Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-30
AWAKENED NJ

mar suffrage. She said:
The leading liquor paper in Califor-
mia recently stated that the chief men,
ace of the trade is the suffrage
agitation. 1t takes the position that
woman are persistent in any cause that
pertains to the we'll being Of their child
rem, and that for this eason those
whose money is invested in the liquor
traffic must keep down these wild and
rampant efforts to admit women to the
Government. The influence of the
liquor trade last spring defeated the
municipal suffrage bill which had al
ready passed one branch of the Massa-
chusetts legislature, and those who
understand the true inwardness of the
Tammany ring can explain the defeat
of the proposed provision of the consti-
tutional amendment in New York ad-
hitting women to the franchise.
Who are against the ballot for wo-
menp Always the saloons, the gamb-
ling houses, the haunts of infamy, the
ignorant, the foreigners newly arrived.
Besides these, of reputable people, GER
tain ecclesiastical classes and conser-
vative temperaments. While we en-
tertain toward the latter the same re-
spect and good will that we desire
them to show to us, theirs is a cause of
dog Tray in bad company" and they
will not be exalted in their own opin-
ion when the next generation takes &C.
count of those who have prepared the
way for its higher outlook and broader
opportunity.
l wish that instead of using the term
"woman's rights woman" which is
drastic and aggressive, we might say,
"the awakened woman" She is today
the leader of her sex, because she has
answered the call, "Arise, wake out of
sleep. Hear my voice, ye daughter. u
A leading thinker, a man of strong
character and wide observation, said to
me, TRY to get women to think, to be
less frivolous, less occupied with trivial
subjects, more earnest, large minded,
more devoted to general ideas" And
/ thought what must be the WEAKNESS
of life to such a man if, on returning to
his home, he found that the rim of a
tea cup or the circumference of a thin.
BILE was the emblem of the circuit of
talk. But the awakened woman who
begins to see that the whole realm of
thought is her heritage and the entire
world of power her kingdom can only
hope to see her ideals realized through
the enlistment of the average woman.
She is the key to the position. For the
abstract principle of justice on which
the woman question is really based the
average woman does not care a farth-
ing, while for the sake OF justice in
the concrete she often plays the part of
heroine. If she thought she ought to
want the ballot, she would seek it with
preserving zeal, but she honestly be-
lieves that it is more womanly to cry
out against it. She has been told this
from press and pulpit since her earliest
recollections, and she has learned the
same doctrine from her husband at
home" The average woman is often
O member of the church, and like the
rest of us, falls into the error of con-
founding the husks of Christ's gospel
embodied in theology with its kernel
embodied in the golden rule. She is
devoted, good and conventional. She
usually has a home of her own, and
her favorite end Of all controversy is,
II have all the right l want"
She is like some others disguised
with the woman novel, and not too
we'll pleased with platform woman
at least not until she has had the hap
piness of hearing them. After she
says, with all the faults | love thee
STILL" She is attractive, kindly and
well meaning, but breads the speech
of people. She is not clear concerning
cause and effect in politics and law,
but she must be If women are to win
the ballot. She had not studied Fran
ces Power Cobbe OH the "Duties'' nor
John Stuart Mill on the "Subjection of
Women" She could not for the life
of her, state the theory of evolution or
Henry Georges heavenly vision of the
single tax, but this same average wo.
man has a lot of hard sense in her
head, and whoever counts her out, let
not the progressive women do 30. She
is notimaginative, and If she believes
In politics at all it will be decidedly
practically politics."
In America, Australia and New Zea;
land the average woman has rallied to
the polls to vote against the saloon,
against the gambling houses and den
of vice. In the nature of the case she
can be counted on to stand with prac-
teal solidarity against this trinity OF
evils that forms the fortress of tempta'
ton to her children. She is perfectly
clear in her mind" that no one has q
right to set these institutions along the
streets in neighborly a to her
home, and if the power is given her
she will remorselessly drive them of
the pathways frequented by herself
and little ones. There is no lever 60
long by which to lift the average wo-
man above her p~rejudices as that OF
the reforms that tend to safeguard
those to whom she has given being.