The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-02-08
EQUAL SUFFRAGE DEPARTMENT
Concluded from Second Page)

there is always a certain element that
realidy "falls" for that sort of thing.
We dislike exceedingly to bore the
helpless public with our personal his
tory, but the gentle editor of the
Star has left US no alternative. We
know of no one who has better claim
than OURSELVES TO this land in which
we life, unless it be the Indians of the
everglades. We have an unbroken
line of Southern-born ancestors reach
ing back to the English settlers on
the eastern shore of Virginia, over a
hundred years before the revolution.
Our immediate branch removed to
South Carolina, just prior TO the war
for independence, and five of our an
cestors, in different lines, took a
worthy part in that memorable strug-
gle. We did not lack for representa-
tives in the war of 1872. Our grand
parents on both sides Came to Florida
thirty years before the civil war, and
our father and five uncles fought in
the southern armies from the time
Fort Sumter was bombarded until
Lees surrender at Appomatox. We
are native of this state, and have
worked for many years in the Florida
public schools. So, when we say "ouA'
foot is on its native heath" there is
none who can dispute our assertion.
Can you make as good showing, Mr..
Editor? Now this land in which we
live is ours. Our people, for hundreds
of years, have fought and some have
died here, that they and. their poster
ity might enjoy the blessings of lib
erty. We have not been idle exactly
ourselves. The above being true. we
submit that we have as good a right
as you. Mr.. Editor, to express our
opinion about what is wrong with
present conditions, and to suggest a
remedy, and we have right to this
without being accused of disloyalty
to our land by one who appropriates
to himself the right to attack every
thing in the heavens above, in the
earth beneath, and in the waters un-
Ger the earth. We know of no law,
written or otherwise, that requires
that we should keep silent about the
way southern senators are making
the men and women of the South
ridiculous before the rest of the ma
ton. A few reactionary editors. and
politicians, whose main idea seems to
be party alignment and political
fences, are doing incalculable damage
to the. country, and yet when a free
born Southern woman dares to ques-
ton the doings of this autocracy of
the press and politicians, she is charg-
ed with "having abandoned the South
and joined hands with those who
made the South miserable" / SUPPOSE
by such methods they expect to keep
Southern women in the
My name is Jimmie,
"I'll take anything you-gimmie''
sort of attitude till the end of time.
Such a subterfuge was unworthy of
you, Mr.. Editor.
Before we close, we wish to enter
a vigorous protest against the proph-
ecy so industriously circulated by the
opponents of suffrage to the effect
that il the franchise be extended to
women, Southern men will become
rough and discourteous to them. True
courtesy is matter of character and
not temporary reaction to some
given set of circumstances. and we
have too strong a faith in the fine ma
ture and innate sense of justice of
our Southern men to fear that an act
of long-delayed justice will bring
about such a state of affairs except
among those who have been so un-
fortunate both in inheritance and
training as never to have known what
true courtesy means.
Isabel Stuart Mays.