The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-23
BILL ARP'S TALK.
He Want Industrial Schools for Girls.

things. That is about all they can do
when any great moral measure is tri-
umphant. They can just be glad,
that's all. They cannot take any part
| in the great reforms. Can't even cast
vote in prohibition election. Thir-
teen hundred negroes can go to the
polls in our town and vote for saloons,
and all that the mothers and wives and
sisters can do is to weep and plead
and listen to the beatings Of their
hearts that are throbbing with hope
and fear. If I was a law maker 7
would vote for bill that would let
them vote on that question il no 9th
er-yes, vote-vote at separate place
for women only. In fact, they ought
to have two votes, for they have a
double interest at stake, one vote for
themselves and one for their little
children. In all moral questions that
affect the home, the freside, the wife
or the mother should have at least an
equal voice. She is the queen of the
home and ought to be. If she is not
then it is not a home but is simply a
house, and sometimes prison. 1t is
the place where she stays and bears
the children and nurses them, and
where she loses her beauty and grows
old and dies. She lives mainly for
those children, and when temptation
and vice rob her of them she is rob-
bed indeed. With some it is help
less, pitiful grief; with others it is a
ioness robbed of her whelps. I knew
an aged mother in my own town whose
sons and grandsons were enticed
away, and in her desperation she seiz-
ed the sword cane of her dead hus-
band and went to the barroom of the
town and walked behind the counter
and broke up every glass and bottle
and mirror and when the owner tried
to stop her she drew the dirk from the
cane and ran him from che house and
then completed her work. The love
for her offspring armed her with wild
frenzy, and this is the same feeling
that every mother has though they do
not show it that way. Oh! the good
mothers of this land, what blessed
world we would have if they could
have their way about these things.
But the christian world is.making pro-
gress in the right direction. The time
was when married woman could
own nothing, not even he, watch or
her clothing. Everything was her
lords. But now she can have her
own property without a trustee, and
can make her will. But this is not
enough. They should have voice
and vote in the protection of their
children.
Now, here are hundreds, yes thous-
ands, of our girls who want to earn
their own living and the door is shut.
For century the poor women could
do nothing but sew. It has been less
than half century since Thomas
Hood wrote:
Oh, men with sisters DEAR
Oh, men with mothers and wives,
1t is not linen you're wearing out
But human creatures lives.
But now our girls are waking up
to the consciousness of their fitness
for other things, and all they ask is a
trial and chance I am more cea-
cerned for my girls than for my boys.
<Se Is seyerg.Sather, and I have sus-
picion that those who voted against
the bill were not fathers, OF, if fathers
they have no girls who are likely to
become dependent on their own labor
for support. I know of some wo-
men and some girls who are doing
mems work and are doing it well and
are getting about half pay for it-just
because they are females. Is there no
remedy for this? What our girls
want is wider feld-more occu-
pations-more independence. When
girl goes to an industrial school she
means business the States mon
ey is not wasted. When a boy goes
to college he does not always mean
business. Most generally he means
to have good time and he has it. OF
course there are exceptions, but that
is the rule. Money spent on our girls
in training them to practical pursuits
is well spent. 1t has proved so in
Mississippi It will be nc experiment
and Georgia can, with safety, follow
the lead of a State that has always
honored women with peculiar chiv-
airy. Georgia is three times as rich
as Mississippi, and certainly ought to
spend as much for our girls. If the
women could vote our legislature
would not dare to hesitate.
I wonder what is the matter with
our people, anyhow. Not long ago
the good ladies of Fredericksburg
asked us for a little money with which
to fix up the graves of the Georgians,
and only thirty-four have responded
only thlrty-four, and twenty OF them
are non-residents. Just think of it
only fourteen Georgians have shown
enough regard for our dead to give
one dollar to put head board to a
grave.
What shall I say to those ladies
who for twenty-five years have cared
for those graves? Oh, shame for
Georgia! Here | have a letter from
them thanking me for what I wrote
and telling how many Virginia papers
haze copied It and how the ladies are