Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-01-18

not allow that
L will rather kneel,' said one, and
he crouched down at my feet, SO the
woman came in.
There We're nine Of us in that coach,
and only one showed chivalrous atten-
ton, and that was q woman to q
woman.
II shall be old and ugly, too, one day,
and i shall look for mems chivalrous
help, but shall not find it.
'The bees are very attentive to the
flowers till their honey is done, and
then they fly over them. don't know
if the flowers feel grateful to the bees.
They are great fools if they do"
"But some women" said Waldo,
speaking as though the words forced
themselves from him at that moment,
"some women have power"
She lifted her beautiful eyes to his
face.
Power! Did you ever hear Of men
being asked whether other souls should
have power or not? 1t is born in them.
You may dam up the fountain of water
and make it stagnant marsh, or you
may let it run free and do Its work,
but you cannot say whether it shall be
there. 1t is there. And it will act, Il
not openly for good, then covertly for
evil, but 1t will act. If Goethe had
been stolen away child and reared in
a robber horde in the depths of Ger
man forest, do you think the world
would have had Faust and Iphe-
genie? But he would have been Goethe
still, stronger, wiser than his fellows.
At night round their watch fire he
would have chanted wild songs Of
rapine and murder till the dark faces
about him were moved and trembled.
His songs would have echoed on from
father to son and nerved the heart and
arm-for evil.
do you think If Napoleon had been
born woman that he would have been
contented to give small tea parties and
talk small scandal? He would have
risen. But the world would not have
heard Of him as it hears Of him now
a man great and kingly, with all his
sins. He would have left one Of those
names that stain the leaf Of every
history, the names Of women who, hav-
ing power, but being denied the right
to exercise it openly, rule in the dark,
covertly and by stealth, through the
men whose passions they feed on and
by whom they climb.
"Power| she said suddenly, shifting
her little hand upon the rail. Eyes, we
have power, and, since we are not to
expend it in tunneling mountains nor
healing diseases nor making laws nor
money nor on any extraneous object,
we expend it on you. You are our
goods, our merchandise, our material
for operating on. We buy you, we sell
you, we make fools Of you, we act the
willy old Jew with you, we keep six
of you crawling to our little feet and
praying only for touch Of our little
hand, and they say truly there was
never an ache or pain or broken
heart but a woman was at the bottom
of it. We are not to study law nor
science nor art, so we study you. There
is never nerve or fiber in your mans
nature but we know it. We keep six
of you dancing in the palm of one lit
tie hand" she said, balancing her out
stretched arm gracefully, as though
tiny beings disported themselves in its
palm. ."There-we throw you away,
and you sink to the devil" she said,
folding her arms composedly. "There
was never man who said one word
for woman but he said two for man
and three for the whole human race"
She watched the bird pecking up
the last yellow grains, but Waldo look
ed only at her.
When she spoke again, it was very
measuredly.
"They bring weighty arguments
against us when we ask for the per-
feet freedom Of women" she said,
"but when you come to the objections
they are like pumpkin devils with can
dies inside, hollow, and can't bite.
They say that women do not wish for
the sphere and freedom we ask for
them and would not use it.
"If the bird does like it's cage and
does like its sugar and will not leave
it, why keep the door so very carefully
shut? Why not open it. only a little?
Do they know there is many q bird
will not break its wings against the
bars, but would fly if the doors were
open" She knit her forehead and lean
ed farther over the bars.
''Then they say, IF the women have
the liberty you ask for, they will be
found in positions for which they are
not fitted! If two men climb one lad
der, did you ever see the weakest any.
where but at the foot? The surest
| sign Of fitness is success. The weakest
never wins but where there is handi.
Gaping. Nature left to herself will as
| beautifully apportion mans work to
his capacities as long ages ago she
| graduated the colors on the birds
breast. If we are not fit, you give us
to no purpose the right to labor. The
work will fall out of our hands into
those that are wiser"
| She talked more rapidly as she went
on, as one talks Of that over which one
has brooded long and which lies near
\ ,,<~5n L.