The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-03-10

stick he beats her with, he Will, l
suppose, continue on, year after year,
voting the same ticket he first voted;
aud when he is too drunk to walk to the
election, he will be hauled there in a
barOuehe with pair of horses, so that
be can vote the saloon-keeper tie power
to do the same for his sons that he has
done for the father.
l often sit and wonder if there is a
God, good, just and wise, who can look
down upon the doings of his creatures
all and see them just as they areas
they make laws behind which they
shield themselves, while they go on fiji
ing our lunatic asylums aud poor
houses, and driving men to murder and
suicide by thousands in one day? Can
he look down upon all this and not
wreak terrible, speedy vengeance on
those creatures, made in his own i'm
age, but very devils in deed wonder
if we are really progressing, or not; if,
indeed, our ancestors were monkeys,
guerillas, or anything else which went
on four legs instead of two. Would
not some OF. US who inhabit this planet
and go on two legs be just as well off,
take that German, for instance), if we
were still going on all fours?
There now, Pm running off into
nonsense, and so 1 must surely get back
to my promised subject-namely,
Aminadab's shirt.
"Why, Polly p' said he, (now mark
his answer, We skeptics); "Why, Polly !!
like as any way won't see a woman all
day p'
There is something in his answer that
those who rail against Woman Suffrage
may 'put in their pipes and smoke all
| day" mot see woman all day ~ So
we can do just as we please-swear,
drink, blaspheme, wear our sOiled cloth
! ing, or what not. ave won't see a
man all day"
Now, if the prospect of not seeing a
woman all day has such an effect on so
good a man as my Aminadab, what ef-
| feet would a few neatly-dressed, we'll
behaved women, passing to and from
the polls, have on the crowds of loafers
and rowdies, who look with delight on
election day as day when there will be
no check on their actions. "They won't
see a woman all day."
I've been thinking much about the
Grangers lately, and have decided, land
who is there that can say shall prove
false prophetl, that the broad-minded,
sensible, liberal, brother-and-sisterh ood
of Grangerism is the ladder upon which
woman is to rise to fair play and the
ballot, after all the fuss that has been
made, and has, as yet, apparently
amounted to so little. There is no
"thus far shalt thou come and no
farther in all their platform. Side by
side, shoulder to shoulder, the women
speak, vote, and act with the men; and
no wonder they are a success, and are
already power in the land.
1 could not prevail on Aminadab to
change his shirt; and when he returned
at night, [ asked him question which
has been asked a thousand times, and
has been answered with just as much
satisfaction as was mine.
''Now, don't you feel ashamed oi
yourself?"
mop was his reply. "AIy shirt
was just as clean as any other mans p'
| suppose he meant to pour a drop oi
comfort into my ear when he said to me:
"Never mind, Polly; when you and
go to the polls and vote together, I'll
always put on clean shirt"
I sit and ponder and wonder within
me ifever that will be. / hear an echo,
1t comes from afar off; in from the cor.
ridors of the dim old house where Father
Time lives-a hopeful, CHEEKY echo:
''That will be! That-will-bew ~
] cannot see why a measure so just
and so fraught with good has not beer
adopted by our sensible, thoughtful law.
givers long ago. Would that the right
of suffrage was not based on the mere
accident of sex, but upon the solid rock
of good sense, as we generally under
stand the term, and then, after that, oil
good citizenship and general intelli
gence. Every one should be able tt
read and write, and have clear under
standing as to what an election is al
about. There should be no hauling uI
of drunkards or idiots; no outpouring o
lunatic asylums or pOor-houses; NJ
drumming-up of scalawags and vaga
bonds, who, for the price of glass o
beer, will deposit ballot and never stOl
to look at it.
AS l sit and think all this over in my
mind for the hundredth time, fall bacl
on the old question of Woman Suffrage
and wonder if it will ever be. Again
hear the echo, more hopeful, cheery
echo, and it says:
at will be! It-will-be! twill
be ~