The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-14
SAYS UNCLE CAV

Occasionally, when folks set out to make
spectacles Of themselves for a sacred
cause, they blunder into something that
is good of them. The crusades of the
Middle Ages were horrors of mad self
sacrifice and they didn't take the Tomb
from the Turk But they lid bring Eu-
rope to her senses and put the Snuffer
upon that system of picturesque useless
ness known as knight errantry. And
while the universal fanatfc1sm of Europe
was not thoroughly checked for some time
afterward, it got its first jolt when the
broken warriors of the Cross came back
to tell of comrades who had died uselessly
by weary roads and upon Nfoslem plains.
There isn't great deal of outward re-
semblance between the respondent EnlSht
of the dark ages and the footsore suf-
fragettes who the other day "cruSaded"
to Albany, but there's very little differ
ence under their fanatical skins. and if
the crusades to Palestine brought back
the last thing they were seeking at that
particular time. a few more hikes over
the macadam highways are likely to cor
vince the "suff" sisters that they are
barking up the wrong tree.
There be a good many of us in this
world whose troubles arise largely from
lack of exercise. The microbes of discon-
tent hold high carnival in the brain that
isn't busy and biliousneSS brings rem
forcements from a body that doesn't
know the balm of a good healthy tired
feeling. There's nothing like just the
proper amount of physical and mental
WEAKNESS to clear up the mental atmos
most important things in life.
The overfed and underworked person is
the natural prey of imaginary ills. physi-
cal and psychological, and is sure to place
too much emphasis upon things incense
quential- They are the sporadic reform
ers, the occasional crusaders. And just
now they are contributing largely to the
ranks of the suffering suffragettes.
While the working woman is putting
the brains into the movement. it is the
overfed, rather than the underfed woman
who is giving it the flamboyancy of a
crusade.
But while street parades may accom-
plish good deal in the way of keeping
up enthusiasm, the cross-state hikes are
dangerous 1t will be a sad day for the
suffragette cause in America when the
women discover that they have real
muscles and appetites that would do credit
to hired hands. The sisters who persisted
until they reached Albany actually took
on weight Ere this some of them have
doubtless discovered that what they need
is really fresh air and exercise rather
than the ballot. The hike has doubtless
cured all but the exceedingly strong
minded" and in a way that is as effective
as it is surprising.
The suffragist's movement never made
progress in America until the maid be-
came indispensable to every we'll support
ed household. The woman who loves
homework and the care of children is not
ordinarily clamoring for the ballot.
Love of home and its manifold duties is
a virtue that the suffragist leaders often
boast but seldom possess The stunned
''ereasy domesticity'' is a derisive name
for the condition in which every normal
woman is happieSt.
The woman who goes in for athletics
when she eschews corsets, solid food when
she cuts out fudge and sundaes-is the
woman who seeks to be the perfect physi-
cal being that she was intended to be.
seldom displays her figure at the head
of a suffra gette parade. The simple ex-
PLANTATION for all, these things is that she
has gotten out of the realm of neurotic
insanity into the sphere of everyday, prac-
teal usefulness.
A Whit of good country air, and the
splendid discovery that one has legs cap
able of getting over ground, is a great aid
to sanity BY the same token, it is 4
grave danger to the suffragette craze
9(Copyright. 1913, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicateo