Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1914-08-20

would let me guess at that. Then she
smiled her lovely smile. and changed the
subject by asking me why my marks
weren't higher in algebra. OF course, all
this hasn't anything 20 40 with suffrage.
or anti-suffrage either. Just put 1t in
to show how acute I am. so the gentle
reader won't be surprised when I read
peoples hearts the way III have to before
get through with this chapter
We will now return TO Maudie For
long time she was silent, and thought
gathered deeply on her beautiful high
bred face At last she said. very slowly:
we are. too. suffragettes. We've been
sutfragettes right along. May lNerson.
Only we haven't known it
gasped then and began to say 1
couldn't be anything like that without
knowing it, for my first lesson in life had
been to know myself, and ] learned It
when was - years OF age. But Maudie
went right on. rudely interrupting me.
She said she hadn't known her own heart
till she went to Kittie's meeting and heard
Kittie talk. She said all the time she was
there she kept feeling more and more un-
comfortable and stirred up inside, but
she didn't know why. She even thought
1t might be indigestion. She said it was
only this minute that It burst upon her
gloriously that from the very beginning
of Kittle's meeting she had been a suf-
fragette. unconsciously working for the
cause and trying to get independence OF
thought for women. She added that when
she heard Kittie Jones express her silly
little ideas, they made her so annoyed
that she most wanted to slap Kittie.
Then she woke up and knew she was
patt for 40 hnN
feel in England. She read all about it in
the newspapers and a friend of her
mother has seen Mrs. Pankhurst in Chi
cago.
BY this time Maudie was very much ex-
cited, so when l didn't answer right Off
she said she was ready to die for the
cause. and IL I didn't feel that way, too,
and join the suffrage club she was going
to get up she'd never speak to me again
as long as she lived.
! OF course, that's no way to talk to the
daughter of general in the army, who
| is literary artist besides and I pointed
this out TO Maudie in tones that were
cold and firm ! said she couldn't force
me to do anything by threats, but that
she must appeal to my reason and con-
vince me that suffrage was good thing
|
didn't think she could do it now, anyway,
because she had annoy ed me very much
by the way she begun. 1 was most sure
already that / wasn't suffragette and
I didn't ever want to be.
Maudie changed her methods then, right
off She has associated with Mabel and
me so long that she has a good deal OF
sense. She begged my pardon very po-
| gha To- hi
chair, and gave me glass OF ginger ale
and a cookie, and started in to appeal
| to my reason.
She said with her first words that she
was very glad to have my reason 70 APP
peal to, and not the other girls, and she
asked me to imagine how I'd feel il l ever
had to appeal to Kittie James reason
When 1 clapped at that, like a rea
audience-for anyone who knew KittiC
could see what a powerful point 1t was
Maudie asked me if was willing TO fol
low the banner of Kittie James 'in
, struggle which was of vital import tc
the human race" (she got that out of 4
newspaper. We have to read one every
day, for our current events class.)
I stod right up and said l didn't wan
to follow Klttie's banner, or anybody
but my own. / said / just wanted /,
spend my life elevating the masses b!
writing pure literature for them, and
didn't see why men couldn't go on voting
and doing the heavy work like that, Will
we women uplifted them. 1 felt just full
of thoughts, but Maudie made me 81
} down before l could say any more. Sh
said had promised to let her appeal q
my reason and she wished ] would do Z
and not interrupt. That was n rebuke AM
: 1t annoyed me very much. sat dow
right away, but II was quite long tim
; before I could get my intellect calm
J enough for Maudie 10 appeal to 1t. / KEEP
thinking, instead OF crushing things
r might have said before 1 sat down, ant
t II was dreadfuly hard not TO get up agaii
} and say them then. They would hav
been help TO Maudie too.
But Maudie was going right along will
I her speech all the time, and getting NOR
excited every minute. l don't believe sh
really cared much about suffrage whel
she began, but by the time she finishe,
, she was ready to give up her work at ST
% GATHERINGS. and her dream OF being
, great actress. and go right Sut and be
, sutfragette, and get arrested and sent 4
. prison. She had read about the Englisl
, women in prison, and how they were fe,
through ubes, and she called then
martyrs in a deathless cause and sal
she was going 10 have Adeline Thurstol
write a poem about them. spoke u
again. and reminded her that Adeline wa
an anti-suffragist now. and would on
write poems against suffrage. Maud
groaned and said: This issue will spill
/, tie convent II will be like West Poin
at the break Of the civil war. when IN
: cadets had TO take sides for the mort
/, or the south" Then she looked at IN
: with her eyes blazing. and said Ma
Iyerson, at such a crisis will you be o
the fence, thinking about life and tryin
to write stories. or will YOU be out on an
great battlefield. fighting shoulder t
10 shoulder with your dear ones?"