The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-17
appointment at not Immediately receiving the


ballot
Or d Richmond street recently several
wage were overheard in earnest con-
versation, somewhat as follows.
Gee. but he's the man with the COIN
Stole ii from the old lady,
Come on don't you know about that His
wife aiut wise to the last raise yet. Every
week he holds out fye-aye. mind you and then
begs for quarter.
''yeh" chmed In IA sinister voice. ''yeh. But
jest YOU wait till his old lady gifts to chewing
the rag wild somebody else's old lady: Oh,
wasn't 1t fine about that last raise!' What
raise? ] amt heard nothing about no raise.
Whoopee. How'd you like to be tn holdout
mani.
Thus staged the domestic melodrara and
brewed domestic tragedy. The daredevil nd
ture that held out" the Ave is like unto one
walking the crumbling crust of volcano For
him, when detected. 1t will be a case OF Pack
drill for me and fortnight's c. B'--for re-
sisting the financial demands of calmly ayaric-
ious spouse. For him the dole for tobacco will
be cut In two. For him. excuses founding
imagined expenses will no longer avail in the
knowledge of his perfdy. Intact, his envelope
win go into the domestic till, there to be ex-
pended with all womanly economy. Live high,
you that hold out: day of bitter reckoning
dawns,
What do women who make the laws cast
the ballots carry torches in the parades and
shout themselves hoarse campaign piati-
tudes?. So long as they may hold the purse,
what care they who holds the vote? So long
they, sweetly grim specters rising up on the
vista Of the weeks work, beckon home the toiler
afraid to part himself from his wages, what
they that he is suffragist and she
merely hopeful sufragette? Talk about power.
Talk about the labor of men working in the
sweat OF their brows Talk about the bone and
sinew OF the nation, One and all these am
bilious phrases find their practical application
in the person Of the accounting angel, sitting
at home in patient waiting to post the weekly
books,
All over the broad land they are carrying
home their wages, delivering up the results OF
their labor, watching with the dumb eyes of an
eager dog for the silver dole with which their
retrieving is rewarded. In view of this homely
but tremendous fact, the insistence by the sui
fragette movement upon the oppression of wo-
men is not entirely as engenuous as il might
be. What is the name Of authority in the alb
sence OF its exercise? What is the title OF mas
ter beside the obligation of servitude? Every
morning millions of good, honest. Woodworking
American citizens file forth in the early dews to
the factory, the shop and the office. Every Sat
urday evening they file back, their pay snugly
tucked in their pockets, their eyes set stead
tasty In front OF them and hardened against
the temptations to extravaganza among which
they walk. The good coin burning against their
sides their hearts leaping with the sense of
wealth. they nevertheless trudge onward to
duty, to home. to the woman who waits to ap-
proprate their earnings with not so much as a
Thank YOU SIR, to sweeten the deprivation
And yet-and yet--the women want the ballot.
Not now, perhaps. but presently. they will get it
as surely as now-the intrepid gentleman of
the hold-out" to the contrary-they get the
wages Before the American stretches
the long pathway of work. and on the way he
can deny his women nothing, not even. in the
long run the empty boast of manhood suffrage
The Government is engaged in selling at auc-