Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-02-22

IdIuilloS, QaLlOnS, centuries anu ctcIHlticc
I speak of wifely ambition, good ant
bad. How important that ever!
Nife have her ambition, an elevated
w righteous and divinely-approved ambi
ton. And here let me say what an
most anxious for is that woman, not wait
ing for the rights denied her or postponed
promptly and decisively employ the right
she already has in possession. Some sa!
she will be in fair way to get all her right
when she gets the right to the ballot box
l wish that the experiment might be triet
and settled. would like to see all wo
men vote and then watch the RESULT. l d.
not know that it would change anything TO
the better. Most wives and daughters anl
sisters would vote as their husbands ane
fathers and brothers voted. Nearly all thu
families that know are solidly Republican
or Democratic or Prohibition. Those fami
lies all voting would make more votes, but
no difference in the result. Besides that
as now at the polls men are bought
up by the thousands, women woule
be bought up by the thousands. The
for political corruption. We have sew
T,ral million more voters now than are fol
Gpublic good. We are told that female
nAAAo6o WOuia OOAlCOt WV Otilc- bAS
rum business and the insufficiency of wo
man wages. About the rum business l
have to say that mnltitudes of women
drink, and it is no unusual thing to see
them in the restaurants so overpowered
with wine and beer that they can hardly sii
up, while there are many SO called respect
able restaurants where they can 60 and take
their champagne and hot toddy all alone
Mighty temperance voters those women
would make! Besides that, the wives oi
the rum sellers would have 10 vote in the
interest of their husbands business, or
have time the inverse of felicitous. Be-
sides that, millions of respectable and re-
fined women in America would probably not
vote at all, because they do not want to go to
the polls, and, on the other hand, womanly
D oughs would all 60 to the polls, and
INthat might make woman's vote ON the
wrong side. There is not in my mind
much prospect of the expulsion of drunken
ness by female suffrage.
As to woman's wages to be corrected by
woman's vote, have not much faith in
that Women are harder on women than
men are. Masculine employers are mean
enough in treatment of women, but if you
want to hear of beating down of prices and
Wages III ptllCCllOu, li6bCu uOW bOuO WOLuOu
treat washerwomen and dressmakers aud
female servants. Mrs. Shylock is more
merciless than Mr.. Shylook. Women,
fear, will never get righteous wages through
weman's vote, and as to unfortunate wo.
manhood, women are for more cruel and
unforgiving than men are. After woman
generally drop her, but women do not sc
ol har oc h,,r har tho nj
catapult clear out and off aud down and
under.
I have not much faith that woman will
ever get merciful consideration and justice
through woman suffrage, yet like expert
ments, and some of my friends in whose
Judgment I have confidence are SO certain
that alienation would come by such pro-
cess that would, if had the power, put in
every woman's hand the vote. / cannot see
what right you have to make woman pay
taxes on her property to help support city,
State and national Government, and yet
deny her the opportunity of helping decide
who shall be Mayor, Governor or President.
But let your wife, not waiting for the vote
she may never get, or, getting it, find il
outbalancsd by some other vote not fit totbe
cast, arise now in the might of the eterna,
God and WELD the power of sauctified
wifely ambition for good approximatiDe
the infinite.
No one can so inspire man to noble pur
poses as noble woman, and no one 81
thoroughly degrade man as wife ofO
unworthy tendencies. While in my text
we have illustration of wifely ambition en-
ployed in the wrong direction, society sni
history are full of instances of wifely ambi
ton gloriously triumphant in right direc
tions. All that was worth admiration il
the character of Henry vi. was a reflection
of the heroics of his wife Margaret. Viii
liam, Prince of Orange, was restored to the
right path by the grand qualities of his wife
Mary. Justinian, the Roman Emperor
confesses that his wise laws were the sug
gestion of his wife Theodore. Andrew
jackson, the warrior and President, hat
his mightiest reinforcement in his plair
wife, whose inartistic attire was the amuse
ment of the elegant circles in which sh'
was invited. Washington, who broke th'
chain that held America in foreign vassel
age, wore for forty years a chain around hi
own neck, that chain holding the miniature
likeness of her who had been his creates
inspiration, whether among the SHOWS a
Valley Forge or amid the honors of tn
Presidential chair. Pliny's pen was driver
through all its poetic and historical do
minions by his wife Calpurnia, wht
sang his stanzas to the sound oL
flute and sat among audiences enraptur-I'
ed at her husbands genius, herself the
most enraptured. Pericles said ho got al
his eloquence and craftsmanship from hi
wife. When the wife of Grotius rescue,
him from long Imprisonment at Lovesteil
| L r, hot
out, carrying his books to and fro, he on
day transported, hidden amid the folios
and the woman of besieged Weinsberg, get
| ting permission from the victorious arm,
to take with them SO much of their valua
promise shouldered and took with them a
the most important valuables their hua
bands-both achievements in literal wa,
illustrated what thousands of times ha
been done in q igurative way, that wifel
ambition has been the salvation of men.
De Toequevlle, whose writings w
ill be potential and quoted while w
the world lasts, ascribes his success to
his wife and says: ''Of all the blessing
which God has given to me the greatest o
all in my eyes is to have lighted on Mari
Motley" Martin Luther says of his wife
81 would not exchange my poverty witt
her for all the riches of Crpsus withou
her." Isabella of Spain, by her superio
faith in Columbus, put into the hand o
Ferdinand, her husband, America. Johl
Adams, President of the United States, sal,
of his wife: "She never by word or lool
discouraged me from running all hazard
for the salvation of my country's liberties.
Thomas Carlyle spent the last twenty year
of his life in trying by his pen to atone 70
the fact that during his wife's life he neve
appreciated her influence on his career ant
destiny. Alas, that having taken her from
a beautiful home and brilliant career h
should have buried her in the home of
recluse and scolded her in such language a
only dyspeptic genius could manage, unit
one day, while in her inval
dism riding in Hyde Park, her pet dog j
got run aver, and under the excitement
the coachman found her dead. Then tn
literary giant woke from his copjugal in
Justice and wrote the lamentations O
Craigen- -Puttock and Cneyne Row. Th
elegant and fulsome epitaphs that husband
put upon their wives tombstones are ofte
an attempt to make up for lack of apprecia
tive words that should have been uttere'
in the ears of the living. A whole Green
wood of monumental inscriptions will no
do a wife SO much good after she has qui
the world as one plain sentence like tina
which Tom Hood wrote to his iV]
ing wife when he said: 81 never was '
anything till knew you."