The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-23
HOW IT WORKS.
Woman Suffrage in Washington Territory
A Crusade Against Saloons


A Crusade Against Saloons
Correspondence San Francisco Chronicle.
''Well, how does 1t workl7
''Whatl"
''This new lymph your Legislature has inject
ed into the body polite
ooh, woman suffrage! Well the suffrage does
well enough. So few women vote we hardly
notice it. But how would you like to be wife
less man, say forty eight hours, while your wife
was hung on jury dutys So it was here last term.
There were two or three [ don't remember the
exact number, ladies. 1t was an ill-fame case
jury stood ten for and two against conviction.
One of the two finally was converted. But tho
survivor, hardened old fellow, stayed out
against the eleven. The ladies stood the con-
finement well as he did and better. They
wouldn't give up kept talking to him about
principle, principleF what did he about
principle!) kept it up all night Finally, in the
morning, when he tried to get little sleep, they
stuffed sand in his mouth to keep him awake for
more talk and so wore him out"
This conversation l had at Tacoma yesterday.
At Seattle my informant said:
1--WE come to the first voting experiment with
our new citizens in about three weeks-the oc-
casion of our city election. We have a mayor,
chief of police, assessor and five councilmen to
elect An entire change in the complexion of
our city government is possible. The last Legis-
| lature increased the number of our councilmen
as the city covers twice much ground as
it used to, and contains one-half more popula-
ton. Well already the new electioneering
|
to all the church fairs, patronize the grab-bags,
buy chances for rings in the religious lottery
cakes, and are seen pretty constantly at prayer
meeting. They are now always to be found at
church on Sundays, and give the loudest amens,
but they don't whoop it up among the boys as
they used tor
Indeed, the ''boys" must have received back
set. l talked with one of them, venerable
saloon-keeper on Front street, an old citizen and
property owner. Quoth he: Eyes, they've
raided us pretty heavily here, and hurt the
| saloon and cigar business a good deal You see,
| Just as as the women got the grand Jury
they went to work and indicted every saloon in
the city where women were kept, found bills
against five in all Mind you, they didn't modest
| the girls kept in the saloons. Not at all. Nor
| did they poster the houses kept by women. Not
one of them was hauled up or fined But the
| men-bosses, they had to take it, And the judge,
when the cases were proven, just crowded it on
| $500 fne-just the fullest extent of the law,
| and - lecture with it. We fought our cases
every way we could In Tacoma we claimed
| that no acts were proved, but, blamed if the
| judge didn't claim that this wasn't necessary;
and the jury-they went in body, women and
| all, and inspected of our places. They
even had diagrams prepared and made a
| thorough inspection, too. Oh they found
out all about our rooms and the way the business
is conducted. The gamblers were made to suffer
even worse. Why, there isn't public gambling
! place open in this city to-day. You can't find
| the chips anywhere. Just think of it! All the
dealers were fined 81, 900 apiece, Jailed fifteen
| days and put under bonds In week there
wasn't one on the street. Court adjourned two
weeks ago, and now they're coming back, There
are four places where faro is dealt, just opened,
but with closed doors and keepers, you bet But
there are only few games left" departed
smelling the sigh with which this was said
| In Walla Walla, from what competent author
tiles there assured me some days ago, it is plain
| that the changes are quite as radical. One of
! their influential citizens discoursed to me thus:
| ut is evident to any one who listens to the
street talk here that all our more conservative
citizens, including our rd-working men, day
laborers and the like, are pleased with this in
| fusion of the sexual element into suffrages
and courts of justice 1t is question, of
course, and we come to it slowly 1t came to us
almost simultaneously with another reform very
much needed, viz, the registration act By
that act in the three largest towns in the Terri
tory, all voters must be registered-no more run
ming in of riff-ratf from anywhere and voting it
merely on OATH What surprises us all not
little is that very few women seem to want to
vote, and as for performing jury duty, they
dodge it in every way they can"