll
licking. reportorial BohemiaDs. And when
the crazy, rattle-brained people that are as in
evitable an accompaniment of a reform conven-
ton as camp-followers are of an army, put in
an appearance their joy knows no bounds
Then do they furnish all the scoffers with their
arguments for year.
The people who allow their attention to be
drawn exclusively to the comic incidents of
reform convention and to the ecceptricities OF
the irrepressible lunatics like DAME, Pratt
aud Geo. Francis Train, who haunt them, for
get that The old anti-slavery conventions were
usually disturbed by the same kind of side
shows. Yet the anti-slavery people are at the
present acknowledged to have accomplished
a very considerable work on the whole
CHURCHES are not infrequently afflicted with
the mad vagaries of persons whose intellects
are not strong enough to endure the excite
ment of intense mental and moral experiences
without losing their equilibrium. Yet the op-
ponents of woman suffrage are SC. unfair as to
eDdeavor to maze such exhibitions of undue
mental exaltation as we have referred to, the
characteristic feature of the universal suffrage
agitation.
Accordingly we shall hear more of Mrs. Yer
non and her celestial kites, and of the man
who made a "rambling speech ranging rom
the contraction of the currency and the pay
ment of the public debt to woman suffrage, . in
connection with the last meeting of the Equal
Rights Association, than of the fact that John
Stuart Mill gave the weight of his great mind
to its proceedings, and that Garrison and John
Neal sent greetings to the assembled refermers.
We shall hear little of Mrs. Stanton's speech,
which even the hostile Tribune declares to
have been sstatesmanlike, but great deal of
the "squabbles' which arose in the course of
the proceedings. Senator Wilson's presence
and his formal and unqualified adhesion to the
doctrines of the reformers will be overlooked,
but if there was any erratic, unkempt, misbe-
having man or woman there, we shall have
him or her painted with all the exaggerations
Of the reporters art. Ernestine Roses fiery
denunciations of the free-love heresy, wherein
she was supported byall who had anything to
say on the subject, will be ignored while the
microscope will be made use of to bring out
clearly whatever may have been said or done
of disreputable nature.
But the woman's cause is fast passing be-
yond that stage where ridicule will be recog-
nized as legitimate method of combating it.
II has already too many men and women of ac-
knowledged ability and probity for its advo-
Gates to make it any longer either reasoDa-
BILE or decent to use satire instead of argu-
ment against it. George William Curtis, Mrs.
Stanton, John Stuart Mill, Lucy Stone, Fred
erick Douglass, Gail Hamilton, Garrison, SEN
ators Buckalew, Pomeroy and Wilson-we
mention only representative names-have no
sscelestial kitesr'