Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-02-09

WOMEN ARE PECULIARLY FITTED TO
TAKE AN ACTIVE PART.

Then Why should Not Their Voices BE
Heard?
The superstition that woman is ont of
/ place in n public capacity Is peculiarly tena
/ cious of life because it is based on magma
! ton, and imagination is one of the strong
est forces in the human mind. 1t is respon-
sble for all the worry, all the fears all the
/ apprehensions and 5wo-thirds Of the suffer
/ ing that make up this mortal existence
! Imagination rightly used is the source OF
/ our most exquisite pieasure wrongly used,
/ il teaches that life is fearSome thing, that
! public life is even more fearsome and that
/ the safest position for woman is that of the
/ grub under the stone, which scamperS out
! of 81 ght the moment the broad light of pub
! licity shines upon it,
| What is this public of which women are
! expected to stand in such lively and unrea-
/ soning horror? 1t is merely an aggregation
/ of individuals each of whom was once a
naughty little boy or girl as the case might
be In every Hilltown and Nalleyville count
less good women are busily engaged caring
for the welfare and improving the morals
! Of their own particular Sammy and Dick.
| It's an unfortunate boy who has not a
mother or elder sister TO act as helper
adviser and interested friend in all his af
fairs Why should not the same motherly
and sisterly wisdom be available when
few more years are added to Dick and Sam
my's shoulders, and when they happen to
meet with Peter and Joe and other friends
and neighbors under public roof?
Why should women be mute as herring
on the very occasions when their womanly
keenness of perception and love of truth
and Righteousness might impress a score of
ind n or thousand
minds, instead of the selfish few about
their own Preside? \ community is but a
larger family, whose affairs have become
hopelessly muddled, owing to the strange
custom of the men having everything to
say while the women and sisters let the ear
nest word freeze upon the hesitating lip.
Every public school teacher is n public
speaker She speaks in public place every
day to an important part of the public. Is
she less womany or does she WELD worse
influence than the private teacher whose
attention is exclusively devoted to a single
family? The woman who devOtes her time
to public speaking in public school does
not deal entirely with young children. The
twigs that she so patiently bends in the
right direction are often well up in their
teens. In few years these same tWigs will
hold public meeting, which it may be
their old teacher will attend. She instant
ly recognizes Tom and Freddy and Jim.
There is the boy that she whipped. She
hated to do it, but it had to come. There is
the boy she had a serious talk with II
proved such a serious thing for him that he
began to envy the boy who was whipped.
There is the bright, wide awake fellow who
always spoke before he thought. She had
to keep him in dozen times for that sin
bo ic II ,s,
reeling off half truths just as of old. A few
words from her would straighten out his
thoughts, correct his conclusions and give
his views some chance of adoption, but she
is a woman, and this is a public meeting.
Another of her old boys quotes some
words of her own which she uttered years
ago. She would like to rise aud say that
she is wiser now than when she uttered
those words, but this is a public place, and
she is a woman Two of her old boys get
into a heated discussion and use language
with each other She can see that both are
right and both wrong, and she longs to get
ND and make matters clear, but publicity
and womanliness prevent. The right forces
in the meeting need helping the wrongs
need quellng. Truth seems to be
Forever on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne,
and she might so easily make truth and
wrong change places-but-but this locality
is so very, very public, and she is so ex
tremely, so hopelessly womanly.
Not that all women invariably say the
right thing in public. But so long as wom-
en- represent and uphold the moral worth
of a community the moral quality of that
community must suffer deterioration from
the enforced public silence The woman
oIyor hoG mr. riO n
be heard publicly than she who is a poor
singer, but why should it be considered
womanly to use musical voice in song j
it is unwomanly to use it in speech? Why
should a woman with music in her soul
pressing for utterance be more privileged
than her sister whose ideas are equally ur-
gent for expression? Is it so very much
more feminine to lull the listening mind
than to stimulate it to its highest endeav-
or? Wordsworth's perfect woman was
''nobly planned to warn, to comfort and
command" Is not that higher ideal than
the one who is ''ignobly made" to say, I'D
speak, but-I'm afraid!'
St. Pauls fashion items concerning wells
and uncovered heads are not of nearly so
much importance as the parable of the bur
led talent.
Not every woman is called to act in pub
lie capacity but she who hears that call
should consider whether after all it is so
much more womanly to hide her light un
der bushel rather than to let it shine be-
fore men.
This public of which we are so ready to
say harsh things is made up of weary men
and women like ourselves struggling to-
ward the light.
In public affairs women's influence is
equivalent to large number of dark Ian