The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-16
BY Miller g Co. 1907 e. Msin 81.

Hills dappled with big beeches,
meadows fringed with the streak of
silver known locally as "the creek;
yellow roads and whitewashed fences,
big barns. and "A string, of bIooded
stock sweeping UP from the paddocks;
long green 'front.' yards" and wide
winged houses; kitchen gardens and
rose gardens Tapped in one; the milk
gap. and the cowbells '1ingling home
in the twilight quiet of a pastoral
land. apple-blossom time and Indian
summer, hospitality and plantation
ideals. the habits and graces of a
civilization sure of itself and its ira
ditions; in a word, all that you had
ever heard or read or seen of Ken
lucky, the Kentucky of song and story.
assumed actuality as background for
her. She re-esta blshed it all in
evitahly. 1t was as IL, with her in
the foreground, middle distance and
perspective assembled themselves har-
moniously and spontaneously
That was because she looked Ken
lucky and smiled Kentucky and talk
ed Kentucky and was Kentucky. Yet
almost the first thing she said went
bump against one of KentuCky's pet
persuasfors. She had come up from
the Blue Grass to the dinner of the
Kentucky society and one of the
things she had heard at the dinner
was still echoing in her ears. 1t was
the Paducah humorist who was re-
sponsihle. "He got up at the dinner
and said, In Kentucky we don't adj
init that women are our equals. we
insist that they are Gus superiors'-
you know the tune. After the dinner
| said TO him. What on earth made
you talk belated foolishness like that?'
And he said, 'Aw, I'm suffragist, but
fellows got to say something at
dinner "
Dates Fly Her Children.
How long had she herself been
one? She seemed so definitely placed
about it, that one might easily have
taken her for a member of the clan
OF the always wasers"
But, no. not always" she admitted
IN the cadenCed voice that was part
OF her Kentuckyness. 1T must have
been, though. all of twenty-four years
ago that | got converted because my
second child was just born, and he is
twenty -four-I will date things by
my children, YOU see. Two copies OF
the Woman's Journal came into my
hands at about that time, and after
that | knew just where | stood. But
even after / knew just where I otooa
II was a good while before / could find
the time, or the courage, to become ar
Of babies, When finally / wrote
sally AIMS Experience" it was be-
cause l felt irresistihly that the time
had come for Kentucky women to
have hand in the making of laws
under which they had to live. Things
like this were happening in Kentucky:
a woman who had little fortune of
about sixteen thousand dollars. mar
ried, and her husband assumed cyn-
troll OF her property. After two chill
dren had been born to her, she died,
unable to make a legal will, and later
still, her husband married again. Six
children were born to his second wife,
and when he died the first wife's chill
dren got, each, Child's share, the
children of the second wife being
counted in in the division. That made
the first wife's children get two thou
sand dollars apiece, whereas they were
entitled 10 eight thousand dollars
apiece
One OF Many Cases.
That was one of many AXE cases
that finally urged me to the point
where l couldn't Keep quiet 1t wasn't
easy 10 take up the cudgel, even
though in my case the Cudgel was a
pen. not a sword. l didn't see how /
! could take the time to stop to do
things for women and children in gem
/ eral / had my own children TO do
! for, and the servant problem and 9TH
er household cares were giving me just
as much occupation as l wanted But
/ more and more ] came to see that the
+ children and the servants and home
, and family and government were all
I parts of one whole Providence, l
think. was behind It all In any
/ event. | started in on Sally Ann, be .
+ cause ] had TO, not because ! wanted
I to. didn't know that / was writing
anything that would meet with wide
spread response. / had found out
right there in my own State what
/ could happen under laws that reflect
/ the mans point of view and not the
woman's, and | wanted to do what /
could to help get a better balance
right then and there"
Even in the consideration that grad
ually, and by the hardest. women are
acquiring a new legal status, without
"A uniform political status, she could
read nc right answer To the question
Men. she argued. were bound TO Crap
Pile with life's questions are men: they
could not adequately translate for
women too. The whole history of
masculine legislation, with its insist
ence on the superior claim of prop
erty over humanity. showed that men
had much to say in giorihcation of
motherhood. but when il came 10 so
/ definite and determining a matter as
rights over children. superior claim
Of the father was written all over the
statute books. Men had much to say
about the worthness of wonan's CON
/ tribution as wife and home builder.
but when they put that contribution
in the scales with dollars and cents,
they didn't actually consider that the
farm wife. working from before. dawn
70 late night, cooking, washing, iron