The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-11-22
THE MOTHER OF THE MAN.

The MOTHER OF THE MAN.
HAL Game has written a poem en-
titled The Mother of the Man,
which answers Rudyard Kipling's re
cent poem, The Female of the Spe
cies." The Kipling poem was rhym
ed attack on woman suffrage, the re
frain of which ran, For the female oil
the species is more deadly than the
male The Hall Game answer fol
lows:
When the Lord of creation gave the
woman to the man,
In that blest but brief existence ere
the rule of i'll began,
Then he knew what of her conduct
whether innocent or frail,
That the female of the species would
be scapegoat to the male.
When he banished them from Eden
for the sin that each had
wrought,
And the flaming sword of vengeance
sealed the fate that both had
sought,
Then he knew throughout the ages,
long as man should tell the tale
That the female of the species would
be temptress to the male.
When he cast his children from him
and by primal earthly vow
Doomed their seed to eat their life
bread in the sweat OF blood
and brow,
Then he knew where paths were red
dest down the line of labor's
trail,
There the female of the species would
be slavemate to the male.
When he lowered the man with pas
sions, when he formed him from
the dust,
With it's wilderness of instincts, with
its lava stream of lust,
Then he knew that in the whirlwind
of his manhood's wasteful gale,
Still the female of the species would
be subject to the male.
When he ordered that the woman,
both as mother and as wife
Should obey her law of being as the
vehicle of life,
Then he suffered it to happen lest
the generations fail,
That the female of the species might
be "deadlier" than the male.
But when the Lord of creation gave
the woman to the man
In that blest but brief existence ere
the root of ill began,
Then he willed it that if sharing in
mans fault and in his fate
She should therefore be his equal
and the partner in his state.
Not to govern or cajole him, not to
court or speak him smooth,
Not to snare or to enslave him, but to
cheer, inspire and soothe;
Not his temptress, not his slavemate,
not his subject, not his squaw,
But his helpmeet and his angel by
the right of Gods own law.
If he cursed the man with labor, as
the human lots alloy,
He provided that for woman his work
should be his joy.
If he lowered the man with passions
which the grosser instincts
move,
He reserved 1t to the woman to up
lift his lust to love.
If he ordered that the mother of the
chilren of her womb
Should dare her death by travail and
fight till crack of doom,
he ordained that by that impulse, still
the purest and the best,
She should gather all that suffer in
her pity to her breast.
Nurturing, nursing, guarding, guiding,
giving strength with heart and
hand;
Paying toll in pangs to Nature which
no man may understand;
Dauntless from the God who made
her without fear to draw her
breath,
Savior of the weak and helpless first
at birth and last at death.
Since the Lord created woman-she
became a living soul
Hers has been the old earth's burden,
age on age from pole to pole.
Hers the conflict, hers the conquest,
hers the flag of life unfurled,
Hers the sorrow, hers the suffering,
hers the love that moves the
world
Therefore why should man, the in
CRATE, when he chooses to con
fer,
Welcome every fool and coward, only
close the door on her?
Room, ,sires, room within your coun-
ellis, bare your foreheads if you
can,
For behold, without your portal
stands the mother of the man,