Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-08-17

CIuD. On, L see, answered. ulIp'
"some club | suppose where they admit
ladies on certain days"
admit ladies on certain days" Je-
NINA repeated angrily. Men may think
themselves lucky if the EXcelsiors admit
them on certain days. Why, my dear
Primitive person" (viciously), ''this is a
woman's club. | can take you in, being
on the committee, but l can assure you
that you will see very few men there"
in an audible aside to Alice, "but | feel
the honor deeply. When do we start?"
Now" said Jemima firmly. 'It is a
good twenty minutes walk from here"
and as she spoke she pinned on to her
badly-ftting coat a large silver decora
ton, "a banner with Il strange Device
and having the word Excelsior" writ
ten across 1t.
She threw a smaller edition of the same
ornament to her sister. Now | am your
man." she remarked facetiously, and
strobe out of the room, and, indeed. out
of doors, and into the street before them,
disdaining wrap or covering of any kind
beyond a deerstalker cap, that she flung
carelessly on to her large-sized head
Not quite like mans club, after all,
said Philip to himself, as he followed his
cousin upstairs to the debating room, and
read the motto, woman is the outcome
of the wisdom of the ages" in gilt letters
above the door. what does it mean?
/ wonder if they know themselves?" But
his reverie was interrupted by Jemima,
who in her most aggressive voice re-
marked: ''The subject of tonight's de-
bate is interesting, indeed. 1t is called
THE Persecution of Woman by Religion,
Philosophy and Science"
''Who opens? asked Alice in the
shibboleth of those with whom she was
surrounded.
Mrs. Mary Firmin,' returned her sis
ter; perhaps you, Philip, have met her
husband. He is a great yachting man,
whose home is Observation-Disclosures
George Willard by name
But [ thought you called the lady
Mrs. Firmin?" he inquired cautiosuly.
"Oh. she has more belief in herself
than 10 adopt any one else's name," said
Jemima l0ftily; "she was weak enough
70 do so for about a year after she mar
ried Willard, but she now sees, as most
of us do, that the adoption of a hus-
bands name on marriage is the outward
and visible sign of a moral and physical
degradation. Hush, hush.-here she
cOmeSH
Ihe crowd of women, struggling for
seats, divided to let a dumpy little per-
son pass to the top of the room. where
there was cleared space and a small
table, on which were placed the conven-
tlonal carafe of water and tumbler of the
orator, and where she was received with
effusiOn by fat woman in red flannel
shirt, faded and old enough to have been
worn as uniform by one of The Thou
sand who once landed in Sicily to follow
the fortunes Of Garibaldi. his. Mary
Flrmln had at least one negative virtue
she lost no time in starting; in two min
utes she was in full swing, and religion,
philosophy, and science Jared badly in
deed at her hands.
Even the Bible was not safe from her
attacks, or rather, she was able to prove
from revised reading of certain texts
that woman has hitherto been sadly mis-
judged by the popular Interpretation of
holy writ. The incident of Eve and the
apple, hitherto held somewhat damaging,
took new color when viewed in the
proper light She quoted at length pas
ssages from the Woman's Bible that
band of enterprising American ladies are
bringing out to show that, compared with
Adam. Eve appeared to great advantage
throughout the entire drama. From this
new point of view the serpent tempted
our first mother because he did not con-
slider Adam worth powder and shot. but
saw at glance 1.-The high character of
the person he met" tempting her through
her Unborn thirst for knowledge.
On and on went this champion of her
sex There was not woman mentioned
L
a good word, with the solitary exception
OF Rebekah, who had so far forgotten the
dignity OF her WOmanhOOd as to draw wa
ter for the camels with a dozen men
looking on, and none of them offering to
help. Though it is commendable to
serve our fellow beings" conceded the
orator, yet woman's first duty is to her
self Having demolished those who had
prosecuted her sex in the name of relig-
ION, Mrs. Mary Firmin proceeded to emp
ty the walls of her wrath on the heads of
all the philosophers and men of science
whose names she could remember
Rambling and discursive as she was,
1t was hard to follow the thread of her
arguments, and still harder to make any
sense out OF the discussion that followed
when the lecturer at last sat down.
L don't pretend to know what they
are talking about" whispered Philip
hopelessly to Alice, as Jemima rose to
her fletcher strong, fiat-fOoted, heeliess
canvas-shod feet-and made a totally
new departure from the subject in hand
but Jemima seems the most vicious of
them all-what is it she wants-a world
OF women with all the men eXtirpatcd %
She certainly was very busy, proving
to her own satisfaction that women had
all the virtues, and men all the vices
The courage, the fOrtitude, the pres
ence Of mind of woman far transcends
the merely brutal fighting Instincts of
man. These words were hardly out Of
her mouth before she gave a wild scream,
and ieaping onto her chair with an agility
that in common fairness must be allowed
to be partly owing to the extreme short
ness Of the skirt that there was now TO
doubt about her wearing, she stood there
trembling and most notwithstanding
female figure.
The cause of her agitation was soon
apparent. A large, a very large black
cat, with most uncanny-looking green
eyes, had stolen through the crowd, and
seeing o friendly leg in an apology for a
trouser, had proceeded to rub himself
gently against it.
Even now that Miss Jemima had
mounted on her chair there was still some
attraction about her in his feline eyes,
and from the shape of his rounded back
it seemed as if in another moment her
black enemy would spring up beside her.
The sight of the tiger in miniature crouch
ing at her feet was too much for Miss
Terminals nerve altogether.
Take it away. take it away, PhiIipr'
she screamed. ooh! can't you do some
thing? 1t is too cruel of you!
You know my antipathy to cats. x s.
You might help me- Oh! you brute (this
to the cat which to her excited Imagination