Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-09-20
Does the Mississippi Woman Deserve
Citizenship.
Special from Jackson. Miss.

| AAASh "OAO SoUhOiCo JORObu0I3 COuFeF~
sation was sure to take a political
turn. The Jackson Evening News
declared that housewives had
deserted their kitchens to discuss
politics. They electioneered for
their favorite candidates by personal
interviews, by letters, and in some
cases, by means of the press.
AT public meetings where candi-
dates presented their pleas for favor.
it would have taken count to de-
termine that more men were present
than women. The women were
sympathetic in their attention, lib
eral in their applause, or pronounced
IN their criticism. That they were
independent in their partizanship.
was evidenced by the we'll known
fact that often the preferences of the
wife, or mother, or sister we're at
variance with those of the husband.
Or son, or. brother, and so on.
In jackson, on the evening preced-
ing the election, hundreds of women
thronged the streets to view the de-
monstrations in honor of the two
senatorial candidates, and swarmed
to the Coliseum, and Smith Park
where Mr.. Williams at one place and
Governor Vardaman at the other
gave their words of final command
The next day the men Jared forth
to the battle of ballots, leaving the
hosts of Mississippi women, with all
their interest and enthusiasm, behind
with the rest of the non voting class,
the children, the idiots, lunatics and
convicts.
The candidates themselves did not
fail to reckon with this feminine in
terest. Literature was ransacked
for its choicest tributes to the fair
sex, F." and these were thrown in a
shower of bouquets at the women.
from the platform. They were lilies
OF purity, roses of sweetnest, and
and violets by the messy brim. They
were ministeIing angels, and vestal
virgins tending the hearth fires of
the gods. There was not a causes in
Heaven or earth, that had feathers
weight of worth, but had a woman in
it, and the hand that rocked the era
die ruled the world In short. every
thing delightful and desirable was
theirs, excepting votes, which after
all, are the only things which count
in political contest.
Those who addressed their hearers
as Ladies AND Fellow citizens, "
summoned up the anomalous situat-
ion.
With the foregoing observations in
mind, hope the following queries
may not be considered illtimed.
Should the intelligence, the patri-
otism, the conscience of Mississippi
women be counted at the polls? If
women desert their kitchens to
discuss politics" might they not
properly leave that scene of their
activities long enough to vote? In
four Western States they do, and
they say that they get back from the
polling place before the bread has
time to run over the pan on the kitch-
en- floor into the back yard. Will
not the hand that rocks the cradle
rock just as well if it be the right
hand of freedom rather than the left
hand OF subsection?
AS long as Mississippi women have
access to the tax list, and the peni-
tentary, may they not justly have
access to the polls? Would not the
ballot in the hands of women afford
the the quickest, quitest, most digni-
fed methods of effecting legislation,
for is not an ounce of voting worth
pound of petitioning?
Chapter AZ of the Mississippi Code
provides that women may vote upon
the stock law, and as free holders
they occasionally do so. Is it more
womanly' to vote in an election
which decides as to whether live
stock shall be confined or roam at
will, than to vote for mayor, or gov
ernor, or United States Senator?
Mississippi has lead, in many instan-
ces, in the march of woman's progress
Will it not take the lead still further
in being the first of the southern
sisterhood of states to grant full stuff
rage to women?
Would not the enfranchisement of
Mississippi women, coming as a free
will offering from Mississippi men,
be the most glorious piece of gallan-
try ever performed by the most
SPLENDID set of men on earth? Are
we not, after all is said, merely
Daughters of Menu" Does not the
same blood which flows through their
veins flow through ours? Does not
the love of liberty and the desire for
freedom of expression dominate the
Anglo Saxon breast, whether it be
that of man or woman?
LILY WILKINSON THOMPSON.
Remarkable Rescue.
That truth is stranger than fiction
has once more been demonstrated in
the little town of Fedora, Tenn, the