The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-09-07

but they help me too. Nature and art
give me better insight into the needs
of my SEX"
doctor Coyt's object, YOU know"
explained Mrs. Epps, beaming around
the table, lis to emancipate woman"
There was q low murmur of polite
assent. Mrs. Marmaduke Huff raised
her eyeglasses, and courteously in
spected Doctor Sarah with a gentle
wonder, precisely as she had done the
devil-tish that morning in the Aquari-
UNI.
81 have never had the pleasure of
meeting woman of your-your party
before said pretty Miss Purcell, softly.
"Oh, | saw several of them in Lon
dom" cried Mrs. Nipple, who dressed
hideously and drank beer since she
came home, and fancied herself wholly
English. lit is quite a favorite tad
with some very respectable people over
there"
Then there was a sudden embar-
raised pause, for everybody expected
Doctor Coyt to begin to defend her fad.
But she sat silent, looking at a bit of
honeysuckle which had crept in at the
window. The angry red burned up in
to her thin cheek. Why should these
people look at her as though she were
the woman with the iron jaw, or some
other such monster? No doubt they
thought she had holes in her stockings,
and went staggering about at grog-
shops. Why her home was more wom-
anly and fanciful than this, and she
herself
81 was in hopes, madam" said Miss
Purcell, gently, " that you would give
us some insight into your plans. 1t is
we, after all, whom you should con-
vert"
81 am no proselyter," said Doctor Sa-
rah, with an acrid smile. She felt, as she
often did, that the cause was hopeless.
These frothy creatures to comprehend
its great principles! Even suppose
they had suffrage, what would they
know of politics, of their fellow-men
outside of a ballroom, or even of the
money which they squandered?
In which the soured woman made the
mistake which we all make when we
judge of a chimpanzee, not being of a
chimpanzee blood. This Maria Epps,
with the baby face, had manipulated
half dozen bills through Congress last
session. There was not a party wire
which she did not know how to work.
She had matters in train now to get
Epps foreign mission. There was not
a shrewder dealer in New York than
the little blonde widow, Mrs Huff, on
the other side of the table. She had
made a snug fortune for herself since
Marmaduke died, and had given the
boys fair start in the tobacco trade.
While, as for the classes outside of So
ciety, that good Fanny Purcell had
spent more time last winter in the pris-
ons and hospitals than Doctor Sarah had
done in lifetime. Yet they all wore
dresses which framed them into pict-
ures, and they haunted curio shops,
cackling about old Satsuma ware.
When they found that Doctor Sarah
would not consent to be exhibited that
afternoon they went away one by one.
"Now, dear Maria.' said Miss Pur-
cell, as she kissed her hostess outside
of the drawing-room door, "don't al
low Yourself to be entangled with that
dreadful woman's set. lntidels, free
lOverS-H
Sarah Coyt is as chaste and clean
minded a woman as there is in New
York" said Mrs. Epps. tartly. ''Do
have some charity with your religion,
Fanny" Mrs. HUFF hurried Fanny
away.
at is only one of Maria's political
Oh hn
herself in her phaeton. "Some of
these woman's rights people have in
fuence which she needs to gain Major
Epps his appointment. The house will
be overrun with radicals until she has
secured her point, and then-Oh, we
all know Marien'
Mrs. Epps meanwhile went darling
about, re-arranging the flowers, while
Doctor Sarah, in her aggressive purple
gown, sat bolt-upright, watching her
with a quizzical smile. Maria reminded
her of a dragon-fly, with its little
flutter and shine and buzz, with its
poisoned sting underneath. too. She
was too hard on Maria, being, like
most radicals, intolerant. The little
woman inside of her tinesse had hot
heart and hot temper; she was just now
minded to side with Doctor
Sarah, because the other women had
snubbed her.
81 am glad they are all gone before
the business meeting commenced she
said. "You asked all the leaders of
the cause to be here this afternoon"
Yes"
"And you 90 down to Washington
tonight to plead the cause before a
Congressional committee? Alone?"
Yes"
Wouldn't it be better to have
deputation--fo effect, now"
mo" she said sharply. 81 am in
earnest in this matter. Who else is?
I've given up my profession for it.
There's not another woman in the
field who gives more than half her time
and energy to the cause" She talked
on as if to herself, her black brows con-
her nostrils drawn in, her eyes
fixed in fierce abstraction. There's
always an obstacle. This one must
make her living by writing slipshod
novels or lecturing, that one has baby,
another dead lover to NOPE over.
Some of our leaders have taken up the
cause to gain notoricty, and some for
even meaner purposes, glazing suspi-
ciously at Marie.