Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-02-21
GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
UPON WHOM SHOULD DEVOLVE
AND OF WHAT CONSIST

UPON WHOM SHOULD DEVOLVE
AND OF WHAT CONSIST?
The Effect that would be Apparent
If Woman were Invested with
the Right to Formulate the Re.
suits of Good CitIzenshIp.
!. EY ELLA T. sToRK.
Dryden says: a citizen is an in
habitant of any city, town or place.
but alas! he was poet, not politi
clan; so his definition is marked in
Webster, as obsolete, and this is sub.
stituted: "The freeman of a city. al
distinguished from foreigner, or one
not entitled to its franchises" Under
this narrow, egOtistic definition, one.
half OF humanity, at least, are rem
dered, as it were, homeless. They
abide in city, not as citizens, but for
eigners, as bondsmen! But mark
you friends, our poets care the only
truth-tellers now left to God-the
only speakers of essential truths"
Remembering this, and that "truth
crushed to earth shall rise again." we
may rely upon the beneiicent law of
the increasing purpose" running
through the ages to bring us again
under the law of the broader, altruis-
tic definition of the truth-telling poet.
Then an inhabitant of a city will be
a citizen thereof. A royal title not
always worthily borne, any more than
our title of Sons OF God," but what
an uplift to our weak human nature
the thought, if only it be apprehended,
"A Son of God," A Brother of Man,
"a Citizen of the World! Does il
not strengthen the figure, lift the
brow from the dust to the sunlight of
duty, responsibility and fine action?
Think of the communicated man.
feeling, appreciating the execrations
of his Pope; can you feel his deso'a.
ton, his abandonment, his despair?
Think OF Cain robbed of his brother
hood. fleeting into the wilderness
away from man, his brother, with the
dark shadow on his brow! Can YOU
feel his loneliness, the emptiness of
life, his despair? Think now of the
man without country-this is hard
to imagine.
know that there
Breathes the man with soul SO dead,
Who never to himself hath said
This is my own, my native land"
But once imagined, can you feel
that,
Though high his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth az wish can claim,
Despite these titles, power and peli.
The wretch, concentered all in self"
Can you feel that oblivion,
A wretch concentered all in self?'
That nonentity is man or woman
without country, without citizen
ship. Did Dante, did Cain suffer
moro than poor Philip Nolan? We
remember their sutfering-Dan te's, a
son of God; Gaines, a brother OF man !;
and poor Philip Nolan's, a man with
out country.
Why was Nolan deprived OF his
citizenship? Why banished? Be-
cause he uttered the wish that he
might never hear OF the United States
again. For that uncitizen.li like remark
he paid the penalty of fifty-tive years
banishment upon the high seas, dur
ing which time he never once heard
the name of the United States.
Now / believe there is another for
one-half of the world, walking Ameri-
can thoroughfares as foreigners. as
bondsmen, besides the written defni-
ton OF citizen. Women are not for.
eigners and bondsmen, because there
is a written sentence saying 50. The
thing uttered is not therefore "af-
firmed." at must affirm itself, or
no forms of logic, or Of oath, can give
it evidence" says Emerson.
Citizenship is not question of ones
right or sphere, but Of interest, respon-
sibility; nor is it question vi the
ballot, but of thought and voice. The
women have had no ballot; nor
have they left their holy spheres, but
by their spirit, their good citizenship,
they have given an uplift to the mu-
nicipality OF New York. So also, the
women OF Chicago 10 their city, and
OF Kentucky to their State.
The tenement blight may not be
ours. but there are other drifts before
our door.
We say this or that city is our home,
ours in all its interests, its prosperi-
ties, its advantages, its debts, it's
shams. Ours just as much as our hus-
bands, fathers and brothers. Our
lives are in jeopardy from its imperfect
sewerage, from its vicious elements as
much as our fathers or sons; its debts
touch our pockets and will be the in
heritance of our children as much as
of our husbands children. The pride
OF its parks and statues, libraries and
architecture, is ours; but will we own
that its misgovernment, its debts, its
Infamous quarters, are ours? Why
not? Whose are theyy Remember
the city is our home. Albeit we walk
its streets, according to the written
definition, foreigners and bondsmen," ;"
what do we know about it. its chsrac-
ter, its laws, its council, its ordinances,
its revenues, its debts? Why do we