The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-19
mrs. Sarah Platt Decker Deliv-
ers Delightful Lecture.
TOLD GOOD STORIES.
Makes Plea for Equal Suffrage
For Women.
Chief Justice Johnston Intro
duced the Speaker.

i
pose 1t to say that many of the au-
dience at the First Presbyterian |
cnurch last night were agreeably sur
prised in the address given by Mrs.
Sarah Platt Decker of Denver, presi- |
cent OF the general federation who
PAID the topeka federation an official
visit yesterday on her way to Man.
haitian to attend the annual meeting
OF the state federation. For while
everybody expected to see and hear a
woman of ability and distinction,
some OF the husbands who had been
dragged along. in a few cases no
doubt, in spite of their screams, had
dreaded an evening-Iong struggle with
the Uplift. But Mrs. Decker. al
though a woman of unusual intellec-
tual attainment is clever enough to
keep that fact in the background In
other words. although she is a High
BROW, she partly conceals the altitude
OF her forehead by graceful and be-
coming pompadour. No doubt she
can be as elevating as anybody in the
seclus1on of her own club, but before
mixed audience including. doubtless,
some OF the Great Unwashed, intel
lectually. she INDUCES in no pink
thoughts on the Whyness of the What.
In fact she Is an exceptionally attrac-
tive woman, very easy to look at both
as to person and clothes. and the best
speaker of her sex who has appeared
before a Topeka audience in the mem
DRY OF this reporter, which goes back,
by the way, to the year of the big
wind when Kansas woman speaker
made herself, the state and Populism
er's manner is easy, her expression IA
Gle, her ideas original and indepen-
dent. her elocutfon adequate and her
personality galvanic. She kept a
large audience which included many
people not especially interested in the
club movement, attentive and enter
tanned from the beginning of her
speech until the1end. She was serious
without being formidable and breezy
without being shallow. She told a lot
OF clever new stories and told them
WE'LL Her. attitude lost nothing In
dignity through otis. simplicity and in
Formally. Indeed it is no wonder, at
ter you meet hereand hear her and
measure something of her charm and
attainment, THAI Mrs. Decker has had
A profession for woman, service to
society in addition to that of wife and
mother, was theoburden of Mrs. Deck
er's plea last night. In introduction
she told this story:
To her home in Denver came one
day a man with petition for fran
chise to be signed by the property
owners. He asked her profession.
WELL" Mrs. Decker said, II am a
| housekeeper." ri
Then she tried again, 'I conduct
my own business affairs and take care
of my property"
Have you an office down town %
he asked. e
NO" she replied. meekly.
Well that didn't help much, then
| he objected. II am father and moth
err to my children she pleaded.
| In response heemerely shifted. And
finally Mrs. Decker drew herself up
to her full height and said impressive
ly, thinking to fairly crush him to the
earth, IT am president of the General
Federation of Women's clubs!"
| And the man turned away saying
carelessly, "I'll just put down that you
don't no nothin."
The profession Of club woman. Mrs.
Decker suggested for the woman who
has no other profession and that she
| defined as the modern woman's duty
| OF service to the state. 1t Is not
| enough, she said, to have family and
| a home, for modern Industrial de-
| fashioned woman's home duties away
from her and, especially If she has
means, her domestic responsibilities
are not sufficient to occupy her time
dent of the general federation, al
though she all but admitted that she
enjoys game of "Pray-do" herself.
now and then. believe the woman
| whom she described as peing all worn
out by a strenuous life Of six luncheons
and twelve bridge parties in a fort
night. had been doing her full duty to
| society, in its largest sense, even IL she
| were victim to 1T, in its limited sense.
The modern woman has public
| duties. said Mrs. Decker, because SO
much of her old work, formerly per-
formed in the home. has been taken
civilization. Women no longer pre-
| pare all the food eaten by their fami-
| lies but they should still feel re-
| sponsibility regarding that food and
and drug laws, In sanitary inspection
and all the allied reforms, is not a new
| woman's fad but sacred duty.
But Mrs. Decker would not be a
true daughter of Colorado II she did
not make a plea for wider political OPP
portunfties for women. She believes in
| equal suffrage and quoting. the well
known toast credited to many differ
ent authors. "Women-once our su-
periors. now our equals" said: AL
though it is given in irony II not In
derision, 1 think that is the sweetest
toast ever heard. We don't want to
be mems superiors. seated on the ira
ditional pedestal. We want to be their
lco-workers,f companions, helpmeet.
equals" -
exhaustively introduced. CHEZ Jus
tice Johnston Of the supreme court
was the first speaker and gave a witty
address in which he paid glowing
tribute to the work OF women's clubs
in Kansas.
| Mrs. Eustace H. Brown of Olathe,
president of the state federation, MADE
q delightful little speech, graceful and
charming and as pretty as the speaker,
who is one of the most attractive
women in Kansas clubdom- Mrs. II. -.
Garyey. chairman of the cIup extern
sion committee of the Topeka fedora
ton which had the meeting n charge
presided very ably. Mrs speed r
Hughes. first vice president or the 10