The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-31

Nov, what an idoa. There's nothing in
a title excspt what 10 put into. i%tr-yon'yc
said that yourself. Sunposp tho title III
clean instead OF lady. You get thntY'
II believe 40. Instend Of spoaking Of .
woman as u lady, you substitute clean, and
Say she's o clean peraon.'
"i!hat's II. IN England the swell folks
don't spauk OF the working people az gen-
tlemsn and iadies."
"Oh. no."
"And tho working people dan't sail
thsnselyss gsntInmcn and ladies"
"Coftainly not"
$50 If you used the other word there
wouldn't call anybody but themselves
clean, and thoss others would drop sort Of
meekly into their way Of talking, and they
wouldn't call themselves clean. We don't
do that way here. Everybody calls him
self n lady or gentleman. n thinks he IL,
and don't care what anybody else thinks
him SO long ~ lie don't say il ont loud.
You think there's' no difference. You
knuckle down and we don't. Amt that d
ditrsrence?"
"lt in u difference / hadn't thought of: l
admit that. Still, calling one'a self a lady
doasn't-er--n
II wouldn't 20 on il I were you"
Howard Tracy TUNED his head to ses
who it might be that had introduced this
remark. 1t WINS Il short man. about 40 years
old, with sandy hair,+ no beard, and q
pleasant face, badly freckled, but alive and
intelligent. and he wero slop-shop clothing,
which WAS neat but showed wear. He had
come from the front room beyond the hall,
where he had loft his hat, and he had a
clipped and cfacked white washbowl in his
hand. Tho girl came and took the bowl.
I'm get it for you. You go right ahead
md give it to him, Mr.. Barrow, He's the
now boardsr-Mr. T%racy-and I'd just got
tN nv MN - yypD4 rufffpsr frn. damn fNr ~ ~ ~
"Much obliged il you will, Hattie. | vas
coming to borrow of the boys" He sat
down at his ease on an old trunk, and snid:
Give boon listening. and gotinterested: and
as ! was saying, [ wouldn't go o n if / were
you. You zee where you are coming to,
don't you? Calling yourself q lady doesn't
elect you; that is what you were going to
say; and You saw that if you said it you
were going to run right up against another
difference that you hadn't thought Of, to
wit, whose right is il to do the %electing?
Over there 10000 people in q million elect
themselves gentlemen and ladies, and the
$50. 600 accept that decree and swallow the
affront which it puts upon them. Why, if
they didn't accept it it wouldn't be an cleo
ton, it would be a dead letter and have no
force at all. Over here tho 10000 would
be exclusives come up to the polls and vote
themselves to be- ladies and gentle
men. But the thing doesn't stop
LucIe. Lie JoU.OOU COME Huu @SVOI0
themselves to ba ladies and gentlemen, too,
and that elects the whole nation. Since the
whole million vote themselves ladies and
gentlemen, there is no question about that
eleetion. Is does make absolute equality,
and there is no fiction about it; while over
yonder tho Inequality (by decree Of the in
fnitely feeble, md consent of the infinitely
strong), ia also absolute-as real and abso-
Lutte as our equality"
Tracy had shrunk promptly into his Eng
lish shell when this speech began, notwith-
standing he had now been in severe train
ing several weeks for contact and inter
course with the common herd on the com
mon herds terms; but he lost no time in
pulling himself out again. and so by the
time the speech was finished Ills valves
were opened once more, and he was forcing
himself to accept without resentment the