Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-06-05
CORRESPONDENCE
WHEN WOMEN GET OFFICE
CRAZY.
W0man Suffrage Has a Doughty
Antagonist.

Mr.. EDITOR: Well he Joan of
Arc has appeared at last, at last! !!
and Dido is her name. Fair Joan,
we salute thee
l wrote my article on woman S
suffrage more from curiosity than
any other motive. | wanted
to see who was going TO holler
when I struck. I merely gave voice
to sentiments which have been re-
ceived as maxims by most people
for hundre,.; of years, aid which
10 one except in the last few years,
ever dared to dispute, and yet Di-
do severely reprimands your hum
bic scribe, publishing arguments
that he has heerd from the best Of
men and women from his child
hood days-men and women who
have done a thousand-fold more
toward upbuilding the female sex
than all Of these high-fliers who
60 about the country screeching
about woman's rights, while their
own homes (if they have any} are
ter svsB; Straight 1T ora road i1lj of c5omm0B
sense.
The burden of my thoughts,
went to show that Col. Keitt was
wong, when he said that cursing
and drinking would cease at the
polls when women went to vote.
This is one of the strongest points
on the sutfragist side. Yet Dido
discarded this point, when she
said: Il do not agree with Col.
Keitt etc." At the outset she aban-
dons this bulwark, but goes OH to
say that these same drunkards and
blackguards go to the homes of pure
women at night and raise Cain.
What if they do? has that got any,
thing to do with the question at
issue? Will going to the polls in
the day time protect women at
night? no; if a woman is so unfor-
tunate as to be tied up 10 an ILL
hammered scoundrel, it is her own
fault; for in a free land no one is
compelled to marry every stlaggler
that comes along. If he comes
home and abuses her, she can quit
him. If he is a father or a broth
er, she can make her home else
where. But this is only an isolat-
ed class 10 whom Dido refers. Not
more than 20 per cent, almost, of
our women, have to submit to this
kind of treatment. Must the 9TH
er so per cent be subject to the
banters of vile ruffians al the pub
lie polls because 20 per cent have
made fools of themselves, Dido
has admitted that bad behavior
would not be done away with by
women going to the polls, and
doubt the woman's right to the I'll
tie of lady, who would thrust her
way into raging roaring, drinking,
cursirg, Safeguarding mob. How
would voting relieve women of
that scourge' of which Dido spoke?
There are only two laws that can
possibly rid a woman of drunk
en- husband, viz: Divorce law and
Prohibition. As to the first we
say that a divorce law is disgrace
to any state. 1t encourages hasty
marriages, enables base adventur-
ers to marry some pure girl, and
then cast her off when she ceases
to please him. No; there is no
better gateway to perdition than
a divorce law.
As to prohibition, have only to
refer to the experience of last sum-
mer. We had it four months, and
a disgraceful failure it was. Even
if women could pass these two
!aws, it would not protect them
from "those rowdies;" for some
men will have liquor as long as
they have throats to swallow and
stomachs to absorb. In regard to
Dido's figures on the liquor ques-
ton would say that no law wo-
men or men might devise will
make them less. Men will go to the
waste places at midnight and still
whiskey before they will be with !
out it. If a mild restraint like
the dispensary cannot put a stop
to wildcat liquor, what can iron
clad probitiou do? Now for Dido
to lug sentimental farce like that
into controversy, and CLAIM that
letting women vote will stop the
use of alcohol, is ridiculous. Wo-