Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-02-27

WASHINGTON. Feb. %. 1886.

i mean the women who want to
vote. Now eighteen successive win
tiers they have rendezvoused in
Washington with the intention OF
capturing Congress. They made
three days siege this time, and now
that it is all over the city will re.
sumo the even tenor of its way,
and its feminine element will return
to dancing, flirting, going to church,
making crazy quilts aud painting
plaques. These laudable enterprises
were sadly neglected during the
Woman's Suffrage Convention. AS
usual. the ladies went to hear all
about the rights and possibilities
and duties of their sex, and their
minds were deeply stirred by the
impassioned oratory Of Miss
Anthony and her c0-workers.
The advocates of woman suffrage
say if men we're to make such a
struggle for freedom and their rights,
it would be considered fine thing,
and there would be books and even
poetry written about it. And this
may be true. There is something
POLITICALLY pathetic in the energy,
patience, and chronic hopefnlnesS
evinced by the toilers for female
Acknowledgement. One is constrain-
ed to wish such industry and such
faith were consecrated to more
hopeful cause.
AT these conventions, the women
are much given to speech making,
personal glorifieatlon, and criticism
of pcrfidious man. All they say
they believe and mean and have
said before. But how could any
thing new be said on subject that
is thoroughly discussed and exhaust
ed annually?
Miss Ada Sweet, OF Chicago,
whose powers of tenacity we're strik-
ingly illustrated in defense of her
office of pension agent in that city,
was prominent among the delegates
to the convention. She is young,
goodlooking, self possessed, and
can make a speech, which she did,
relating her experience with insane
asylums, and giving her opinion that
they should at least be partly under
the management of women.
Mrs. Sewell, of Indianapolis, is one
of the pillars of the sisterhood. She
is not prepossessing in appearance,
but probably as much so as the law
of the association approves. Her
adornments were limited to bangs.
This concession to frivolous fashion
in 10 wise detracted from Mrs.
SewelPs formidable physiognomy,
however, nor from her usefulness to
the cause. She had a good deal to
say about hardened Congressman
and indurated Senators, but she
thought the conscience of these
gentlemen less at fault than their
intelligence. She regretted that it
was impossible to sum up the bene-
fits already accomplished by the
suffrage movement, but thought the
same might be said of the sunlight.
She made really eloquent fight at
this point, comparing suffrage to
sunlight.
Mrs. Sewell was followed by Mrs.
Perkins, of Ohio, sister of uncom.
promising demeanor, who typifes
the righteousness OF the movement,
as Mrs. Shattuck, of Boston, repre-
sents its esthetic phase. Mrs. Per
kins was sternly statistical on this
occasion, although she has ornate
resources, which she displayed dur
ing the sessions of the convention.
She discoursed at one time upon
the ladies of society, whose walk
and conversation she does not
approve, using number of Scrip
tural quotations. She had ten
dency to be caustic in her public
utterances. Men, she said, think
women good enough to be angels,
but not good enough to be citizens.
They pray so feryently for Provi.
dence to bless women, that they
leave it chiefly for Providence to do.
Mrs. Clay Bennett, a representa-
tive of the Blue Grass State and a
relative of Henri Clay, vowed her
fidelity to the cause, and made a
spirited address on the "Constitu-
tional Right of Women to Vote and
Hold Office" Mrs. Bennett may be
said to represent the ground wherein
frippery and strong mindedness
meet and unite. Her costume was
neither frivolous nor funereal, but it
was en- traime, and her gloves were
Ia Bernhard. Her oratory and
elocution were, like herself, Ken
tuckian.
Senator Vest underwent untter-
able things at the hands of Mrs.
Meriweather, of Missouri, for having
expressed himself as an "uncom-
promising opponent" of the woman