The evening world., 1889-12-23

Resulted IN Practical Benefit
Votes Alleged to Have Been Sold
for New Bonnets and Dresses.
Wyoming's first and only woman JUS
tice. says q writer in the Philadelphia
Press, Mrs. Esther McQu,Rg Slack Nor
ris, was appointed by the Territorial Sec
rotary. Mr.. Lee, in the absence in the
East of Gov. Campbell. To make as
surance doubly sure, she was also APP
pointed by the Commissioners at South
Pass. Sitting in her beautiful homo In
Cheyenne, the digni6ed. snowy-haired
old lady chatted brightly of her expert
ences on the bench:
The papers printed marvellous accounts OF
my life. and some of them had a fearful and
S.ut l went right on, getting three meals q
day. washing dishes and throwing my dish
water out Of the back door. No, / never stud.
led law, l have never been In q primary and
l never attended q school meeting.
None the less was Her Honor" a
right wise Judge, and in the few cases APP
pealed from her decision, her judgment
was affirmed by the higher court. At a
reception in California y ears afterwards n
man called across the audience: What
did your husband think of 1t ?"
The biscuits / baked afterwards were
just as good MS the biscuits baked before,
aud he did not See any difference" was
the quick reply.
Mrs. Morris was and is O radical tenn
perance woman. and sentences for drunk
enneSs were accompan ed by severe Little
lectures that were the terror OF evll-doers.
One r%evengeiul culprit turned the tables
by repeating abroad the good advice
given him with the additional assertion
that 1T was bestowed upon Mr.. Morris as
his wife sentenced HIM to thirty days in
the county jail. Notwithstanding indig-
nant denial md protest. Notwithstanding
its utter impossIbiiity, the waggish story
IL still current as actual verify.
Despite the glowing references Of rest
less ag%itatorS; despite the bombnstic
phrases OF candidates Tor political prefer
ment, woman suffrage IL little more than
II name in Wyoming. Mel 60 TO the
primaries. men make the tickets, aud the
women who care TO vote are taken In
hacks to the polling places. deposit the
ballots furnished by masculine workers
and are driven home again.
Nor is q change IN this state of affairs
probable. After the excitement over the
passage of the law subsidized, the great
majority of the women took little interest
In voting, and any concerted, persis ent
effort to alter the present condition of
feminine passivity would speedily result
in the acknowledgements of the gentler sex
by and with their consent.
Women jurors are not remembered rs q
success. At the tirsl murder trial a fair
juror stopped the proceedings by iRint-
ing repeatedly, and a new jury had to be
~impaneled. Il must go home to my
baby; he'll fret himself to death; he has
never been away from me nj night be-
fore" sobbed q hysterical. anxious
mother oil through the tedious night
watches of u disagreeing jury. In the
end the women bet their faces against
jury duty. and by common consent the
matter was dropped.
Elections are eminently respectable and
pre-eminently dull. While at u premium
socially because of her scare ty, politically
woman's influence is nullifed by her
vote. AS overheard one grntf l,awlins
man say in response to soft feminine per-
suasion: You. vote your t icket and /
will vote mine"
votes are desired tor any special caDdI.
date, disreputable women can be bought
as readily, If not as cheRply, as masculine
bummers. A pair of shoes, u new dress,
IS or $40 will capture the ballot. In
Western Wyoming, where Mormonism
obtains. n private settlement with the
Bishop fixes men and women alike.
Suffrage b%roadens, elevates. enlight-
ems. educAtes woman, says the tlleOrist.
After twenty years practical experience.
MR.. Morris says, the law in a failures: it has
not elevated women; IL has not made them
to be better than the men there il no use in
our voting. We nave not been better than
the men. We have not done anything.