Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-11-29

able by the scholars of her day TO Do
classed with the healthful literature.
They were piled side by side in the pub
lie libraries with rusty mythologies and
with histories of the earlier centuries.
where the dust settled thickly upon
them. They were owned by very few
who were not even so much as envied
their possession. Many of the volumes
which Lefty had read had been handed
down since the days of her grandnoth-
ers father.
Letty's friends strongly disapproved
of her reading such stuff. They said
she might have been quite sensible
woman had it not been for her books.
They also disapproved of her frequent
visits to the old woman. the "Llyeter-
ever as she was called. They knew
that Lefty went to her simply TO hear
the stories she had to tell of the days
before the revolution Of the sexes. no
one else believed SO implicitly IN the
stories of men as the old woman told
them. and every one thought Lefty
might better spend her time in trying
10 solve the problems of the day as they
we're presented before her.
Something--it might have been the
reading: it might have been al inherit
ance from an oversentlmental grand
| mother, whose heart had been divided
| between her husband and her sleeping
| loyer-scneihlng had made Lefty very
different from the women OF her day.
| She wanted Il husband who would be a.
| companion, not pretty little fellow
whom she could caress and indulge and
dress prettily and boast of when at her
| club with other women. 1t seemed 70
her that it ought not to be unreasonable
to expect Il man to be as intelligent rs
herself.
| Her friends were alarmed when they
| heard her make such statements. Ihey
said that if her ideas obtained society
would be overturned and the home life
1 destroyed; that men would become un-
seyed; that women would be crowded
out of the labor market and could no
! longer support themselves and their
families; thai. III fact, they could not
/ take time to have families, for wages
would be ~ low that they would be
obliged to work throughout the year.
| Some of the directors went SO far as 10
! teach that if men We're allowed equal
| suffrage there would be y revival Of the
whisky trade which flourishcd III the
nineteenth century, and that families
could no longer be regulated as to num-
Der by woman's ability to provide for
her children. The we'll read offered as
proof Of thci- arguments the historical
fact that many charitable institutions
had been organized during the days Of
mans supremacy to care for the chill
! dren who came into the world when
there were no means FOX their support,
and that every county had place Of
detention called Jail, where they were
cared for who should never have been
| born, but who had grown to manhood
! as best they could in Il world where they
We're worse than parasites. There We're
few intelligent women i'll the twentieth
century who could be made to believe
! that men were capable Of exercising the
moral self control suggested by Nautilus
as a needfuI check to meet the growing
| danger Of overpopulatiCn, and for that
reason more than for any other the doc
Urine OF man s suffrage made little head
way. It might have died had it not
been for Miss Lettys curious desire to
! find q husband who should also be -
companiUsl and for her belief, formed
from much thought Oh the subject, that
only in perfect equality could be found
the relation which the Omnipotent
meant should exist between the sexes.
"Such talk is wild, said her friends.
"There can be no such thing as perfect
equality between tho sexes. The world
is used to the existing order Of things;
we are comfortable: men are happy or
ought to be. for we do everything to
make them so-let we'll enough alone.
But still Lefty clung to her ideals,
and every year the number Of men made
dissatisfied by her glowing representa-
tions CT a future in which they should
stand side by side with women was
slowly but steadily increasing.
1t was not difficult for Harold to find
the house where Lefty lived. How often
he had been there in the good old days
when Letty's grandmother was to him
the most attractive girl in the world!
! The house was small compared with
| the more modern structures which tow
cred beside it; yet it, like the Winthrop
residence, had been considered fine in
his day. Now they were looked upon as
unsightly nuisances which should have
! been torn down long ago and would
have been had it not been for all untir-
ing sleeper and sentimental young
woman.
When Harold paused at the gate. he
saw woman sitting OH the porch in
| the very place where his old love had so
often waited for him. She glanced up,
and their eyes met. They were Lefty
Mays eyes-deep blue. steadfast, ten
der, beautiful. The mouth and chin
were Letty's, too; but Lefty had been
! small and sYlnhlike while this lady