The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1905-10-05
Cushman's Nerve.


Ever since the great day in the house
when my friend Francis w. Cushman
tf the state of Washington ran amuclS
on the house machine and put to route
General Grosvenor and all his lieu
tenants have thought he should sue
ceed to the title of "the bravest of the
brave" given by Napoleon to the in
trepid Ney. The charge of the Old
Guard Mt Waterloo or of the Light
Brigade at Balaklava was not cir
cumstance to Cushman's performance
on that occasion, but he recently gave
an exhibition of nerve which eclipsed
his charge on the house machine. lie
delivered q speech in Tacoma to a
graduating class on "Womans Sphere
and Duties In the World" for which
he should have the grand cross of the
Legion of Honor. / wish had space
to give 1t all, but l haven't. Here
are his remarks ON the bargain counter,
and they constitute what the late un-
lamented Professor Squeers of Dothe-
boys Hall would have called erich
ness:"
l want to say a word upon another sub
ject to tile young women here today.
Don't become n bargain counter fend
Don't waste the one life which God gave
you chasing special sale" or trying to
run down bargain counter bonanza.
Whenever / see q lot of women strug-
Cling around n bargain counter l am I'm
doubt as 60 whether life is "a comedy or
tragedy. II there is any spectacle In
modern life that tends to make sane
person lose hope in the future, 1t is to
see lot of women with hair disheveled
and rainient awry crushing and jam
ming through a living ocean of frenzied
femninity In order to reach that modern
misnomer called q bargain counter"
whereon is displayed everything that peo-
pie don't need. In what l am saying now
l have no intention of being funny. 1t is
a serious subject. In the last few years
there has been developed n new and dis
tinct type of disease In the American
woman, and 1t might aptly be called "bar-
gainitis."
1t is proper in this world for people to
buy what they need and to take whatever
time Is necessary to buy It and to go
wherever they think they can get what
they need at the most satisfactory price
but there is no sense in rushing to every
bargain sale, whether you need anything
or not. l have known women in my life
who would rush down into the front hall
In the morning before they had combed
their hair, and with feverish haste and
bated breath they would seize the morn
Ing paper. Its headlines might tell of a
bloody race war In the south, of famine
In lndia of the slaughter of the Armenian
by the Turk or the death of thousands
before the wells of Port Arthur. 1t
might tell of flood and fire and famine
and panic, but without a glance she
would turn past the tears of the world
and the woes of humanity in order to find
out what particular castoff remnant had
been marked down ~ to 9S cents.
Girls of America-you in whose veins
courses the blood of a noble and illus
trious race - remember that you are
sprung from race that gave to civiliza-
tion and to America Its brightest names
and most shining examples; that gave to
us Dolly Madison and Mollio Stark,
Mother" Hodge and Mollie Pitcher
Frances q. Willard and Susan 3. An
thony, a line OF illustrlous and noble wo-
manhood that stretches clear back to
Martha Washington and reaches clear
down to Clara Barton, a line that has
added luster to our civilization and honor
to our institutions. Girls, as you 20 out
Into the world, for heavens sake lift your
eyes above the fads and freaks and fol-
lies of life and be worthy of the age in
which you live and the race from which
you sprung.