The Washington herald., 1912-05-13
D. FRANcEs sHAFFER.

From the vantage-point Of the very
front row Of the watching things along
Fifth Avenue. New York. the brilliant
hued spectacle Of thousands OF women
calmly and systematically marching to
their suffrage colors was something TO
remember. And impressions crowded so
amazingly fast that they fairly ran sway
with themselves,
But the one that abided over all was
the fact that in all our great country
there is no woman so delicately shrinking
so ''womanly'' that she need falter mo-
ment in proclaiming herself one Of the
great army of white-robed marchers.
For, as they poured by in almost un-
broken stream for two hours, the quality
Of womsnhood was an inspiration to the
onlookers.
And the onlookers were palpably and
outspokenly impressed.
The years have done much TO change
the attitude and the temper Of the public
toward this question of woman suffrage,
but what the years have failed to do
this dignified demonstration made per
fectly clear.
All Glasses Represented.
The movement in behalf OF a govern
lnent representative in fact, as well as
in name, has ENLISTED not "old maids and
disgruntIed wives,' but the very flower
Of womanhood There were wives and
there were mothers in Saturdays long
line OF yeIlow-beribboned women. Youth
and age walked side by side; there was
class and there was the great mass
represented by working girls and women,
who fell in line at the stroke of six,
because it was not until then that their
working hours were over. There were
the women with millions at their COM
mand, women who have the entree into
homes where culture and refinement are
dominant, and there were the others with
not cent to their names. Women pro-
.fessors, physicians. lawyers, sculptors,
musicians, teachers. actresses, artists
Just women who believe that tide Of
change should be set in to meet new
working and living conditions-they came
from far and near to impress the pow
eFs that be with the fact that they were
no longer "a mere handful
But Of all the marchers and all the
spectators the one woman who best
caught the spirit and most enjoyed the
atmosphere must have been Rev. An
toinette Brown Blackwell, whose long,
long years OF memory carried her back
to a darker period. when there was no
epithet too vile to hurl at the little
band of women, herself among the num-
ber, who had the courage Of their con-
victions-the termerity to proclaim the
amazing doctrine that women had rights,
no less than duties.
Those rights? Just the simple, every
lay property rights, which every married
woman now claims as If by nature; that
is. in States where they are granted-the
right to higher education, the right 10
enter the honored professions the right
to share with their husbands the control
Of their children, and the inestimable
privilege Of leaving it to nature and their
own wills to determine their fields Of
work, pitifully narrowed in those re-
stricting days when woman's work was
largely, in the home. no matter what her
capabilities or her inclinations.
These were a few of the human rights
which stirred up mighty wave Of Pro-
test when sought
It is not a pretty bit Of history. but
rotten eggs and long-continued abuse
were their portion when they publicly