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

Joyce was the first girl at st. Catherines
to feel any real interest in woman suf-
frage. Usually 1 am the one in our school
set who thinks of new things, and does
them; so the other girls have got in the
habit of waiting for me- and not trying to
think themselves, in their crude immature
way. But Maudie thought of suffrage all
alone. though perhaps Klttie James helped
TO put the idea into her head
You see, Kittie started an auti-suffrage
club, almost as soon as we got back to
school in September, and she made her
self the president Of it at the very first
meeting. Before the meeting was over.
Maudie Joyce asked I1ittie what the club
was for, and Kittie didn't know; and
Nlaudie asked what the members were go
ing to do and ISittie didn't know that,
either. Kittie said she Just wanted % have
a club because they had one in Chicago
and her sister, Mrs. George Morgan. be-
ionEed TO IL. She said the incest feature
of the Chicago club was that nobody in Il
did anything, and they Joined because
they didn't have to do anything. 1t was
4 beautiful club, Kittie said, and so rest
ful.
these words fell from the lips Of our young
friend. and followed her. I suppose we
looked aloof and lonely and disappearing.
ANY way, when the rest of the girls had
watched US a while most of them came
over to our corner too, and the end of II
was that Kittie only got three members
for her new club. Mabel Muriel Murphy
Joined because Sister Edna, the nun she
likes best approves of gentle, womanly
girls Kittie told Mabel the gentlest and
most womanly thing a girl could possibly
do was to join her anti-suffrage club
Kittie said the real aim of her club was
to keep women I'M their homes, where they
belonged, when they weren't at her club
and she said Mabel Muriel Murphy
wouldn't have to have single new idea
all the time she belonged. Mabel said
afterward it was true, too; she ddn't
have any.
But the whole thing seemed silly tc
Mabel and me. We are very intelligent
girls, IL We arc only 16, and we have lots
e. of mature ideas and emotions. If we joir
a club at all, we want to do something IN
it, even IL it is only to eat There weren'r
to be any spreads" in Kittes club. she
said at first, because she has a delicate
stomach, and the convent infirmarians
who look after her, think she mustn't ca
between meals. They don't let her ca
much at meals. either, so Kittle Is agains
girls overeating IT is an awful thing t
behold. when you are held down yourself
However, Kite went right on with heI
club though. of course. she felt dread.
fully disappointed when Maudie and
didn't join. Well indeed, did she know
what that meant, and how impossible rea
success was without US. So she
strengthened her party" as papa says
great statesmen do, by giving offices tC
her friends. She made Mabel Muriel Muir
ply treasurer, because Mabel Muriel'
father is rich and loves to pay bills; and
she made Adeline Thurston secretary be
cause Adeline loves to write poems, ant
Kittie said writing reports of her clul
would be even more interesting than poe
try. When Maudie asked how there coult
be any reports Il there wasn't anything
done, Kittie said the club would write u
things that were not done Then sh
looked past the sides of our faces ant
changed the subject by making Haiti
Gregory vice president.
We left the meeting after that, an,
went to my room and ate pickles an,
talked about how sharper than ser
pent's tooth an ungrateful child is. Kitti
was most like our own child, for she I
more than year younger than we are
and not intellectual; and MRble Blossom
and Maudie Joyce and 1 have Teall
directed her education since she came I
st. GATHERINGS, three years ago.
While we were talking. Maudie said sh
wondered what Mabel Blossom woul
think OF all this. Mabel hasn't come bac
10 school yet. but she was coming in
few days. Before I could answer Maud
spoke again, in the quick way she ha
when she thinks something. It's Just q
IL someone had touched a button in he
brain, and often Maudie jumps when
happens. She jumped this time. and S
did I, for ! wasn't expecting her TO. an
the doctor says ! am a nervous cir
singularly high-strung. Besides, q
course, I have the artistic Temperament
and you know what that does to folk
So l jumped, and then got cross over !
the way any literary artist would, VIII
likes TO be well poised and dignfied
as Sister Edna says. MauGie Joyce didn
even apologize. She just sat staring
front OF her for a minute. as IL she ss'
!, something that wasn't there. Then sh
said. very slowly:
May Iverson. let's he suffragettes!"
l Jumped again. because the idea Sun
prised me so much, and said
But We aren't suffrsgettes. so how ca
We bs?''
AIaudie looked at me with patient eS
preston, like the one Sister Irmingrad
wears sometimes in the class room.
anslyzed II once. for literary practice. I
help me observe life and put down all
see; il had establishment in il. and paine
regret, and resignation. and a kind
holy calm. struggling up through hope
.essness. After I analysed It. / write
all out and showed the paper TO SistS
Irmingarde, and asked her IL l was RICH
She looked very much surprised at frs
but finally she said she thought / hs