The Topeka state journal., 1902-03-01

| force OF character Indn in Amer
lea are required to come out as a
- woman suffragist. For this rea-
son perhaps the English ladies
who advocate the rights of woman are
| exceptionally strong, intelligent and
| gifted. With Mrs. Laura Ormiston
Chant and Lady Henry Somerset Amer
ican women are already somewhat ac-
| quainted. Lady Somerset, handsome,
| intellectual, rich and benevolent, turn
ed from fashionable society to do what
one person might to tighten the woes
| caused by drunkenness. She was not in
the beginning a believer in the theory
that voting is the right and duty of
woman of man. She worked among
the poor, the wives and children of in
ebriates. She speedily found that the
cause of temperance must be re-en-
forced by the power of law. British
men would not make laws to lessen the
liquor traffic. 1t must be done, if at all,
through women, and women could new
er do it without having the ballot in
their own hands. So woman suffra-
gist Isabel Somerset became, and wo-
man suffra gist she has remained to this
day.
OF Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, who
has lecture toured the States several
times, it has been said that the culture
of three centuries sounds in her voice.
Most English women who speak in pub
lie have this exquisite voice. and it is
revelation to Americans of the music
that can be produced by the speaking
voice. 1t comes through cultivating a
clear enunciation and giving forth the
sound from the front of the mouth in
stead of from back in the throat.
Another famous woman suffragist is
Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, widow
of Great Britain's blind postmaster gen.
eral. 1t was through her vigorous as
sistance that her husband was able to
perform the duties of his office. She is
a writer and the author of an able
book on social and political economy.
Mrs. Josephine Butler, lifelong worker
for social purity, also was driven by the
relentless logic of facts into the camp
of the woman suffragists, reasoning
that to help woman it is necessary to
put into womans hand a weapon
wherewith she may help herself. Nine.
Sarah Grand is another eloquent and
vigorous woman suffragist-
If Queen Alexandra should proclaim
herself in favor of women's voting, the
feminine sex in England would have
full suffrage inside of five years. Such
are the British people. In our country
nearly every president from Lincoln,
with his dictum of the ballot for all,
by no means excluding females down
to Mr.. Roosevelt has been in favor of
feminine voting, but as yet the sex has
full suffrage in only four states, which
shows that a presidents opinions do not
count for much after all.
But Queen Alexandra is silent on the
suffrage subject, as Queen Victoria was
before her. Several prominent ladies
of the English nobility besides Lady
Somerset have, however, come out
strongly for their sex's right to vote.
The brilliant and dashing Lady Flor
ence Dixie is one of them. Mental
traits do appear to run in families.
Lady Florence is the daughter of the
Marquis of Queensberry, who devised
the famous rules of the ring for prize
fighters with gloves. She herself is an
athlete among women, an author, dis
tinguished bareback rider and an ad-
vocate of feminine cross saddle riding.
During the Boer-British contest of 1880
81 Lady Florence was war corre-
spondent in South Africa. She was for
years an enthusiastic huntress and is
today one of the best feminine shots in
the kingdom. She has slaughtered liv-
ing creatures through her unerring
craftsmanship in nearly all parts of
the world.
Suddenly and unaccountably a few
years ago Lady Florence saw a new
light. The bloodthirsty, inhuman cru
city of what civilized man calls sport
QdWn6Q on H0f. ol1Ce Inon SnG mas
done her best to go back over her trail
and so far as possible undo the wrong
she feels herself to have done in anus
ing herself by killing things. She has
written two vigorous books of protest
against hunting for SO called sport.
Once after a day of shooting she went
out at night in the moonlight, saw the
red, trampled snow where the mGr-
dered animals had met their Deaths
saw broken winged, half frozen pheas-
ants that had escaped instant death
from the shots only to die more horri-
bly,. thought of the MANNED hares and
ra bbits that in like manner were freez-
ing to death and then and there re-
nOunced hunting as sport" forever
She even became a vegetarian in her
horror of it.
There, too, is the distinguished repre-
sentative of the United Kingdom to the
international woman suffrage conven- !