Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-03-25
Woman's Suffrage.


Suffrage Convention
Mrs. President, Ladies and Gentle
men,-When | accepted our presi-
dents invitation to be present at this
meeting and present ''paper," [
did not do it becasue / had one new
idea, or that l felt any confidence in
myself to acceptably present old ones,
but simply for my love and interest
in the cause. When first / heard
woman's suffrage advocated, though
a mere child, l warmly espoused the
cause, and l distinctly remember, at
that time, feeling vexed out of pa
thence feeling, mixed with childish
wonder, that some ladies present
should say they had rights enough,
and that they thought it bold and un-
ladylike to want to vote.
The spirit of resentment which L
felt within me then, has been kept
alive and blazing all along the way,
and more than ever at the present do
| feel the Righteousness of the situa-
tion-that men still cling to, and are
SO 10th to relinquish the mistaken
idea that in some incomprehensible
way they are born to more rights and
privileges than she who sights the
valley of the shadow of death, not
far off, that he may live. When wo-
men all over the world are sustaining
themselves in every department of
life as mans equal, and in many
cases far his superior. What school
OF college has opened its doors to wo-
man that she has not entered and
carried off three out of five prizes in
fair contest with the other sex? And
this is but history repeating itself,
for as far back as records throw any
light across the path of human prog
ress, in all countries and from all
people, do we read of woman's valor-
Gus deeds, woman's masterful works
in literature, science and the arts.
When we recall the Paris apothe-
cary's little daughter, Catherine
Biharon, who, working eagerly over
dead bodies at night in her attic
chamber, perfected the common man
ikin, and thus was the first to illus
trate to the world, by the aid of pre-
pared wax, the hidden mysteries of
the human frame when we remem-
Der this, we are ready to come for
ward and claim our share in the man
fold discoveries and inventions that
are constantly giving us the benefits
of labor saved and time gained. In
the past year, if 1 mistake not, 1SS
patents were granted to women.
No, friends, women are not superior
they are simply different, and the in
fluence of that difference is just as
much needed in the affairs of state
and nation as in the church, the school
and the home; yet we hear on all
sides that the home will be neglected,
that woman will descend from her
high station if once the ballot is plac-
ed in her hands. l feel like saying,
go, wicked and perverse generation"
can they not see, do they not know
that it is for home we are working
and asking? Do we not hope, thro'
the ballots influence, to place the
home in such condition that the
mothers eye and the mothers heart
can for a moment rest in quiet and
comprehensive satisfaction upon the
young men and maidens growing up
around her? But in order that she
may do this a great work must be
done, and a mighty victory gained
over legal and widespread wrong, for
what true mother dare depend upon
her own influence and prayers to save
even the child son, when as she but
sends him upon an errand, or as he
goes to and from school.he must pass
and come in contact with these hell
gates of society-the common saloon.
Hear what Nasty said of them:
H. i e
organized hunt after weak men and
boys If a druggist should entice
children into his store and feed them
with opium, that after the habit was
fixed he might make money by selling
them the drug, there would be no
question as to what the community
would do with him. If there were no
law on the statute books to meet his
case, one would be made Immediate
ly. There would be no talk of per-
sonal liberty in such a case. Where
Is the difference? The beer shop
keeper makes it his business TO entice
boys and weak men into his place,
and lures them on to an appetite more
destructive than opium. He uses ev-
cry artifice that his ingenuity can de-
wise to fix the alcohol habit upon
them, to their destruction and his
profit. This saloon question we must
all acknowledge, is where reform
must begin. There is no home in
the land they do not threaten, no one
individual who can say, l am outside
their influence. What but woman's
work and woman's vote is needed
here? Think you there would be no
change for the better in this terrible
work of destruction could women ex-
press, through the ballot, the intelli-
gence wrought by observation and
suffering which she is every day ex-
periencing and gaining on this sub
ject. But right here we again hear