Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1893-09-06
lyon.en tn English Politics.

/ AhN l'et'' taN ''N'@'NN - .
lish election is one of the things which
no American can accept as an improve
ment over our own methods. 1t may
either amuse him or shock him, but he
would not care to see it adopted at home
The cauvassing in the country from cot
tage to cottage he can understand that
seems possible enough. 1t takes the form
of pnite visit to the tenants, aud the
real object is cloaked with few vague
inquiries about the health of the children
or the condition OF the crops, and the
tracllike distribution of campaign docu-
ments. But in town it is different. The
invasion of bachelor apartments by young
Primrose Danes is embarrassing aud un-
nice, and is the sort of thing we would
not allow our sisters to do; and the house
toulouse canvass in the alleys of White.
chapel or among the savages of Lambeth,
which results in insult and personal abuse,
is. to our way of thinking, simple i'm
possibility. The English, as rule, think
we allow our women to do pretty much
as they please, and it is true that they do
in many things enjoy more freedom than
their British cousins, but the men in our
country are not so anxious to get into OF.
fee, greedy as they are after 1t, as to al
low their wives, in order to attain that
end, to be even subject to annoyance. GER.
tainIy not to be stoned and hustled off
their feet or splattered with the mud OF
the Mle-Eud Road Any one in Eng
land who followed the election last year
knows to the wife of which distinguished
candidate and the daughters of which
cabinet minister | refer.
have seen women of the best class
struck by stones and eggs and dead fish,
aud the game did not seem TO me to be
worth the candle. | confess that at the
time | was so intent in admiring their
pluck that it appeared to me as rather
fine than otherwise, but from this calmer
distance can see nothing in the active
work of the English woman in politics
which iustifes the risks she voluntarily
runs of insult aud indignty and bodily
injury. A seat in the House would hard
ly repay candidate for the loss of one of
his wife's eyes, or of all of his sisters
front teeth, and, though that is putting it
brutally, it is putting it fairly.
It would not be fair, however, if | left
the idea in the readers mind that the
women go into this work unwilling y on
the contrary, they delight in it, aud some
of them are as clever at it as the men.
aud 60 to as great lengths, from MIs.
Langtry, who plastered her house from
pavement to r,of with red and white
posters for the Conservative candidate, to
the Duchesses who sat at the side of the
member from Westminster and regretted
that it threatened to be an orderly meet
ing. 1t is also only fair to add that many
of the most prominent EDglishmen in
politics are as much opp ;ed to what they
call the interference of women in matters
political as they are to bribery and cor.
ruplion, and regard both elements Of au
electoral campaign with pronounced
disfavor. The reply which the present
President of the United States made TO
those enthusiastic and, no doubt, we'll
meaning women who wished to form
leagnes and name them after his wife, IL
lustrales the spirit with which the inter
reference of women in politics is regard
ed in this country. But then it is new
thing with us, and it is only right to re.
member that from the days of the Ouch
ess of Devonshire's sentimental canvass
to the present, English women have taken
a part in general elections; that there is
a precedent for it; and when you have
said that of anything English, you have
justified it for all time to come. The
young American girl who would not
think it proper to address men from a
platform and give them chance to throw
things at her, must remember that the
English girl would not give the man she
knew a cup of tea in the afternoon unless
her mother were in the room to take care
of her. Aud am sure the women in
Ny Candidates campaign almost per-
suaded me that they, as the political agent
declared, did more than himself to win
the election.-Richard Harding DQris in
Harper's Magazine.
So TO Speak.
Woman is wonderfully made such