Sharp County record., 1878-02-15
. WONAYS DAY" IN THE SENATE.
Mary C1emmer Applies the Lash to the
shoulders of the Senatorial SOlOns.
Washington Letter to the Independent.

Shoulders of the senatorial SOlOns.
Washington Letter to the independent
On Tuesday the morning journals an
nounced that would be ''WOman's Day.
in the Senate. The announcement in
the journals was made with dignity and
without comment. In the Senate the
petitions were presented without digni-
tY. and, with a few exceptions, with
comments which reflected with deep dis
credit on the ones who uttered them.
tits a disgrace to the United States SEN
ate, which can not be wiped out, that it
will not present a petition coming from
thousands Of honorable women in the
land without laughter, ridicule and
sneers. If we needed any added proof
to the already too evident fact that, as an
aggregate, the Congress of the American
people does not consist Of gentlemen,
we have it in their tones, words and
manners when they present a woman s
petition Judging by these, you must
believe that nothing on earth IS quite so
. funny" as that taX-paying cltlzen-
often the widowed head OF a family, an
intelligent, educated, thoughtful being
should ask that she have some voice
in the laws that govern her.
Forty Senators presented petitions,
signed by thousands of men and women,
asking for a constitutional amendment
enfranchising women. A few read the
petitions as they would any other, with
dignity and without comment; but the
majority seemed intensely conscious OF
holding something unutterably funny
IN their hands. They appeared to con.
slider it d huge joke The entire SEN
ate presented the appearance OF a
laughing school practising side-splittlng
and ear-extending grins. Mr.. Wadleigh
leaned back in his chair and shook with
laughter, after portraying to his next
neighbor, Pinkney Whyte of Maryland,
the apparitiOn of Pinkney's landlady
descending upon the polls like a wolf on
the fold, to annihilate Pinkney'5 election
an avenging landlady, Of terrible re-
pute for executive temper, who, it is de-
clared, imprisoned Pinkney in his own
parlor, and barricaded another descend
ant Of a signer Of the Declaration OF In
dependence, Hester ClYmer, till, to save
him from starvation, food was lifted to
him from the street on poles. Oglesby,
erst warrior of Illinois, spake with en-
dearing galIantry of his - dear constitu-
ents, - whom he did all his wit could do
to make ridiculous, till the whole Sen
ate laughed, and even Roscoe Conkling,
who never c0ndescends to sneer at a
woman in public, turned and listened
and smiled his most sardOnic smile
Then Thurman blew his IOudest regula-
tiOn blast-sure portent Of approach
ing battle-and rose and moved that the
petitions be referred to the Committee
on Public Lands, of which Oglesby is
chairman. At this prOposition-in-
tended to be equally humorous and con-
.teIpptunus=the- Jghnlls. Senate fia8tfggAf--
ed aloud. There was one Senator
man enough and gentleman enough
to lit the petitions from this
insulting proposition. 1t was Senator
Sargent of California, the husband Of
the woman who, though a Senator's
wife, is brave enough to be the Presi-
dent of the WOman's National Suffrage
Association He turned to Mr. Thur
man and demanded for the petition Of
more than ten thousand women at least
the courtesy that would be given to any
other petition. WhereupOn Thurman,
with iippancy Of which 1 would not
have believed him capable, if l had not
seen it, blew his nose anew, and decIar-
ed that he "onIy wished the petition
to the Committee on Public
Lands that the women might have two
strings to their bow" Then the craven
Senate declared - the notion which
was only an insult, carried. Let it be
recorded of the Senate of the United
States of the fOrty-ffth Congress that
the one petition which it received as a
prepOsterOus joke and treated with ut
ter contempt and outrage was the Pc
tition of tens of thousands of the moth
ers, daughters and wives Of the land;
that the one petition which they. receiv-
ed and dropped with utter Indifference
was the petition against intemperance-
the petition that seeks to Tighten the
heavy load Of degradation, misery, mur-
der, that lies upon the land and most
heavily upon the hearts, the lives, the
homes Of women.
In its unmincing utterance, the Cap
1GJ Of Sunday was perfectly correct
when it said: "The ladies managing
the business managed it badly. If they
had employed the female lobby or sent
in delegation of pretty Treasury clerks,
the venerable Solons would have soften
ed, and thrown open their doors as
readily as their hearts" 1t seems an
ungracious thing to say; but it is the
truth. The woman who wins her way
with the majority Of these men is not the
plain, earnest-eyed woman, with a small
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