The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1915-11-25
WHY WE ARE OPPOSED
TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE

We are in receipt of a communica
ton from a sweet young scion o:
aristocracy, whom we will call "Maut
c." because that is not her name
which states: 81 understand thai
You are opposed to woman suffrage
and as you are man of wide public
experience and recognized standing,
would be grateful if you would briefly
state the principles of your opposi'
ton to this movement for me to reao
at the next meeting of our anti Stuff
rage Club"
You are quite right, M u q
c., we are nightly opposed to woman
suffrage, but it is not from principle
but from inherited, time honored
rock-ribbed, hide-bound predjudice.
In the early dawn of creations
morning, after Mother Eve had, by
those inexplicable powers of feminine
persuasion, that are responsible for
most of the didos performed by mas
culinity since the world began, per-
suaded father Adam to eat of the for
hidden fruit, Jehovah spake unto the
woman, 81 will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children, and
thy desire shall be subject to thy hus-
band and he shall RULE over thee"
Now militant suffragettes want to
revise the status in which the female
was placed by the Divine mandate in
the beginning of time. These mis-
guided fanatics insist that this was
under the old dispensation and that
cold things have passed away and all
things have become new" The only
merit in this ridiculous argument is
that it is true, and we ants must
keep away from the truth or we are
lost.
Blackstone-Vol. l., page GIL. eve
think this is the right quotation) says
<'The common law of England declar-
eth that the husband has exclusive
control of the person and the property
of his wife; she must yield obedience
to him in all things and the husband
has the right to enforce his commands
by corporal punishment provided he
uses a rod no thicker than his thumb
and does not strike her on the noble
parts of her body"
We agree with Blackie, and are in
favor of liberal thumb measurement.
If this law had not become obsolete
and was still in force, we would never
had any woman suffrage idiocy.
We have in our library quaint and
ancient volume entitled proceedings
of We Council of the Commonwealth
of Plymouth 1741." 1t gives an &C
count of a female ancestress of ours
before the council in OPP
position to a measure introduced by a
fanatic of that time repeating the law
permitting husbands to flog their
wives for faults of commission or COM
This reform read "No wom-
an, over the age of 81 years, shall be
whipped by any one, husband and IA
Their included, unless sentenced to be
dashed by public magistrate; then
she shall be publicly chastised in the
gaol yard as warning to offenders
and she shall not be stripped lower
than the waist when such whipping
is administered"
Our great, great, great grand mo-
Their appeared in opposition to this re-
form measure and is reported to have
said, "My father whipped my mother
when she was obstreperous; my hus-
band, a righteous and godly man,
and scripturally, soundly
whips me when I disobey his COM
mands and my daughters are no bet
ter than my mother was or better
than I am. How can harmony be
maintained in a household if the head
is deprived of the power of enforcing
his orders by the administration of
reasonable and proper punishment. ?"
That is the kind of doctrine that
hits us right in the midriff and we
are sure Maud G. and her sister ants
agree with me. We are certain if
Maud C.'s husband comes home at
one a. M, with chalk on his sleeves
and his breath smelling of cloves and
she pouts or threatens to go home to
she believes he has perfect
right to make her go out into the yard
and cut a CAD for him to switch her
with till she squeals like a stuck pig.
That's the doctrine Maud C. and
we believe in implicitly.
Woman's place is in her home. The
great German Kaiser has declared
that woman's sphere should be con-
fined to cher kitchen, her children and
her church" We are with Bill on this
proposition, and yet there are those
who think this viceroy of Heaven
don't know any more about the matter
than a mother who has raised large
family; we will leave it to Maud c..
If such heresay is not simply awful?
If women voted, they would be COM
PEELED to leave their homes at least
one hour every four years. 1t is apal-
ling to think Of how much hell her