Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-06-08
WOMEN AND REFORM.

When some leading citizen jumps
into the arena with big stick under
his arm and gaily begins to knock
heads in true reformer's style, the
world looks on and smiles encourag-
ingly. What if he is but an imitator,
and but a poor imitator of our siren
uous Teddy? In a world ruled by mere
1nen-excepting, of course, the Ger
man Kaiser and Mr.. Baer, who claims
more or less Of divine guidance---th there
is certain to be something to reform;
SO swing away with the stick and
crack the heads; 1T won't hurt; it may
help, and it is certain to afford an in
nocent diversion to the galleries.
But all Of this refers to the activity
OF man in the game of reform When
a woman becomes inoculated with the
reform virus 1t is different, as she is
certain to start out to reform some
thing that no one wants reformed.
An instance Of this kind Is given
in the activity of a Minneapolis woman
who has been horrifying passers-by by
strolling up and down the main thor
oughfare of her native city smoking a
large briarwood pipe. She admitted
that she can't bear the smell of tobac-
co and that smoking kept her stomach
in a state Of violent instruction, but
she continued martyr to the cause
just to show the men of Minneapolis
that a woman has just as much right
to smoke as they have.
1t was not to be expected that such
an exhibition should be allowed to pass
without a few lines of comment by
Winifred Black. Winifred is one of
those that believe that 1t is woman's
mission to be woman and that a
mans chief mission is to be man,
and not an imitation of woman.
Have women the same right to
smoke as men? Why, of course they
have!" she says.
A woman has as much right to
smoke or to drink or to chew tobacco
or to use naughty words, or to put her
feet on the table when she talks, or
to stand up in the back of the theatre
with her hat in her hand, or to get up
and give her seat in the street cars to
another woman, as man has to do
any Of these very commonplace
things. Why don't women do these
things then? For the simple reason
that they don't want to do them.
Men have just as much right to eat
chocolates, give teas and sit on the
verandas and make tatting as women
have. They don't do it, do they? Why
should they? They don't want to,
that's why.
The American woman does not want
to smoke, my dear Minneapolis mad
am. If she did, she'd do it; and she
would not need you to lead her on to
the big victory, either.@ What absurd
nonsense this idea of war for rights
between the sexes is anyway.
Then Winifred gives some more
good advice that might well be taken
home by the Minneapolis woman. If
she were a nice, rosy peach, she says,
growing on a nice, wholesome peach
tree, she'd do her best to be as rosy
and as wholesome a peach rs she
could. She wouldn't worry about the
apple tree that grew next to her. She
would be a peach and she wouldn't
want to look or seem in any way the
least bit like even the prettiest, rosi-
est apple in the whole orchard
And as long as she is woman she
is going to do the things that women
like to do and If anybody calls her a
down-trodden slave for minding her
own affairs, in her own way-why
that's for them to worry about and not
for her. And then she has this to say
to the Minneapolis woman:
When get SO that I want to smoke
pipe. I'll cut my hair, put on pair
Of trousers, and begin to look pleasant
at every pretty girl meet.
Until then, thank you, Madam Mime
apolis, you may smoke your pipe
alone for all of me.