Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-10-05
womenin EnxIish RIeetions.

"ohe n In s1ecaoAss
ERichard Harding Davis in HarperS AAEarinsl
The part the pomen play In an Enslish
election is one of the things which no
American can sscept as an Improvement
over our own methods. 1t may either
amuse him or shock him, but he would not
care to see 1t adopted at home. The can
wasting in the country from cottage to cot
tage he can understand; that seems possible
enough, Il takes the form Of apolite Wait
to tenants, and the real object is cloaked
with q few vague inquiries about the health
of the children or the condition of the
crops, and the traotlike distribution of
campaign documents. But in town IL lie
different. The invasion of bachelor apart
ments by young primrose danes is embAr-
rsssing and un-nice, and Ia the sort OF thing
we would not allow our sisters 10 do; and
the house. to-house canvass in the alleys of
Whitechspel or among the savagss Of LAM
beth, which results In insult and personal
abuse, is, to our way Of thinking, simple
impossibility. The English as . rule, think
we allow our women to do pretty much as
they please, and 1t is true that they do
in many things enjoy more freedom than
their British cousins, but the men IN our
country are not 80 anxious to get into Of
Ace, greedy as they are after 1t, ss to al
low their wives, In order to attain that
end, to be even subject to annoyance, GER
tainly not to be stoned and hustled OF
their feet or splsttered with the mud Of the
Mile.end road. Any one in England who
followed the election last year knows to
the wife of which distinguished candidate
~ l.. - -. /. q ,o&- t.
ter refer.
/ have seen women of the best class
struck by stones and eggs and dead fiish,
and the game did not seem to me to be
worth the candle. 1 confess that at the
time / was so intent in sdmiring their
pluck that 1t appeared TO me as rather fine
than otherwise, but from this cslmer dis
tsnce can see nothing In the active work
of the English woman in politics which
justifes the risks she voluntarily runs of
insult and dignity and bodily injury. A
seat in the house would hardly repay a
candidate for the loss of one of his wife's
eyes, or of all of his sisters front teeth,
and, though tha. is putting 1t brutally, it
is putting 1t fairly.
II would-not be fair, however, IL / left
the idea in the readers mind that the wo-
men 60 into this work unwillingly; on the
contrary, they delight In 1t, and some of
them are as clever at 1t as the men, and go
to as great lengths, from Mrs. Lsngtry,
who plsstered her houss from pavement
to roof with red and white posters for the
conservative candidate to the duchess who
eat at the side of the member for West
minister and regretted that 1t threatened to
be an orderly meeting. 1t Is also only
fair to add that many of the most promi-
nent Englishmen in politics are as much
opposed to what they call the interference
of women inSmatters political as they are
to bribery aud corruption, and regard both
elements of an electoral campaign with
pronounced disfavor. The reply which the
present president of the United States
made to those enthusiastic and no doubt
well-mesning women who wished to form
lesgues and name them after his wife, IL
lustrates the spirit with which the inter
ference of women in politics Is regarded
in this country. But then 1t Is q new
thing with ne, and it is only right to re-
member that from the days of the duchess
of Devonshire's sentimental canvass to the
present, English women have taken part
in general elections; that there is preee-
dsnt for Il; and when you have SAID that
of anything English, you have justified 1t
for all time to come. The young American
girl who would not think It proper to sd
dress men from platform and give them q
chance to throw things at her, must re-
| member 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. And I sm sure
| the womsn in my candidates campaign al
| most persuaded me that they, as tie polif-
icsl agent declared, did more than himself
to win the election,