Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-25

arc TO enforce the laws her exercise OF
the franchise will but emphasize, il the
strong arm Of municipal and State gov
eminent cannot carry them into execu-
ton now?
AUdRAx STABLES.
Politics, we are told, are the Augean
stables Woman's moral might, as typi-
fed by the ballot. the Peneus and AL
pheus that would sweep them clean.
! Cognate tropes by the hundred illustrate
the leading facts of filth on one side and
purifying force on the other. Respecta-
BILE men shrink from exposure to that
which is a synonyme for moral malaria.
Dismissing gallant platitudes for mo-
ment, let us inquire what catholicon does
Woman possess that will bear her I'M
! harmed through theintected air a.? She Is
but human. and by the very delicacy OF
/ her spiritual being more susceptible to
external influences than the "big bro
Their" She may better politics. VIII
politics better her How will they Of
feet natures that have grown tender and
sweet in sheltered homes, and learned
mOdesty in retirement? 1t is not the
cuticle alone that varies in color andtex-
ture with change of latitude ; the consti-
tuition is modified and organs readiusted
TO meet tho altered conditions Whether
or not men think Of these analogies it Is
our duty to weigh the probable conse-
/ quences 70 ourselves of a measure so radi-
cal as active participation in political life.
This is what the ballot presupposes.
I ov1orak{n,, ia fha naala1 rafOrYo u
is TO be confined TO depositing bit Of
paper at stated seasons in prescribed pre-
cincts, as fancy. judgment, or the nearest
Of kin in the male line may dictate, the
ceremony will be nothing else, and on
idle one. We must act intelligently and
bravely, or the river-how will be spirit
less trickle that will make of filth heaps
a quagmire. To form our own conclu-
sioDs we must study the subject from all
sides-men as well as principles, cases
I as well as circumstances. Have we the
strength to bear the added cares, the
/ hardihood to resist influences adjudged
/ bv good, wise men to bc debasing |?
/ These are suggested considerations for
sober, virtuous women. Under their
pressure a large number Of the mothers
and daughters OF Massachusetts, adj
| dressed a petition to the General Court
of that Commonwealth some years ago,
with this heading:
ALL NOT GOOD.
ave respectfully protest against the
imposition Of political duties upon
lCOmen."
That covers the debatable ground for
many. Weighing the benefits and draw
backs of the proposed change, they re-
gard the former as equivocal, the latter
as positive, and decide that the duty of
voting would he an "imposition. D." That
it will be made a duty. if the right of
suffrage be officially bestowed upon
women, cuts into the sensitive con-
science.
For in all this talk of filth and purity
we singularly enough leave out of sight
the factor that all women are not good.
Moreover, that many who are right
hearted are weak and illiterate. Con
scientious in other respects, they will
handle the novel privilege OF the ballot
with no just appreciation OF its worth or
the consequences of misuse. We know
the women whose votes may counterbal-
ance those of jurists and statesmen with
whom political economy has been life
long study. Matrons and daughters in
the higher walks of life may object TO
shouldering tie motley crowds about the
polls. The $4,000 abandoned women Of
the Metropolis will have weight in con-
tests where money tells for more than
political faith or personal integrity.
/ With them vote will be marketable
commodity, as will be their services at
the polls
Do dreamers aud artists count upon
the instant regeneration of demagogues
who scruple at nothing that will forward
their designs? One party or the other
will coalesce with this new and, if posi-
BILE, baser element. When to partisan
zeal Is joined feminine ingenuity, We
may be assured that despite police
and respectable householders, virtuous
women will be kept away from the polls.
Womanly artifce viii be brought into
play elsewhere to accomplish the same
purpose. Somebody must stay at
homo with house and babies. That
looks like an inane sentence, but it is
the knottiest problem with which the
/ Wcman's Suffragist has to deal when
taken in the length and breadth of its
meaning. In this one minor instance it
intimates that mistress and maid will not
be apt to vote the same ticket. AS
rule their politics will be as diverse as
their stations. A low order of intellect
will seize eagerly upon the nearest
handle of political enginery. II meals
are cooked and served, the sick tended,
and children looked after on election
day it will not be by hirelings.
The future will be called upon to de-
eide which is the more iniquitous-taxa-
ton without representation or represen-
tatiOn without so much as pretence Of
adequate taxation No act of Congress
can make il equitable that the vote of a
drunken beggar, who cannot write his
own name or read that of his favOrite
candidate, shall be as valuable as that OF
the President Of the United States, or
the philanthropic millionaire whose ex-
istence is q national benefaction. To
the gigantic blunder OF Universal Suf-
frage 10 all men except conyicts, idiots,
Indians, and Chinese, it isnow proposed
by an influential and growing party to
add another. We have been building
withuntempered mortar, and by doubling
material, without amendment OF quality,
we hope to rectify unsound masonry.
The road mender's wife may be as COM
petent as he to make and unmake laws
the sex of Italian contsdini may not
affect their intelligence, and the rag
pieker's woman speak better English
than her "mal." The quotient of ig-
norance multiplied by ignorance is not
changed by these accidents.
In brief, under what disability do we,
as a sex, lie this hour, which the gift OF
suffrage promises to remove without Gu
failing upon us and the country graver
and more complex evils
have refrained from treating. except
by passing remark, what may be called
the individual and domestic side OF the
controversy. The space allotted to this
paper is already transcribed, and, at
best, admits OF nothing more than cur
sorry view of what is daily assuming
prominence and imminence. What