New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-13
TILE GIRL ORR TOR.
~ fined.

Nevertheless" said Mr. Becchcr. YEARLY. at
one of his praycr-meetings AZ the angular ana
crotchetty sister sat down. who had occupied
most of the evening with Il tresomc ana mo-
notonous dingdong Of pie.i>tic discourse never
"theless | continue 10 believe that women nave
lust as good a right Is men to the free express
sion of their opinions
Doubtless many earnest persons OF Do'h sexes
who have been engaged these many years III the
effort to put the two sexes on the plane OIL po
litical equality, and who sincerely believe tha'
the influence of woman In politics, on the stump
and at the polls would be elcvating ana purify
ing read the reports of the Cooper mon meet
ing Of Bryan sympathizers on Monday high' AT
which Mrs Mary Ellen Tor Elizabeth Lease
was the chief speaker and principal attraction
with similar feeling of WEAKNESS ana the
same sort of nevertheless prefacing the re-
iteration Of their continued belief in wolnenS
rights and the political equality of the sexes
Ii does not necessarily follow because Mrs
Lease somewhat unsexed herself by her III
diligence in turbulent and inflammatory dis
course at Cooper Union that all women are I'M
fitted by Nature to participate in the excite
mcnt of political contests or have voice IN the
calm and deliberate discussions which ought al
WAYS TO attend upon the settlement of grave
and serious governmental problems. We might
as well say that the similarly wild and reckless
outgiyings of the Tmans and Altgclds demon
strated the unfitness Of the Sterner sex for sell
government But there is this 10 be said. or
which there can be no denial. that Mrs Lease
upon the political platform or stump. utterng
inyecflvrs more than masculine. and appealing
10 the brutal passions Of the mob rather than 10
the calm sense Of reasoning men and women
must be treated the same as any other mob
leader male or female. She cannot shelter her
self behind her sex while appealing to blood
thirsty passions and melting lawless riot.
Mrs Lease il representative of the party we
will not call it Democratic which presents Mr.
BRYAN as a candidate for the suffrage OF the
voters for the highest office in the Nation. In
deed II NAV be said with perfect truth that in
the principles she ayOws. and the policies Sh"
advocates in the coarse vigOr Of her speech and
the startling aggressveness of her manner, she
is i'm the highest degree the best and truest OK
ponent of the Bryan platform and party In the
extravaganza Of her language, the wantonness
and recklessness with which she appealed 70
class hatred pointing out by name as the proper
objects of popular vengeance good and honor
able citizens whose only offence is the posses
sion Of property accumulated honestly under the
laws she may have seemed TO he in advance
of her party. But only a step; just enough 10
bring ont with clearness and dstnctness the
real spirit and purpose Of the revolutionistS and
Anarchists who are bent on the destruction Of
public credit and the overthrow Of social order
A step behind this raging vrago foaming with
fury and blazing with wrath. is the wild mob of
jewellers eager for the general distribution of
spos; behind them the Terror. with It's bloody
bacchanals and mercess savagery. Better than
the weak and windy accident Of the Convention
the boy orator who on show last night
Mrs. Lease stands for. and with brutal candor
gives voube expression TO- the motive the pur
pose and the tendency of the whole Bryan bust
ness
She fifty preceded the candidate himself in
opening the campaign. 1t was well that she
did For she cast the glare of a calcium light
over the political field and the meaning of the
Bryan campaign which Will not soon be for
gotten.