Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-02-05
uNMANIY CRITICISM

insults aimed at the distinguished la
dies who have lately visited Mississip-
pi In the interest of woman suffrage,
and incidentally at all Mississippi
who share their views, by the
Jackson Clarion-Ledger, are wholly
of any newspaper making
the slightest pretensions to gentle
manly and respectable journalism.
Whatever may be their opinion of the
merits or dement's of woman suffrage
in the abstract, which The LEADER
doesn't here propose to discuss, we are
sure this must be the universal senti-
ment of all true gentlemen and chival-
ric Mississippians who read that pa
per. About the only pretense of justi-
fication which could be offered for
these criticisms of the fish market
odor. is that these ladies have presum-
ed to hold and express opinions on the
woman suffrage question different
from those entertained in the sanctum
of the Clarion-Ledger.
Just now the Clarion Ledger, with a
great flourish of trumpets, is advertis-
ing that it will publish an issue on st.
Valentines Day which will be edited
and managed exclusively by the ladies
of Jackson. They will edit it, go on
the streets and solicit business for the
paper and do all except the mechani-
Gle work required for its publication,
Just the same as men. The novelty
and excellence of that issue will be so
much greater than the regular editions
edited by the man who has seen fit to
slur the woman suffragists, that he
states that the circulation will be fully
ten times that of the regular editions.
All this of itself is proper enough and
on it The LEADER has no word of I'M
friendly criticism, and thinks the Ia
dies are to be heartily encouraged and
commended; yet it is perfectly within
the range of fact and reason to say
that but for the very education and
agitation on the subject of woman's
rights and capabilities so long and
bravely maintained by Miss Anthony,
Mrs. Chapman Gait and their coadju-
tors in the cause, such thing as Jack
son women performing the heretofore
function of managing daily
even for day, would never
have been thought of, much less coun-
tenanced. Further comment on the c.
LIS Inconsistency is unnecessary.
The weapons with which the Gil.
essays to down the woman suffra
gists are coarse and unmanly ridicule,
dogmatic assertions, unsupported by
facts or sound argument, and a sickly
entimentalism as grotesque as it is
1t has been we'll re-
marked that some of those who are
loudest in proclaiming the jealous con-
Germ with which the gentler sex should
be guarded from all burdensome cares
and duties, have the least scruples
about women chopping the wood, draw
ing the water and becoming general
family drudges and bread-winners.
Away with such mock chivalry and
patent hypocrisy
AS to the estimate placed upon Mrs.
Gait and her address by the thinking
people of Jackson, let Kate Powers Re-
view, edited by that accomplished lady
and fluent writer whose name it bears,
testify. 1t says:
1t is an odd result from SO brilliant
a lecture by so handsome woman on
so modern subject, as that last Fri
day, by Mrs. Gait, on Female Suffrage,
but it is true nevertheless, that the
most earnest and most active converts
are from the ranks of the elderly, dig
nified, conservative men of the city,
embracing bank presidents, lawyers,
ministers, professors, State officials,
merchants, etc. Of course she con-
verified a great many young women. a
few elderly women, and innumerable
impresSionable youths. But the best
work was among the solid men of the
town.
At Greenville suffrage association
was formed with Mrs. Leila Lowry
Jayne, daughter of exGov. Lowry and
wife of ex-State Senator Jayne. as
president and Mrs. Nellie Nugent Som
erville, daughter of Col. W. L. Nugent,
of Jackson, another of its officers. Will
the Southern chivalry" and anxious
solicitude of the Clarion-Ledger's edi-
tor refer to these ladies and Mrs. l..
s. Mount, Mrs. M. M. Smell, Belle
Kearney and hundreds of others of
Mississippi's own cultured and refined
daughters who favor woman suffrage,
as "yowling cats and ''crowing hens, y
and endeavor to silence them with his
mud battery of slurs and unmanly rid
icule. instead of combating them, II
combat he must, in terms and argu-
ments befitting the Southern gentle
man? We shall see.
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THE NEW CLEVELAND BADGE.