The Indianapolis journal., 1896-09-20
THE WOMEN IN POLITICS
OCTAVE THANET WRITES OF WEST
ERN FEMALE CAMPAIGNERs.
Recent Rise to Fame of Mrs. Foster,
Mrs Lease and Othcrs-Forces that
Make Socialists of Women.



! shows US the woman lawyer and woman
doctor. and Mrs. Hetty Green, the woman
| of business we should have the woman
| politician. And she is here. Not as she has
been here since Margaret Winthrop
strengthened the heart of the famous John,
her husband, as the power behind the
throne but as the power on the hustings
and outside the polling booth. In short, a
| palpable force, not an invisible influence.
| The woman politician appeals directly to
the voter. That is. the typical woman pol
| itcian, she who has come out in the open;
of course, there are many of the old kind
who help their husbands or their country in
a quieter way. The new woman politician
knows the thrill of cheers and has felt the
sweet delirium of the orator when he be-
| holds the spark in his own soul kindling in
/ the eyes upturned to him.
She has felt, also, the tremendous fas-
cnation of politics. Every man politician
! knows it. and admits it, in spite of the
! periods of moral revolt and nausea when
! he is going about among his friends swear
| ing that he is done with politics forever.
| 1t is not in the rewards although what
| game doesn't get an added excitement from
the big stakes?), it is in the perilous de-
| light of manipulating men and changing
the destinies of a nation. And the temper
| ament of women makes such delight more
perflous and more intense.
risen p-i in the Wesfl Their own personalitV
| is attractive to a social student; but the
reasons for their coming on the stage are
of deeper and more vivid interest.
| The most prominent of Western women
politicians, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Lease, Mrs.
gestive name for a woman), are all of
comparatively recent fame, unless II be
Mrs. Foster. But Mrs. Foster is the most
conservative Of them ALL and won her
spurs as a temperance worker, not as a
| politician, drifting gradually INTO pohtics.
She is not only an eloquent speaker, but
/ a very adroit politicarr-and expert Or
ganizer. To the eye she is a woman OF
the ear she depends as much on the sound
ness of her logic as on the persuasion OF
her appeals. In fact, judging from her
| likely to say to an audience, gently, mod
| estly: Come, now, let US reason togethef
Mrs Lease would eXclaim with merry
| wave of her long arms: Let me tell you
| what the bloodsucking tyrants OF monopoIy
| have done to usi and Mrs. Cougar would
| brush a tear from her fine eyes ana peg
| the syInpathizlng audience to listen TO hef
| tale of woe. Mrs. Diggs. the other mem
| Der of the Populist trio is younger, fiery
| little woman who sings her oratorical
| tomahowk readily at evfl-doerS Wlth!n
| the Populists' ranks as at the hosts of sin
chase the antelope OTHERWISE his Excel
| lency, Governor Lewelling) over the plaln
| and off the ticket, for the sake of the
| dear cause that we all have at heart -
| She is said to equal Mrs. Lease in Impas-
| and pathetic as Mrs Gougar-but Mrs.
| Cougars admirers dispute the latter claim.
! SUDDEN UPRISING.
| Who had heard of either of these proph-
| etesses however, five years ago? Mrs.
| Lease it is true, has been calling sinners
| to repentance and accusing the present So
| cial order for longer than five years. Was
it ten years ago that the unknown Kansas
woman almost threw the w. c. 7. U. into
| tn ho of the United
| States? Even the printed reports of that
| meeting were exhilarattng. Miss Willard s
| tact. which is as oil upon the stormy wa
| tiers of controversy stilling them by, magic,
simply melted and was gone under the
| flaming acids of the Kansas woman $
| tongue. Parliamentary rules, which the
| sisters had sat up nights to learn and to-
| ward which they showed the touehlng rev ,
| ererce of their sex, were elbowed aside by
the free lance from the West She had
| &C me 1000 miles to say. the thoughts seeth-
ing in her soul, and she said them. Some
| of the hearers fed from the hall; most OF
J lrem openly disapproved None the less
| she worked her will on them, and dld that
| which she came to do. It may be that 1t
! was a triumph; it certainly was an adVer-
| tisenlent. -.
| Mrs. Lease stepped farth into the unique
| nosition that she has since occupied in the
| public mind, and the editors gave her rlght
| Of way in the comic paragraphs. The hand
| Of svnpathy was publicly extended to Mr..
| Lease and Mrs. Lease was addressed by
| her Christian name; she became stock
| subject for lovial sallieS like mother-ln-
| law or the husband who comes nome. late
/ and tries to walk upstairs on his head, or
the negro who steals chickens, or the BOW
| cry Hebrew
it was a piIlory that would have been a
! crueller fate than death to many women
| One may wonder how she who was good
| woman a modest woman, perhaps at that
| time a sensitive woman took the pelting
| Of ieers and laughter No word has ever
| been said against her private character
| Mr.. Lease appears to be content with her
as a wife and mother-and, after all, he is
r11n Ch Nff
| the most notorious adventures would
| hardly be treated with less respect.
Y is impossible that it has not hurt hurt
| atrociously / believe, let her carry it
! haughtily as she may, that it hurts still
| To me. Mrs. Lease is pathetic figure in
that Philadelphia convention. The public
sympathy-that is the public feminine SYM
pathy-welled up for Miss Willard; Every,
| of taking of herself. She is as little
a heRgs % od PoGa she fheW All ai the me
that she had the sympathy of her audience.
But the audacious woman that shocked
months. probably she had saved a dollar
here and a dime there. in a womans pa
thetic fashion (for the Leases were poor
and her husband had very likely added his
own small self-denials to hers. in order that
she might make that long journey. think
| how great an event it was to their lives.
how the children talked about it, and the
husband and wife discussed it together. and
very likely she recited her speech to
him; and he praised it and made sugges-
tions; and how al last she set off. alone q
sure that they never could afford the
price of two tickets at that time), and alone
stood up to battle for the light as she saw
the light, and the light that in her
instead of illumining the souls before her
scared them out of the hall. She had not
even the comfort-whch goes a long way
with a woman-of knowing that her toilet
was correct, whatever they might say of
her principles. She stood there in her coun-
try mantua- makers gown, so different
from the gowns the platform-Some of
the reporters made very merry over the
gown next day-and talked TO women, iaalf
of whom We're not listening but whispering
their horror to each other,
A GALLANT FIGHT
No. I have little sympathy with her
political principles any creature living
but in that scene the odds are too heavy
against her, she is too gallant a fighter for
another woman not to pity her. If any
one gave her even passing courtesy, it is
not recorded in the accounts which 1 read
Indeed. it is the most single-handed en-
counter that / can recall. To the chief
participant fancy, it not a combat
but martyrdom.
Perhaps therein lay her own comfort
She was ready to be a martyr
The Populists We're of her opinion. They
took her very seriously. The Populists are
not of q humorous turn. A sense of humor
finds itself in queer quarters in the mind
of a silver man; but il cannot find so much