The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-27
WOMAN-SUFFRAGE
THE QUESTION DISCUSSED
The World Not Ready For it Yet.

tents into the columns of the Farm,
Stock and Home" in denunciation OF
u humble self, because we expressed
an opinion that the great mass of
womankind we're not yet fitted for the
exercise of the right Of suffrage. And
really Mrs. Stanford's "Vesuvius'
goes far to prove the truth of our con-
tentioD; for the volcano casts forth
not light but mud.
And yet in a few words she gives
away the whole case. She says:
"Mr. Donnelly knows that when a
state or priesthood wished to keep a
people in subsection they kept them
ignorant. From ancient times the
same policy has been pursued with re-
gard to women. They were shut upin
harems and guarded by castle walls.
We have witnessed their struggles in
the present century to break down
conventional barriers and secure for
themselves the advantages OF the
higher education, landmark their
progress. Mr.. Donnelly patronizingly
acknowledges that woman is advanc-
ing wonderfully" though he utterly
ignores the possibility OF her intellect
ual equality with man."
Now, if for generations woman has
been the slave or play-thing of mar is
it unreasonable to allege that the
great mass of them are yet in a state
of imperfect Development. So true is
this that three-fourths or eight-tenths
Of the whole female sex do not ask
and never have asked for the right of
suffrage; and the few able women
among them cannot tongue-lash them
into making the demand.
We have no doubt that the time will
come when the women will be pre-
pared to receive the privilege of vot-
ing and will ask for it; and when that
time comes it will be conceded to
them cheerfully. But we doubt if even
the men are yet ready to meet women
on the plane of political equality.
Look at these Colorado legislators who
proceeded to discuss the ques lions in
volved in an ''age of consent bill" in
terms that empticd the galleries, while
the three lady members had to listen
to it with blazing faces. The men
even went SO far as to enact that at
the polling places there should be but
toilet room to be used alike by
men and women! All this was terri
bly, brutal and a disgrace to the So
called men who talked in that way:
but they justified themselves boldly,
on the ground that if the m in
sisted on sharing the government
with the men they must meet the men
on terms of perfect equality The
bloom was brushed from the peach.
Every good man feels that there
is something to be sacred about
a good woman; and NJ mar
would like to see his wife,
or mother or sister subjected to the
indignities visited by coarse males on
those ladies of the Colorado Legislature
for all the honors which political life
could confer, When a woman takes
from herself the halo and glamol
which the sexual instinct casts around
her, like a nuns veil Of purity anC
beauty, and pushes herself into the
dirty sQuabbles and struggles of the
hastings, the lobby and the legislative
hall, she unseXes herself and become:
a mere child bearing man; and a more
lOathsome and monstrous creature Cal
scarcely be conceived Of in this world
Whatever else time and evolution
may take from us let them not over
!, throw the adjustment which God tiXet
between the sexes, and that i%nexplica
BILE and overwhelming principle of low
, which draws them together. 1t is tn
very romance, the quintessence O
} human life on earth; and we speal
not in a sensual sense. 1t is the foun
dation Of the continuance of the bree,
r of men on earth; and what is bette
of all Gods created things than tn
human family. AS the great poe
! says:
"What a piece of work is man! HOY
| noble in reason! How infinite in fac
ulty. In form and motion how ex
press and admirable! In action no,
, like an angel! In apprehension ho'
like a god! The beauty Of the worlc
The paragon of animalS!'
The very figure of woman, her YER
weaknesses are adorable in the eyes Q
man. The sight Of eve her hair a
fects him strangely. The Talmud tell
us that the reason the women wer
obliged to keep their heads covered i
the synagogue. land the practice wa
inherited by the Christian churches
was lest the beauty Of their tresse
y should distract the attention of tn
4 angels from worshipping God. Their
/. are experiments which go to show tina
the sexual dualism which bisects tn
a universe" Ito borrow Emerson's ez
y pression), extends even to a singl
" fibre Of W. man's hair, plucked frol
her head, as contradistinguished frol
O the hair Of man. Where man an
Il woman sincerely love each other an
d live long together, they not only gro
to look alike, but the soul of on
q passes into the soul of the other; an
when death takes one it wrenches til
v vital powers Of the other.
Man and woman are the complemen
s to each other; and together they COZ
p stitute the perfect human ~creatur,
the browning work Of God on earth.
IS Let not loose divorce laws redu(
a their union to a brothel's term; nor til
restless ambition of a few able wome
vyocH h. ~on Aor ~ ~s-