Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-03-11
WOMAN USES VERBAL LASH
Colorado Senator Gives lnklins OF
What She Can Do.

COLORADO IldS UcSh 5liA2Oo ~ sAS
charge made by State Senator Jonn
Hecker that the women of Denver
drink more than the men. The incl
dent brought to the fore Senator
Helen Ring Robinson, an able woman
legislator, who in replying to Hecker
showed that the matter OF welding
the oratorical lash the women IN
public life finds congenial task
writes a Denver correspondent to the
Philadelphia Ledger. Mrs. Robln-
sons speech made in the Colrado SEN
ate is accorded high rank as an expo
sition of the powers of irony and sar-
casm in offensive and defensive de-
bate. Some of its barbed paragraphs
are interesting for comparison with
masculine efforts in the same line.
when I hear a person with vain
mouthings multiplying zero by zero
I pay no attention to his dabbling-
for / know the answer to his multi
plying will be Zero" said the sena-
tor.
"And as I turn away from such fu-
tilities, Mr.. President, without hear
ing them, so even more surely do
close my ears to all the disagreeaole,
discordant noises Of life when their
hearing can do me or others no pos
sible good.
II say this in explanation Of the
fact, Mr.. President, that ever since
my first week in the senate chamber
1 have heard practically no single syi-
liable of all the various noises which
have been hurled from the desk
where sits the senator from the First
when he has begun to speak, MT
President, I have discussed parIa-
mentary procedure with my friendly
neighbor to the right, or have an
swered the letters of a constituent-or
read a bill that was on the calendar
or INDUCED in some other profitable
business.
Mr.. President, I repeat, I did not
hear this statement when 1t was made
in this body, though I must have been
in the chamber at the time. For In
addition to other reasons have given
for not hearing the senator's utter
ances, I may add that can only un.
derstand two languages-French and
English-and the senator from the
First speaks neither. But several OF
my brother senator's have assured me
that he really did make the state
ment that is discredited to him-and
1 therefore take this first opportuni-
ty which presents itself since learn
ing the facts Of the case, to denounce
It publicly as a reckless statement
made in utter disregard Of truth and
common decency. There may be one
place in all Denver where the state
ment which he makes Is true. 1t may
indeed be that in the Street Of For
hidden Things, in the red purlieus OF
lost souls and ruined bodies, the pros
titute women do indeed drink more
cocktails and highballs than even the
prostitute men.
that may be, protest that II the SEN
ator from the First garners his infor-
nation from the murk and slime OF
such places, he has no right to spread
such information over the records OF
this honorable body. He has no right
to use 1t as a means of libeling my
sisters and your wives and daughters
He has no right thus to spread broad
cast such a wanton attack on the Wo-
manhood Of Colorado.
1T is not enough to say-as man
did to me last night-'Oh, he isn't re.
sponsible. We know the Senator
from the First But, Mr.. President
the people of the east do not know
him. They cannot discount his utter
ances as we have learned to do.
1.-The women Of Colorado need nc
defense from me. I have lived among
GV yCdiS. L Gill pASee ~ SAA>
friendship Of many women toilers-
I am glad Of the friendliness OF many
whose paths lie among gentler ways
I can compare them with the womer
of New England, where I was born
with the women of the middle west
where l also have lived, and with the
women of the various European cities
And I protest that the women OF Col
orado are surpassed by none Of then
in all true womanly qualities, anc
that many Of them have in addition
breadth Of vision, range OF sym
pathies, far less general among theil
sisters Of Europe or their sisters tt
the east. The result, I believe, Mr.
President, of that equality Of citizen
ship which has been theirs for nearly
20 years.
"Mr. President, I shall change
henceforth my conduct when the sen,
ator from the First rises to speak.
also shall rise and take a seat neal
him-where, by straining my ears
may, perhaps. be able to understand
his meaning. And if ever again dur
ing this session Of the general assem-
bly,, he dares to attack the woman
hood of Colorado as he did last week
I serve notice here and now that
shall at once introduce a resolution
into this body asking for his expul
sion as a menace to the dignity Of thu
senate, a menace to the good name o.
the state"