Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1909-03-04
Mrs. Scarritt's
Crusade.
By w. r. BRYAN.
Copyrighted, 1908, by Associated
Literary Press.

1t is a dreadful thing to have mis-
sion. Mabel Maitland found it re-
sponsibility, and Roy Barnes declared
it bore, fad and some other things
to which he did not give vocal utter,
ance in Mabel's presence.
To Roy it was matter of supreme
Indifference whether women voted or
not, but it seemed to Mabel that it was
the vital question of the hour.
She attended all the suffragette meet
ings advertised and even formed a suf-
frage club among the girls of Cowdrey
House, an establishment for self sup
porting girls in which she had made
her home since the death of her par
ents.
The Cowdrey Suffrage club was at
best a lukewarm organization. The
girls had Joined "for the fun of the
thing" and Mabel had to work hard to
hold her converts in line.
This prevented her from giving much
of her time to Roy, and his opinion Of
the suffragettes was the natural result
For five years he had begged Mabel to
marry him, but even before the cry of
"votes for women" became a fashion
able slogan Mabel had had pronounced
ideas as to the independence of her
sex, and Roy waited patiently while
Mabel demonstrated her abiliAy to earn
her own living.
Then she had fallen under the inf1u-
ence of Mrs. Grace Brown Hazard and
had been welcomed by the leader as an
addition to the cause. The approval of
this famous woman had the effect of
making Mabel the more enthusiastic,
and presently she was devoting every
evening to the Cowdrey branch of the
society, and Roy was left out in the
cold.
1t was the rule that all lights were
to be out at II in Cowdrey House. hut
with the aid of candles Mabel wrote
far into the night ON the speeches that
Mrs. Brown Hazard delivered and
dragged herself unwillingly to her
work the following morning. sadly
feeling the lack of sleep.
Mrs. Brown-Hazzard found in her
new disciple valued assistant, and
her demand for speeches that offered
a departure from her own stereotyped
thoughts was insistent
The more she praised the harder Ma
bel worked until at last the inevitable
breakdown occurred, and Mabel was
forced to resign her position and go
into the country, where her scanty saw
ings rapidly diminished. The pile OF
manuscripts for her idol, however, in
creased greatly.
Mrs. Scarritt, her new landlady, was
much interested in the girl, and her
protests against the manner in which
Mabel was oyerworking were loud and
emphatic.
Better stop that foolishness," she
argued, "and put some flesh on your
bones"
But the cause needs my work.
cried the tired girl. Mrs. Brown
Hazard writes me that these speeches
are doing world of good; that am
making thousands of converts. Of
course she fatters me there, for it is
her magnetic personality that counts
l merely save her the worry of mar
shaling her arguments
Mrs. Brown azzard?" unused Mrs
Scarritt "Grace Brown married Ben
Hazard. You don't happen to know
what your friends husbands name is
do your
at is B.. Henderson Hazard" re-
sponded Mabel.
Named after his ma" explained
Mrs Scarritt. Ellis ma was Luella
Henderson. We always did say that
change of name and not of letter
meant change for worse and not for
better 1t was Gene Hazard that got
the worst of it. My, but he was hen
pecked! Lived over in the hollow
Grace Brown lived right down the road
a piece-that first red house on your
right as you go to the postofice"
"She never said anything about hav-
II, n, haa,, hrrsr, borof,, o,.;ad NHohoI II,