Omaha daily bee., 1898-06-26
GOSSIP ABOUT WOMEN.

Woman's ability to maintain, equally
with men, a due composure in time Of po-
litical or national excitement, is interest
ingly set forth in a letter by Alice Stone
Blackwell.
In all the public discussion and excite
ment in regard to the impending war with
Spain, the women OF the United States
have shown themselves as strongly inter-
ested as the men. One of the stock argu-
ments against equal suffrage has been that
IL women were allowed to vote, political
excitement would injure their health, and
perhaps unhinge their reason. Representa-
tive Hayes of Lowell even went so far as
to say in the Massachusetts, legislature a
few years ago that If the woman suffrage
bill passed it would be necessary to set up
an insane asylum In every ward in Boston.
How foolish this prediction seems In the
light OF present events. An ordinary cleo
ton does not arouse excitement enough to
affect the health of a fly. The difficulty is to
get the men out to vote. On the rare occa-
sions when political excitement really does
go up to white heat, the women inevitably
share 1t to the full. The fact that they
cannot vote is no protection. An epidemic
of intense political excitement in the COM
munity can no more be limited to one sex
than can an epidemic OF yellow fever.
Cooperation of men and women during
these exciting days recalls the words Of
John ID. Long, uttered several years ago:
Men and women meet together many
times a year and engage in the same In
t~erests, not only in private life but in public
relations. If there is an Industrial or agri-
cultural fair, or a village improvement en-
%terprise, they are equally active. Both fur
nish members Of the school committee, one
as good as the other, not only in matters
of instruction, but even in the way Of
school house repairs and the grading of thu
grounds. They mingle in the church meet
ings, and in this respect we all know that
women are the salvation of the enterprise.
They own stock in the same bank and rail
road, and vote with common intelligence on
their shares. They crowd into the same
hall to attend lectures and balls. They go
to the same theaters. and unite in local
dramatic entertainments, the women usually
a little quicker at their parts. They hold
Office in the same savings bank and insur-
ance companies, the women, subordinate
clerkships. to be sure, but capable, if they
had the same business training, of any
place. Most significant Of all, they go to
the same political meetings, listen to the
same stump speakers, and If a hot cam
paign comes, engage with the same passion
ateness in political debate, discussing men
and measures at the street corners, and
fighting 1t out around the family table, the
household not infrequently divided against
itself. In view of this, what patience can
be had when some hardshell tells us that
tho heavens would fall. society would be
ruined. the state would collapse If the
same women. once in March and once in
November. should enter a decent town hall
or ward room-all the more decent for their
presence-walk to a ballot box and put into
1t a piece of printed paper expressing in
concrete form the results of their previous
considerations ?" Thoughtful men and
women may well echo Secretary Longs
question.