The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-09-11

would have Deen right TO try Mrs, Fair
before u jury OF women" etc. Another
epicenist, u gentleman who has had ex'
Perience in selecting jurors, explains the
failure to get more women Jurors by the
TACT that there are so few eligible. The
territory only contains 1900 women
old enough, and OF these the following
classes must be exempt, from the nature
OF the Case-all nursing mothers, all prGg'
nant women, all with sick or very young
children demanding their cares, all deli.
cate, nervous or historical women, all
Of notoriously bad character, and all
who would be exempt for the same
reasons as men. In any country
this would exclude nineteen out o.
twenty; in fact, it leaves only the per.
tectly healthy unmarried women, and
those married who have no children or
Rre old enough to have family grown
up. There is not one unmarried woman
in hundred who would sit on jury il
she could help it, and, in this country,
not more than one criminal case in ten Is
fit for IN unmarried woman to hear. Ny
informant says there are less than two
hundred ladies in all Wyoming who are
At once eligible and 1T for jury duty,
This, with many other reasons OF deli
cate nature, has caused woman juries 10
be silently discontinued as utterly I'M.
practicable in the present state OfsOciety.
In an old country, where there are as
many women as men, very few Of them
bad, and large proportion widows and
married ladies with grown.up children, It
might work better. For the present we
have probably heard the last Of woman
juries in Wyoming.
Third-lt has made no noticeable DIFF
ference in public morals, though some in
sist that it has. Mrs. Post and Mrs. Ar
mold, leading suffrage ladies' in Cheyenne,
both insist that there has been u marked
Improvement in direct consequence Of
woman suffrage. Others say not. can
only present my own observations, | was
here in 1868, before society, government,
or anything eEe was organized, and found
1t u rough country. | visited all the
towns again in 1869, after the vigilantes
had hung the Cut-throats and run off tho
thieves, and government was organized,
and found II atOlerably peaceful country.
II there has been any noticeable improve
ment since 1870, when tho women began
to vote, | fail to see 1t, but am willing to
take their word for 1t.
Fourth-At the polls 1t has certainly
had one good efUCt-to produce better or
der. The ladies usually come in u car
riagc, making a sort Of gala day Of 1t,
and pass through the crowd, which treats
them with tho utmost respect. In fact, one
secs there what ono sees everywhere In
America when ladies are present, do.
cont respect for them. There have been a
few fights about ladies being challenged.
The first young lady who WA challenged
ut Laramie dropped her ballot and began
to cry, upon which her escort "whaled
away" at the man had who challenged
her vote, and sent him into the ditch.
After this had occurred n few times no
more ladies' votes were challenged, and
in that reapeC! they have the advantage
Of the men,
Fifh-Another marked effect has been
to vastly increase the cost OF running for
office. It seems the ladies' may DO divided
into three ClasSes-a small number Of the
rather reserved, who never vote under
any circumstances; larger class who al.
ways vote, and the great middle class
who vote or do not vote, Just as II hap.
pens, or Just rs they may DO solicited.
The candidates must see to getting these
out, aud carriage hire is awful. In fact,
80 great grew this evil, aud so much was
1t becoming matter Of money, that the
ladies, n few weeks ago, in full convention,
protested against ii and declared they
would walk to the polls or not 60 at all.
The ladies vote rather irregularly, voting
ut general elections and negleGting the
local or special elections. At the election
last year for delegate at least three
fourths Of the women in the territory
voted; ut the municipal election in De-
Cember probably not one in ten.
Sixth--As to It's effect ON the Indies
themselves, there arc almost as many
opinions as there are people in Wyoming.
Most probably II has had no effect at all,
us, even did the suffrage possess some
mysterious innate power Of improvement,
/! has not been established here long
enough to produce noticeable effect.
The women who come to the territories,
In ninety.ninG cases out OF hundred,
have their characters fixed for good or
evil before they arrive; they are gen.
orally Of decided characters aud firm con.
victions, and It does not seem probable
that welding so small mite Of political
power could affect them either way. The
political power Of prostitutes, which some
have dreaded, does not seem to be an i'm.
minent fact. They only constitute one.
fifth Of the voting women, and Candi.
date who should bid openly for their sup
port would certainly lose more than he
wouldgain. Besides, women Of that class
are, Ms n rule, utterly without any logical
comprehension of how political or NH.
nicipal questions would affect them, and
totally lacking In the faculty OF Organi1a.
ton. Social cohesion is probably less
among them than any other class Of peO.
pie; and thousand Of them thrown to.
gether in convention could not organize
in twenty-five years. AS rule, they vote
for or with their personal friends, as do
hundreds Of good women, and thus their
vote Is divided very much us that OF any
other class. There is no law to license
them here, but the same result In attained
by liniDg them once month, II being I'm
derstOod that II they cause no disorder,
they are not to he troubled till the next
month.
Nor have there been those family dis.
turbanCes which some anticipated. At
least ninety.nine times out Of Il hundred,
man and wife are Of the same politics. II
is in this As In many other things; low,
brutal man CUerces his wife by violence;
n high.toned and honorable man, who dis.
dams to nsurp authority over his wife,
does, in fact, govern her ten.iOld more ef.
fectuully by the Constraint Of affection.
Every one must have observed that the
honorable and generous man really gov.
ems his wife (viragoes always excepted)
far more than the domestic tyfant, for the
formers Is All empire over the soul and
mind as we'll as the body. A great fool
as we'll as great brute must that man
he who cannot restrain wife far more
elTectnally than by using force. The
abused wife may swindle her husband in
the ballot, MS In hundred other ways,