The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-02-01
BROOM AND BALLOT.
Woman Has One and She, is Struggling for
the Other.
Curious and Absurd Features of Female
Suffragists' Conventions.


WASHINGTON, January ~ The Women's
Suffrage convention has developed some in
teresting facts. 1t has shown that the women
can not hope to obtain the boon for which
they sigh-the ballot-from the populace
The story of the Nebraska campaign is a sad
one for these women, and a shadow comes
over them when the subject is mentioned.
They made desperate fight for suffrage in
Nebraska, holding hundreds of meetings,
spending thousands of dollars, and the result
was so much against them they don't
even talk about it. All that they talk of in
this regard is the lesson of the campaign.
That, they say, is very clear, to them, and that
is that they can not hope for success in appeal
ing to the masses. Their only hope is in a
constitutional amendment by Congress.
A good many of these women really make
eloquent and unanswerable arguments, while
on the other hand some of them are as ridicu-
lous as others are eloquent. Their TRADES
against the he sex and the bungling manner
in which they wrestle with the subject must
bring the blush to the cheeks of a good many
of the friends of the cause.
'Why don't you arm yourselves with re-
volvers," your correspondent asked of one of
the most eloquent of them to-day, "and
slaughter some of these shriekers when they
drag your cause into disgrace?"
!. SWELL" she laughed, 1--WE could hardly do
that, but assure you we don't like it any better
than other people do. We recognize the fact
that it Injuries our cause, and we would like to
see it stopped, if possible"
"Why don't you stop it, then ?"
"Ah, but how can we? We don't know
what these people are going to say until
they say it, and even if we did we couldn't
prevent them from saying it if they chose"
All of which will do to talk, but the fact
nevertheless remains, that until the suffragists
weed out the ranters, the "man haters," who
sion of the subject, they will not gain the re-
spect even of themselves. The arguments of
such women as Phoebe Couzens, of St.
Louis, Mrs. Shattuck, of Boston, and
few others who addressed the
convention, would have weight
with anybody Of intelligence; yet the ridicu-
lous talk of as many others who might be
named serves to drag down the work of these
intelligent, clear-headed women to the level
where none of them get the respect due some
of their members. Until those at the head of
the association use discretion in making up
the list of orators for these occasions this
sort of thing will 60 on.
Another curious and absurd feature of these
conventions is that they degenerate into a
begging school. At the close of every
lecture somebody announced that she had
this or that work for sale. ''The
History of Women Suffrage" "The
Women's Advocate" and dozen concerns
of this sort were trotted out by Susan B. An
thony or some other of the sisters, and every
body urged to buy. The result was that
everybody was disguised.
ado you know" said one lady to me to-
day in talking of the convention and of the
women who take part in it, ''do you know
that these women make money out of this
business?"
"No." -.
swell they do 1t makes them at least a
good living, and in many cases much more.
Some of them are wealthy, and got SO through
their women suffrage work" AJAX.