The Washington times., 1915-10-12
Fear Mice
Can't VOte--
Nonsense!
Woman Writer Likes Rele.
vancy and Suggests Con-
Meeting Mans Ballot
Privilege With Oc-
casional Law
Breaking!
By WINIFRED BLACK.

Copyright, 1915, Newspaper Feature service''
TROOP Of trained white mice
n got loose on Thirty-fourth
~ street in New York the other
day, and scared a party Of
Votes for Women" pleaders off the
street and into shops and up on count
ers, before the man who owned the
mice had time to realize what had
happened.
Now all the paragraphers are INSIST
ing that there Is a lesson In 1t.
They want to vote. and yet they're'
afraid Of mice"
Dear me, what a terrible state of
Affairsl
WHAT'S the connection between mice
and . ballot box? do wish some
body would tell me.
Women have been afraid Of mice
ever since there was either mouse
or a woman. and they've gone right
nursing tho wounded and going down
TO deaths door for the children they
loved. Just as much as II they could
face the fercest and most rampageous
mouse that ever lived and dare him
to do his worst right to his very
whiskers.
Elephants are afraid Of mice. too.
deathly afraid Of them.
You can -subdue the most savage
elephant in the world-and a savage
elephant Is no Joke even to an animal
trainer-by taking a mouse into his
quarters and letting 1t loose anywhere
within reach of him.
Mice, Elephants, AMI Men.
Yet elephants are said to be the most
sagactous OF the four-footed animals.
and nobody who knows anything about
an elephant will dream OF calling him
. coward.
Am afraid OF a mouse? l am. dead
" afraid Of a mouse.
No. I don't think that he'll bite me.
at me or take out a razor and cut my
throat. I know that a mouse Is a harm
less animal. 80 considered by those
who don't know enough TO be afraid Of
them. ! know I could kill a dozen mice
with one swing of a good stout stick in
my good right. hand. but. just the same.
I'm afraid Of them. always have been
and always will be. and so is every
other regular woman.
So are some regular men.
I shall never forget the time I went
to see a dignifled and highly intelligent
lawyer. and when I opened the door of
his office there he stood on top OF his
impressive legal table. clutchinR some
waving the other franticany in the
air.
"A mouse! A mouse! A mousew he
roared over and over and over again.
had to come In from the other room
and use her womanly influence to per-
suade him either to let go of the mouse
and get rid of IT, or squeeze It TO death
and be done with 1t.
And yet that man voted early and
often. ran for office and was elected
too.
Cowards and the Brave.
man will make more fuss over a
pin scratch than a woman would make
over dagger thrust. Own up now,
brethren. you know you will. and you
know you do. every time.
Is that any reason why we should
look down upon you from the heights Of
our superiority. may l ask?
A woman can't drive n nail straight,
and a man cant sew on a button.
Which has the right to laugh at the
other?
What is there so essentially masculine
about a ballot-box2
Is there any sex to kitchen stove or
to the art of frying ham and eggs or
making pancakes?
] can't see It.
No. ] don't blame you, brothers. The
escaped mice and the votes for women
excitement were really too handy to let
them escape.
But I wish the next time a man COM
Inits suicide and leaves his wife to sup
port a family of children alone. some
body would rise up and write a few
paragraphs about the folly of allowing
men to vote.
do love to sec things relevant.