The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-13

the honor of getting the first congress
sional hearing ever granted for wom-
ans suffrage, and an appeal was sent
to congress, asking that women be
recognized in the next amendment. It
is also on record that three young
negro orators appeared before the
convention, denouncing the women
there for 'jeopardizing the black
mans claim to the ballot by insisting
upon their own" 1t is also recorded
that one of them, standing by the
venerable and benign Lucretia Mott,
insisted that the author of the uni
verse intended that the male should
rule the female.
A little domestic tragedy in an OBJ
scure home bore fruit in that conven-
tlon. poor Washerwoman. burdened
with a drunken husband was sued by
saloon keeper for her husbands
liquor bill. It SO happened that one Of
her patrons, at her request, had held
back her wages for her, no doubt for
the proverbial rainy day, until there
little horde the saloon keeper heard, and
as was his right according to the gem
crous law. he sued the washerwoman's
patron and secured the amount Of the
bill from her But vengeance was in
store; for the woman who held the
washerwomans wages was Myra
Bradwell, a woman lawyer, editor of
the Chicago Legal News, and the wife
of Judge Bradwel1 So it happened
that the ugly little domestic tragedy
so angered the Bradwells and their
friends that the first work OF the state
society was the appointment Of a COM
nittee to go to Springfield to request
the legislature to so change the laws
that a married woman might secure
her earnings for her own use and later
such an act was passed. Thus through
the washerwoman's difficulty many
another woman WAS made safer and
more comfortable than she otherwise
would have been.
Myra Bradwell had other cause to
be discouraged by the lack of chivalry
in the laws of Illinois. She was quail
fed to be lawyer, had passed her
examinations, and for the crime of be-
ing married, was refused a license to
practice It must have been a crime,
else the learned gentlemen who dis
cussed the case would never have
wasted so much eloquence upon it.
You see, since the days of asceticism
marriage had been in disrepute, but
Eve woman herself, whether married
or unmarried, had been in still graver
disrepute.
Verify. If one would be amused, he
| had best read legal and theological
lore as 1t affects womankind. Between
and the theologian and the lawmaker
on the other, it has been difficult for
woman to prove her humanity, for on
| the one hand, It was asserted that she
was of angelic descent, and on the
| other she was perhaps the offspring Of
the prince of evil himself. Thus the
battle ragged for centuries and still
confuses our philosophy.
TIE Leavenworth Post contained last
week an interview with a club woman
| of Leavenworth on the matter Of reso-
lutions, which it might he well fol
club women everywhere to consider
| Some of her ideas are given below:
There should be a reform In ths
whole resolution system for tho sake
| of dignity and effectiveness 81 work
| No one would believe the extent Of
cratic notions that find expression II
| the revolutions Submit. ed. When I frs
! began to serve on the committee which