The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-27
MRS LEASE ABROAD.
The She Shouter From the Wild West
Paralyzes Washington Audience.

| woman who championed the Farmers Al
lance last fall and made 600 campaign
speeches for the new faith. She says she
helped elect Jerry Simpson. the other four
| Farmers Alliance mem bers of congress, a
| hayseed legislature and United States Sen
ator PETER, he of the luxuriant whiskers.
| She was not An enthusiast for PETER until
a few weeks ago, her preference being Will
| lets, but she glories in the defeat OF Sena-
tor Ingalls, and boasts that the women of
| Kansas did it. Mr.. ingalls, was incl
| dentally the su bject of her discourse. She
had endeavored TO make her Kansas cam
paign speech during the afternoon. but
| Miss Frances Willard the president OF
| the council, who has a keen sense of pro-
| priety, chOked her off. She refused to be
subdued. however, until she was promised
| an opportunity. There was a long pro-
gram, and it was nearly II O'Clock when
! the last regular address was finished Mrs.
Lease, who had b en- patiently waiting
through the long evening session. arose
and began Albaugh's opera house had
been packed. nine-tenths of the audience
being women, but when Mrs. Leases turn
| came, the house was only about two-thiIds
full Hon. Jerry Simpson and the Aill-
| ance congressmen-eiect in the city were
present. Mrs. Lease is TALL angular and
apparently bloodless. She was attired in
black, and her face was severe in its eX-
preston Metaphorically speaking, she
Was loaded for bear, and she went gun
ming. Stepping to the footlights she repeat
ed IN dramatic style. and in a voice that
would put Kansas blizzard to blush:
Swing ou' ward. Oh gates of the morning. Swing
inward, ye doors OF the past.
giant = rousia. from slumber; the people are
Then she entered upon harangue
which partook in some measure of the in
cendiary utterances of Lucy A. Parsons.
It was the same speech with which she
crazed the farmers of Kansas and she
turned II loose on the defenSeless members
Of the Voman's council
If God would give me the choice" she
said, 'of living in any particular age or
place, | would say let me live here and
now in this day Of the worlds victory.
We are living in day when old ideas
tremble and are crumbling away. There
IS 30 difference between the intelligent
woman and the intelligent man. We are
living in a day and age when women-the
industrial women, the Farmers Alliance
women-are mighty factors in the political
world. The dynamite Of thought is stirring
this world from center to circumference |
The farmers are slow TO think and act, but |
they are now thinking and acting, hav- |
finding themselves on the brink Of |
despair. brought there by unjust tariff |
laws and oppressive taxation. For years |
the farmers had been allowing the politi- |
cal demagogurs in both parties to do their |
for them. The farmers are men
tally lazy; they were content to listen 20 |
those demagogues and accept the state
ment that the tariff was the issue, and |
thus they voted. They have voted poverty
and degradation to themselves, their wiv
and their daughters. They are now think |
ing, and as a result of this mighty thought
we find movement among the great COM
mon people that seems to be an echo of the
time and life of Jesus Christ. There is a
revolution coming, not the bloody revolu
ton that stained the streets of Paris in
1893, but revolution of brains and bal
lots. 1t will move the world. 1t is the
same voice that the great Lincoln
heard in the rumble of the guns from Fort
Sumter and the Wilderness, and Old John
Brown heard behind his log walls of de-
tense at OsawatOmie.
Thrones will fall, crowns will crumble
md divine right of capital shall dwindle
away. In an organization the principles
If which are that injury to one is the con
,ern of all. and exact Justice to all and
special privileges to none, they could not
'efuse to admit women to their ranks, &C
ually recognizing the fact that they are
luman beings and treating them as such.
The women who had borne the heat and
he burden of the day on the farm and the
,ome were not slow toaccept the privilege,
the fact that the organi-
.ation was known to be political. You |
wonder why the women of the west inter-
sted themselves in this great uprising of
ommo people 1t is the greatest upris-
ng since Peter the Hermit led the cruSad- J
rs to the rescue of the Holy sepulcher.
[ ou ask where is the west? Look in your :
Biographies of twenty-five years ago. You =.
viii find u vast tract marked the great :
American desert. Twenty-Five years ago
he women came from the east to this =,
and. They came with roses i'll their .
heeks and the fire of hope in their hearts. /
.eaving behind them all that was near .
nd dear. they turned their faces toward /
he new and untried west. Here we en- Q
ured loneliness and privations. Child
en- were born to us, and our babies lie
uried meath the sods of the wild prairie,
nd today we are being robbed of our
ONES by the infamous system of mort +
age foreclosure As many as 500 families I
ave been turned out in Il week. We are d
victed from homes that represent the toll I
{ the best years OF our lives. Do you h
'onder that we join the Farmers Alliance Q
ni the Knights of Labor, | wonder how I
ny mother in Kansas could stay out. In
lem we have the greatest promise made u
nee John the Baptist heralded the COM S
lg of one who should relieve the world of T
s misery.
THAT great landslide, that political .
ohnstown flood of last November, was Il
ue to the women of the Alliance. So was
ie defeat of that man who, tor eighteen
ears represented Us in the United States L
nate, and who has never once identified
ImSelf with the interest of labor or en-
favored to secure the legislation demand
by his constituents. We, the women of "
he Farmers Alliance, defeated John j. Il
gals. Sensation in the audience: slight C
}plau>e mingled with cheers I have e
een asked: Why do you women glory in b
le defeat of John j. ingalls,? He is a fl
'ainy, smart man Yes; he is a smart G.
an He must be a smart man 10 be the
rascal he has made OF him
It."
At this declaration the officers of the r,
uncll sitting on the stage lacked panic ii
rlcken. the audience hissed vigorously Q
Id Mrs. Lease paused. She didn't appear in "
e least embarrassed. Je ry Simpson. the fC
illance congressman elect endeavoreel to in
ouke the manifestations of disapprovsl HI
applauding noisily. but the Kissing was Il
newed and 1t was not until President
lizard arose that the tumult ceased |
isS Willard raped for order and in har
liet, gentle manner said that while she q
"a had no idea of the character of the adj II
ess Mrs. Lease was to make. she would | ri
we TO insist that the speaker refrain ! Ia
pm personalities. and she hoped that the
if-respeot and dignity of the ladies com
slng the audience would deter them | :,
1m kissing speaker whose sentiments
ire not theirs. Order WAS restored, but
{ until fully half toe audience got up
q walked out to snow their disgust at NJ
e speaker. Finally Mrs. Lease went on. ra
that she had few more words -
say in the line of what had been termed ~
She said she had invited | h,
nator ingalls, to meet her yesterday, but
at he had refused, declaring that ''onIy
dians and women scalp their enemies
orr EaH- Aou4 1-ti
:. Ingalls, to understand there was pun ne
.ment after death, and that she proposed | 20