The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-09-12
Bill Arp ON Female Suffrage
Trial of SOOsan Amtny, etc.
ROME, Ca, Aug, 1878.

amt exsep Mrs. Arp, but when | heard
they was tryin her for vOtin, my fem
mime instinks carried me strait to the
court house. was on her side before
| got there and I'm ON her side yit.
Women in general is my weakness and
espeshally n woman whose name is
Soosan. | always envied q man who
could fo9dle oyer his wife or his sweet
heart and call her "Soosy." It sounds
san Antny arraind up before the Judge
lik kOnvict l was mad-mad with the
whole Yanly nashun. They raise a
hellybillOOO over the old broken kon-
stitution and mend it up so as to let the
black babbOOns vote in the rebel States,
but if a white woman of sense and
spunk dares do it, it shocks their pew
ritan mOdesty. The old judge tried to
look fierce and said q woman shouldn't
underseX herself.
| have seen a heap of men who when
they got sOrter old took up sour grape
spite against good lool1in women. But
SOOsan looked at the judge as strait as
an egul. She stood up square on her
paster jints and remarked that she was
free-bOrn and nativ-bOrn and had prop
erty Of her own, and had right to
vote for the law makers Of her choice.
She said that women done as much for
the country as the men, and if they
dident fight battle they raised the boys
that did. That havin them nursin EN-
and tendin to EN- in sikness and in
helth was a harder job than fitin, and if
try it awhile. She sed if the judge
could name one good reason why they
shOuldent vote she wanted to know it.
SoOsan's eyes flashed little engelik
fire when the judge fined her hundred
dollars, and she remarked that every
advanse in the sivilizatiOn had to have
| its myrtyrs, and she was reddy. She
throWd a hundred dollar bill over to
the clerk, and sed she would bet tanOth-
er hundred that the money never
reached the State Treasury. She dident
mind that old judge no more than if he
was a monkey. She told him that if
they would base the votin bisness on
| morality, or property, or intelligence,
or all three put together, the women
would be satisfied; but they based it on
| wearin britches, and drinkin whisky,
and ChaWin tObakker, and keepin one
| wife at home and another sumwhere
else. She declared thatshe had as much
rite to choose her pOlitikul masters as
the Suthern niggers or the heathen
|
the e wouldn't be dru lkard, nor thief,
nor fool on the bench, nor in any other
offs, and whisky would be harder to
get than ar mix. An old, red-nosed,
swell ned-faced man winked one eye at
her and hikkuped the h-he-hell you
say" When the court adjourned the
crowd cheered SOOsy, and man sed
he'd pay the fine; another sed he'd see
her fair tite with the Judge; another said
the law didn't say whether the britches
must be worn outside or inside, and
another sed he'd rather risk the women
to vote than thousands of them drunk
en- furriners and fools who elected John
MOrrissey.
I Now I've been thinkin heap about
this VOtin business myself and my
Opinyun ar that Gov. Jinkins is a NIFTY
smart man. The first time he run fol
GovnOr they beat him bekaus he sed he
dident think that every fool and every
VagabOnd Ort to be allowed to vote
He was for draWin in the lines insted o.
let ten em out, and the melancholy Sc
qeul have proved that he were right
If was a king Wouldnet let anybody
vote who cOuldent tell whether Gene
took more than three drinks a day al
a regular thing, or who chawd tObake
; after he had gone to bed, or who was
meaner man than his daddy, or who be
leeVed in ghosts and witches, or VIII
! dident earn 30 cents day at sum res
pektable bisness, or who shouted a
mite meetins more than two hours OF
: a stretch. / heard q blind freenOlOgis
say that the way to test mans sens
. was to draw strait line from tn
top of his upper lip to his fOrrerd, an,
, another from the lower corner of hi
nose to the hole in his ear, and
, the angle between was less thai
so degrees he might be smart for
monkey but he was a fool for a man
. He sed this test would rule out nearl
, all the idiots and Afrikins from vOtir
. and if it didn't their faith in witche
! would, 1 WOuldent let furriner vot
until he had lived here and behave
himself for ten years, and he shoulder
vote then unless he had married a
: an erikan gal or was raisin children O
= anerikan soil. wOuldent let no un
t married man vote who was over 80 year
s old; though ! would let all SIGH justf
e by sweari1 that they had tried but nc
). body would have EN-. Id make el
= name the gals in their afidavy.
q [ would let every married man an
: his wife and every widder vote if the
: wasn't cut off by the foreg0in .exseI
Il tions. They should have one vol
+ apiece for themselves and one for ever
t child they had. This last would ell
e vate the Arpian family about electio
i times, shore. Akkording to Solomon
e all sich ought to hay a heap of priv
n leges, for it amt no picayune bisiness |
n raise big drove of Children. Jest i
e any hidebound batchelOr try it and Sc
n | look upon respectable children {
d the hope OF the State, and If / had N
e way the stagnant old rips who woI
# marry, but proWlround and live easy al
r. die rich and leave no sign, at least nO1
" to speak of, should be taxed heavy al
e the money appropriated to the Orfn
Ie fund. What's a man,wOrth to the Sta
r who leaves it no defenders after ht
IT ded and gone who patr0nizes no Su
v day schools or Monday schools-bu
no candy or baby clothes, or ball or ba
low knives, or long stockins, or jaco
rT ct muslin, or hoop skirts or galluse
ia What interest has he got In perpetu
10 tin great principlesq Why, a chroni
re- old batchelO. can just turn over in |
\, one horse bed and die and not keer
le darn it the world Gums to an end In
or minutes. He Wouldent keer If the de-
"A was to break loose and eat up the W
20 men and children alive.
7e Now I'm not sayin word agin the
d, married foaks who somehow or som
ne how else haint aksidentally be
le blessed with offspring, BY
in means. They sh0Wed'a willingness
IT, hay EN- and tilat's enough for me. |
always apologized for peopul who do
so the best they could, whether they sue
be seeded or not, amt no Ronyparte
bit chop mans head OFF for Iosin a bait
.ts Ehether he was To hlanaa or not.