The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-07-27
From the Now fork Press

That Is Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis, con
servationlst. Getting bills through tn
legislature is only a small part of he
activities-a sort of recreation. an avoca
ton, a side issue in her general ambition
for human reform.
Nothing in the appearance of this small
woman, who looks as if a good gust o.
wind would blow her quite away, suggests
the popular conception of the woman re
former" Her slight frame, in its very
feminine iaces and fuTbelows, her gray
hair waved and parted, her frail hands
her quiet movements. cause the observer
to hastily reconstruct his ideas of ferai-
nine lobbyists. 1t IS only when Mrs.
Grannis assumes her smile of confident
knowledge of her subject and launches
fervently upon its discussion that her
mental dynalnics are disclosed. 1t is then
that the interviewer. overcome with meek
ness, no longer wonders that Frank Moss
and Elbridge r. Gerry draw up her bills
fer her. and that Representative Laimbeer,
Senator O'Connor and some of the other
busy men at Albany hustle round and get
them through.
Mrs. Grannis has been more or less en-
gage IN public work for 40 years and
tells You proudly that she is on the edge
of her list birthday. The achievement of
4 life already threescore and 10 years long
has meant a continuous struggle against
the handicap of IL trail constitution that
constantly threatened to end all her eff
forts in behalf of women's equal rights
and all the other benefits she hopes TO
realize. That she is alive at all she at
tributes to her lifelong avoidance of doc
tors. She devoutiy hopes there may come
a day when a health profession shall ex-
ST and the Medical profession he no more.
NOW that she is living on what she calls
borrowed time, " having encompassed the
term bibl.cally allotted to n~.an=annn this
sphere, she feels she must work a little
longer and a Little more pcrsistently each
day than ever before. to hasten the com
plete victory of the female man. The
last two words of that sentence are her
own, copied verbatim. Mrs. Grannis scorns
me word man as a distinguishment of
The human male alone aud uses it only
as covering both genCers OF the human
FAMILY, thus: Male man"-"femaIe man"
After a while YOU get accustomed TO her
use of the expression man in its purely
generic sense and rather like 1t.
This small human dynamo of a woman
began her work for humanity at the age
OF ID, when she first began to teach. Her
class was composed of urchins whom she
collected from the slums, which urehins
II was her self-appointed task to hunt out
IN their homes, scrub, comb, dress and
convey to the Sunday school. From that
beginning she has gone on, broadening
Nv NpIh uIll IL mas |
leaned over its original limitat'oas of
church and orthodoxy. and has long since
peen aimed at all public questions which
she oelleNes bear upon the betterment OF
the race as a whole. That she is sincere |
IN her purpose to the point of utilizing her
last particle of energy in its ACCOMPLISH
meht no one can doubt who ever comes
"lth-n the range Of her personality.
Her dream is to see the sexes working
lOpG1ler IIn0n an arrTa .f,a,{,. .-.-.- |
their children for the achievement Of nor.
lect economic Independence and teaching
then the tremendous responsibility of
marriage. She thinks divorce would he
mus largely done away with. together
with much of the suffering now entailad
upon women through lack OF economic in
dependence of male man" Marriage. she
thinks, is good for everybody. she GOES
so far as to think even a halfway COM
PORTABLE marriage is better than the sin
gle life, since she thinks neither sex can
40 It's best work in the world without
cooperation She enthusiasticalIy ad-
Nocates the ASSOCIATION of the sexes in all
Miioleso1ne work and play. and would IL
she could establish u home for all self
supporting girls and women of whatever
rank and station, where there would he
no restrictions upon normal friendship and
social intercourse with their male cour-
terparts."
She has. in fact. manufacturer sort Of a
homemade home In the basement of her
own mouse, whittier drift various and sun
dry human flotsam. good, BAD and in
different. The good are helped the had
not houted, but m,nistered to in whatever
way seems Immediately necessary Tho
are treated to a course Of
MRS. Grannfs's verbal and mental dyna-
mics IN the form best suited to the indi-
Fldual case. they may or NAV not ho
acted ODOn hJ1t tInN ,,a,.ar :, -. "
ana any one who has passed through tho
experience has somewhat the impression
ol oelng run over by a siN-cylinGer auto
lnopiie which had been u~naccountah}v
mistaken for a baby carriage.
Inc history of eases that have conc
- 'his SINAI female man and have been
up, perhaps temporarily ,,roh-
ably permanently, through her help Womb
MI a book larger than Mrs. Grannis vs.
sen, one of her Christmas dinners alone
would furnish material for a dozen
stofles. TO these dinners are SUMMONED
az me .leftovers' of her acquaintance
w women from her "dorlnitory'' down in the
pasehieht Cand some Of them haven't
clothes enough in their possession ia an
able them to appear. children from, tho
street, spinsters or widows who :nbabit
cold nan bedrooms and live on condensed
milk and crackers. d~own-and-out who
through some mental or physical lnRrmity
ave iost their grip on the good things Of
llfe-the old, the young, the sick. tho
broke, the lonesome, the human drift
WOOD OF ife-all are asked, and many ac-
cept. The best turkey in market is pro-
Hiaes:. ana the round table groans beneath
the feast. Afterward there are talks"
Inc human documents find voice and
speak, saying what they will and N any
way they choose. Last Christmas a III
tie newsboy born in Russia made tbe
speech of the evening. replying to an
descriptive poem written and read
by a woman physician nearly 50 years old
a man from the street wandered in ana
a pithy talk. II he had been
q coiored man he would have been lust |
as welcome. That's the spirit of the house
and the spirit that enersizes this woman,s
work. me only regret in her life, she
says, Is that she didn't know enough to
ces;-asr york sooner, ana cant live .
COUNTRY SCHOOLS ARE BEHIND.
when Roosevelts Country Life COM
An nm MO