The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-10-12
A SETBACK FOR WOMEN.

Nearly a year ago. the people of the rising
town of Kiowa, Kansas, concluded to elect
woman to the office of Mayor Their choice
fell upon bright energetic, positive lady OF
the name Of Paxton, whose husband kept a
store, and she accepted the Office, resolving
to show that woman n do all that man
can, and perhaps little better. For some
time she discharged the duties of her post
with success, and PEOPLE began to say that q
City Father might be all very well, but a
City Mother was superior in every way.
Ii CHANGED, however. that Mrs. Paxton had
a hobby, and her hobby was total abstinence
Now Kiowa Is near the extreme southern
line OF Kansas, on the borderof the Indian
Territory. and is rapidly becoming one Of
the centers of tre cattle trade. lunches of
cattle are constantly driven through the
place en- route for the railroads running TO
Kansas City, ST. Louis and Chicago, and the
cowboys who drive the cattle are not parii-
sans Of total abstinence, by great deal
They drink far more whisky than is good
for them, and when the liquor is in, the
fighting propensity and the love Of disorder
come out. Mayor Paxton summoned her
police force, and began to clean out the
saloons. She is a woman Of courage, aud
what she undertakes to do. she does with a
will One after another the drinking places
succumbed to her attacks and closed their
doors. In little while it became as difficult
to get a drink in KioWa as it is in Mont
pelier, Vermont This filed the cowboys
souls with anguish. They began to give
Kiowa the 20 by on their northern march,
and to round up at places where there were
still cakes and ale. Their disappearance
was quickly felt in a diminutiOn Of business
at the KiOwa stores; the merchants saw be-
fore them a prospect of stagnation.
Then the laws of the municipality were
consulted, and it was found that they did
not prohibit the sale OF liquor. Mayor Pax
tons raids were without color of municipal
law, and would only be justified by the pro-
hibition clause in the State Constitution.
The merchants held a secret meeting. and
resolved that the Mayor had sacrificed the
interests of her Town to a hobby. a COM
mittee was appointed, with the Mayors huS-
band at its head, to request Mrs. Paxton 10
resign. They found her in back kitchen,
and, with trembling hands, they presented
their petition, then incontineDtly fed. She
grimly received the document, and at latest
dates was considering what course duty and
honor required her to pursue Mr.. Paxton
is for the time getting his meals at restau-
rant
The trouble with Mrs. Paxton is that she
is uncompromising in her sense of duty.
She finds it difficult to understand that there
are two sides to almost every question, and
that people who only see one side are apt to
blunder. Conceding, Tor the sake of argu-
ment that she was morally right in closing
the saloons which were a hotbed of vice,
and q cause of disorder, her morality came
high, the citizens thought. when its vindica-
ton involved the ruin OF the place in a
business point of view.
There is one city in Kansas which expe-
rienced the same trouble from the cowboys
as Kiowa-that is Ellsworth. There the
friends Of the lawless element got control Of
the city and county government, and made
the town a perfect pandemonium. A day
came when the people rose, and in a wild
Western way, they shot the Mayor, Chief Of
Police, Sheriff. two or three salOou-keepers
and a few more Of the boisterous cowboys.
After that little transaction Ellsworth be-
came one of the most orderly places on the
continent, and it has never even become
necessary to elect woman as Mayor.