Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-23
WOMEN DIDN'T Do IT.
Bessie Bramble Takes Exception to
Speaker Reeds Explanation
OF TIE LATE POLITICAL CYCLONE.
What Night Result if Such We're Really
the Facts in the Case.
QUEEN ISABELLA AND THE FAIR
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.1 j


After the manner of Adam of old in tn,
garden of Paradise-and millions of mel
! since-the blame of the recent cyclone il
politics is laid upon the women; and this
too. by no less distinguished persouagel
than Senator Sherman and Speaker Reed
who rank high as sharp. shrewd and saga
cious statesmen.
In casting about for cause for the sweep
ing Republican defeat, Mr.. Reed says
1.-THE women are the shoppers. They keel
the run of the prices and have the keenes
scent for an increase in the cost of living
They were frightened at the rise in price.
caused by the Mckinley bill, and by theil
influence, the men were induced to vote the
Democratic ticket with tremendous effect. u
If this be true, as our beloved brethren
Reed and Sherman, assert, then the moral i.
very plain. and he who "runs" hereafter
may read it to his profit. If women were
the cause of "the slump" as they call it in
political parIance, it will show that in
future tariff legislation consideration must
be given to the millions of women who are
deeply concerned therein.
POWERFUL KITCHEN CABINET.
American women are beginning to take
thought upon this matter. The Woman's
Clubs all over the country are studying tine
subject of political economy. The problems
of protection and tariff reform are being
raked over around the hearthstone, and the
queens of the domestic realm, though they
may be forcibly prevented from putting a
little white paper in the ballot box, consti-
tute kitchen cabinet that has power, it
would appear, indirectly to produce revo-
luton.
In the administration of family affairs
upon women. mainly, is laid the burden of
making both ends meet. An increase of
prices to them means more scrimping and
stinting and doing without. 1t implies
harder work with less money. 1t includes
cutting down little luxurles and pleasures.
1t means more darning and patching and
less surplus laid away for rainy day. II
then the right cause has been assigned for
the recent defeat, it should be lesson to
statesmen that they cannot raise the tariff
on the alpaca Of the working women to 100
per cent while the duty on the silk of the
rich is only 80 per cent, nor put duty of
80 per cent on the cotton velvet of the poor
and only 30 per cent on the silk velvet of
the rich without raising rumpus.
sEALSKIN AND SEAL PLUSH.
When Congress passed the Mckinley bill
they probably thought they were legislatine
for the interest of the rich and poor alike,
but when the working women discovered
that the duty on sealskin sacques, which
only the wealthy wear, was reduced, while
seal plush Gan imitation) was more than
doubled, they failed to see the beauty or
utility of such an arrangement. 1t is hardly
true that the recent defeat of the Repub-
lican party is due to the women of the coun-
try. as Speaker Reed and Brother Sherman
seem to think. To try to shift the response
bility and put it upon their shoulders is
probably owing to the survival of the old
superstition, that "a woman'e counsel
that, with latter-day wisdom, they are con-
vinced that
The reason firm, the temperate will
Endurance. foresight strength and skill
of the American woman can always be
counted upon to defeat a Mckinley bill, or
any other, which does not commend itself
to her appreciation and judgment.
Agrippina placed Nero upon the throne
of the Caesars, Helea brought de.
struction upon Troy, Cleopatra lost Marc
Antony the world, Madam de Pompadour
ruled Louis XIV. and inspired the war
which lost Canada for France and almost
bankrupted the kingdom.
ALIsT OF POWERFUL WOMEN.
Charlotte Corday, inspired by patriotism,
murdered Marat to prevent q civil war.
Joan of Arc is almost worshipped In France
for her zeal and courage at the siege of Or
leans, which chilled the vapor and weakened
the stalwart arms Of the English Eugene,
of France, lost to the last Napoleon his
crown and empire. The intellect, wisdom,
capacity, patriotism and broad views of
Elizabeth made England more glorious.
powerful and prosperous during her reign
than under any king before or since. Mercy
Warren, Abigail Adams and thousands of
patriotic women inspired and encouraged
the heroes of the Revolution. North aud
South in the Civil War the mothers, wives.
sisters and daughters showed courage, hero.
ism, patriotism, such as has never been ex-
celled in history.
There are women in American homes to-
day second to none of those Immortalized by
song and story. There are Cleopatras and
Helens who can move mems souls and &C.
tions by beauty only, as did thev. There
are women with paltry ambitions like Pom
padour and Eugene, whose aims were to
set the fashions and manage kings. There
are women, like Elizabeth, with capacity to
rule wisely and we'll either kitchens or
cabinets. There are women who inspire
men to achieve power and place; to engage
in enterprises that lead to fame and wealth;
to build up fortunes by thrift and industry;
to resist oppression, whether of politics or
money bags. There are women who encour-
age men to works of charity, who despoil
them for the heather, who lncite them to
revolution by way of the ballot.
REEDS JUSTIFIABLE ERROR.
So, forming an estimate of all this quiet
power and influence being exerted within
the retirement of the homes, perhaps the
Speaker of the House was not so far wrong
after all in crediting the women with the
defeat aud downfall of such stalwart strong
holds as Iowa and Kansas and Pennsylva-
mia and Illinois and Massachusetts,. With
all modesty, however, the sisters will dis
claim all of the credit or repudiate all of
the discredit, as these may be deemed, of the
recent engagement. They know enough of
politics to be aware that men are governed
in such matters by a variety of motives
personal, patriotic, selfish or vindictiye.
Moreover, even if it could be shown that
"the women did it" as Mr.. Reed saws. it
might perhaps indicate that the sisters NAV
have adopted the tactics of the men and are
"getting even." Who among them does not
the slap and setback they got at
the hands OF the Republicans at the Chicago
But we can ease the minds of the "beloyed
brethren" by saying that the sisters are too
busy at present to concern themselves
much in controversy as to who killed
or sentenced Adams to obscurity,
or slaughtered Mason, or silenced Cannon.
THE WOMAN OF THE DAY.
The woman now before the country is
Queen Isabella of Spain, illustrious in
history as the woman whose sapncitu fnra