The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-26

writing. Perhaps it is not too much to say
that the Pascal-Newton forgeries may be
accounted the ripe fruit of so dangerous
vocation. ..
Edgar A. Poe, the poet, had acquired a
facility in initiating handwriting which he
once turned to account as practical joke. A
lady at Washington left with him her book of
autographs, containing those of large num-
Der of celebrated individuals, with the request
that he would add his own. The autographs
in the book were scattered through it without
any arrangement. Poe kept the book few
weeks, and when he returned it there ap-
peared duplicate of each autograph upon
the page opposite or nearest adjoining.
Neither the owner of the book nor any one
else was able thereafter to decide which were
the genuine autographs and which Poes tdc-
StnllIeS.
In her ''Letter to the Christian Women of
America" Mrs. Susan F. Cooper makes a
strong and forcible argument against female
suffrage, which is we'll worthy of the atten-
tion of those especially who have only con-
sidered the subject from sentimental and
theoretical point of view
Let us suppose that to-day the proposed
revolution were effected; all women, without
restriction, even the most vile, would be
summoned to vote in accordance with their
class of women, and other degraded classes of
the ignorant and unprincipled, will always be
ready to sell their votes many times over-to
either party, to both parties. to the highest
bidder, in short. They will sell their vote
much more readily than the lowest classes of
men now do. They will hold it with greater
levity. They will trife with it. They will
sell their vote any day for a yard of ribbon or
tinsel brooch-unless they are offered
two yards of ribbon or two brooches.
They will vote over again every hour of every
election day, by cunning DISCUSSES and
trickery. And thus, so far as women are con-
cerned, the most degraded element in society
will, in fact, represent the whole sex. Nay,
they will probably not unfrequently command
the elections, as three colored women are said
once to have done in New Jersey A hun
dred honest and intelligent women can have
but one vote each, and at least fifty of these
will generally stay at home. If, which God
| forbid, it actually comes to female voting,
very small proportion of the sex will, at COM
mon elections, appear at the polls. Avoca-
tions more urgent, more natural to them, and
will keep them away The degraded
women will be there by the scores, as tools of
men, enjoying both the importance of the
hour, the fun, and the pay. Fifty women,
known to be thieves and prostitutes, will
hold, at moderate calculation, say two hun
dred votes. And, as women form the
ma ajority of the resident population in some
States, that wretched element of society will,
| in fact, govern those States or those who
bribe them will do so. Massachusetts,, very
favorable tofemale suffrage now, will probably
come round to the opinion of New Jersey
in former days. Great will be the con-
sumption of cheap ribbons, and laces, and
artificial flowers and feathers and tinsel jew
elry, in every town and village about election
time, after emancipation is achieved. We
are compelled to believe SO, judging from
our knowledge of human nature, and of the
use already made of bribery at many cleo
tions. The demagogues will be more power
ful than ever. Their work will be made easy
for them. 1t seems, indeed, probable that
under the new era our great elections
shall become sort of grand national gift
concerns, of which the most active demago-
CUES of all parties will be the managers. Not
that women are more mercenary or more un-
principled than men. God forbid That
would be saying too much. We entirely be-
lieve the reverse to be true. But the great
mass of women can never be made to keep
deep, q sincere, a discriminating, lasting
interest in the thousand political questions
ever arising to be settled by the vote. They
very soon weary of such questions. On great
occasions they can work themselves up to a
state of frenzied excitement over some one
political question. At such times they can
produce a degree of unreasoning prejudice,
of passionate hatred, of blind fury, even be-
yond what man can boast of. But, in their
natural condition, in everyday life, they do not
take instinctively to politics as men do. Men
are born politicians; just as they are born ma
sons, and carpenters, and soldiers, and sail
ors. Not SO women. Their thoughts and
feelings are given to other matters. The cur
rent of their chosen avocations runs in
another channel than that of politics-a chan
mel generally quite out of sight of politics; it
is an effort for them to turn from one to the
other. With men, on the contrary, politics,
either directly or indirectly, are closely, pal
pably, inevitably blended with their regular
work in life. They give their attention IN
consciously, spontaneously, to politics.
Look at family of children, half boys,
half girls; the boys take instinctively to
whips and guns and balls and bats and
horses, to fighting and wrestling and
riding; the girls fondle their dolls, beg
for a needle and thread, play at house
keeping, at giving tea-parties, at nursing the
sick baby, at teaching sceool. That diffe-
renee lasts through life. Give your son,
as he grows up, gun and vote; he will
delight in both. Give your daughter, as she
grows up, gun and a vote, and, unless she
be an exceptional woman, she will make a
really good use of neither. Your son may be
dull; but he will make good soldier, and a
very tolerable voter. Your daughter may be
very clever; but she would certainly run away
on the battlefield, and very probably draw a
caricature on the election ticket. There is
the making of an admirable wife and mother,
and valuable member of society, in that
clever young woman. She is highly intelfi-
GENT thorouphly well educated. reads Greek