The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1884-11-12
Marietta T.. Stow. Who Was Associated
With Belva A. Lockwood on the
Woman's Rights Ticket.

Public opinion is not ripe for the con-
stitutional change which would admit
Of females filling the offices Of president
and vice president. Mrs. Belva A.
Lockwood, OF Washington, and Mrs.
Marietta l.. Stow, of San Francisco, the
candidates for these positions, cannot
fill them if, 10y any possibility, elected.
Their nominations must be considered.
therefore, as protests against masculine
tyranny and us the means Of making
the country acquainted, i'll a degree,
with what it loses by depriving itself Of
the public services of the ~lovelier and
in~disnutably wiser half of creation.
That one of the strong-lninded sister
hood who believes she ought to be vice
president of the United States, Mrs.
Marietta L. Stow, was born at Webster,
Monroe county, New York, about fifty
years ago.. Her parents were poor and
made a drudge of her when she ought
to have been in the infant class at school.
1t would be no wonder at all to find that
the adult woman loves domestic work
ever less than the most progressive OF
their sex, seeing that she had to cook,
keep house, sew, knit, iron, spin, weave
and perform all other possibilities of
domestic labor when but a tiny child
At fifteen she began to teach school at
Webster for one dollar a week, having
ooz,;-oI 4Io - " cohola pchi n MT
w~ithstanding all the deprivations Of her
early life. At the age of nineteen she
married E. f. Bell, who lived only -four
years after the w~edding-day. Their in
a widow. When this happened the
bereaved young woman removed to New
York city, and became lecturer for an
association formed for the protection of
shop girls. She prospered in this voca-
ton, made many friends, and when the
call came for females to take care of
wounded soldiers, responded affirm
atively, as her financial independence
gave her the ability. During the war
and subsequently she is said to have
collected fifty thousand dollars for a
fund to found a national home n
school for destitute daughters OF soldiers.
j. w. Stow, her treasurer in this mat
ter, became her second husband. He
died in San Francisco, the city of his
residence, while his wife was absent in
Europe. Upon her return to the city,
which is still her residence, Mrs. Stow
gave tive years of study to the probate
law of the state of California. She pub
lished two books on this interesting
subject, and sold them on l%ecturing
tours lasting our years from the time of
their publication. In the year 1880,
Mrs. Stow was a candidate for school
director in San Francisco. She was de-
feated, but received a good many votes
from women, who, she claims, did not
neglect their domestic duties in promot-
ing her political aspirations.
In February, 1881, occurred an event
which gives Mrs. Stow distinction only
less than that she now enjoys. The
street department, having ordered her
to pave the street in front of her resi-
dence, she refused on the ground that it
did not need paving. When subsequent
", the department proceeded to do the
work and charge her for it, she defied
them. The consequence was. as she
describes it, '.her house was broken
open by three armed policemen and she
was finally dragged down stairs and
put in a carriage, taken to the city pris-
on, and thrust into a felon's cell, robbed
of $6.10 and kept in the underground
pit Of stencil and dirt until morning.
She sued for 500, 900 damages, but the
judge refused to let the case go to the
jury. and costs in $25 were added to the
&c. 10 she had already lost. docs not
that alone" asked Mrs. Stow, "call in
thunder tones for equal rights ?" Her
book, "A Night Behind the Bars
owes its existence to this disagreeable
experience, which, naturally enough
increased its subjects appetite for agita-
ton. Since then she has worked with
pen and voice against what she regards
to be abuse in politics. in dress and
diet and other matters. Speaking OF
these efforts. she saws sOf them that her