The Lakeland evening telegram., 1920-08-25

mess Of woman? Will this vaunted
of the ballot be at the
expense of a lessened interest on the
bart OF woman in the home? If these
.hings are to result from the new or
der, then, indeed, will its balance
sheet show tremendous loss to men
and women alike, and will doubtful
privilege, grudgingly accorded, repay
women for the chivalrous defer
ence to which they rave been ac-
customed? Will not equal rights
bring also treatment Of them as
.quals, and not, as heretofore, as
superiors? Already we are beginning
to note how this boasted equality may
work. On crowded train a few
,ys age we observed the aisles filled
with standing women, while many
men occupied the seats Two or three
decades ago such condition, in the
South, at least, would be inconceiv-
able.
Dear ladies', if you are to rule the
world, as heretofore you have done,
it must still be with the hand that
lccks the cradle, and not with that
one that stamps the ballot. Man will
yver turn to the hearthstone, and not
tc the hustings, for his ideal, his
complement, his mate. He may yield
reluctant admiration to the heroine of
political contest, but he will reserve
his love and homage for the woman
who comes nearest his concept Of
the one who will make and keep for
him home. Women will still shape
the destinies Of the world, not at the
forum but at the fireside; and in pro-
portion as she neglects the latter will
her influence wane and the race de-
cline. No will-o'- -the-wisp of
career" nor lure or political ambi-
ton, nor fallacy of equal rights
will ever lead to any higher, holier,
nobler condition than that which is
held by the mistress of many cot
tage home, doing unconsciously her
full share in the great scheme Of life
a staff and a guiding light to her
husband along the ways of righteous
ness and the paths Of peace. When
men shall dream of his ideal, the pic
ture of such woman, grooming al
dusk cradle song,or with children
rising about her to .all her blessed
will ever rise before his vision. in
stead Of any scene Of crowded con.
vention or boisterous polling place.
Looking back over the fads and
fancies, the follies and fanaticisms
that have wearied the world withir
even the brief limits of our memory
we find it pretty much the same ole
world, after all, with respect to it'
fundamentals; and we are encourage.
by this fact to believe that this mucl
heralded "reform" will make no grea
change in the really iportant rela
tions of life. If we are tempted t,
thank the gods that we have lived ii
a period when our ideals of woman
hood, around which cluster the mos
sacred sentiments of love and life
have not been shattered or bespat
tered by the profaning pollution q
politics. we are also optimistic enougl
to believe that even nationa
| amendment can not change human
nature-that woman will still An
! her strength in her weakness an
sway her scepter by the divine powe
Of love, rather than by the dubiou
| processes of politics. It will be a
evil day, indeed. If ever there shal
be developed a race of manly womer
Rather do we hope that we shall al
ways revel in womans delightful in
constituencies (Which in politics ar
like to prove irritations), her charm
of modesty and retience, her adorabl
lack of logic and her miraculou
powers of intuition-m making CON
posite of alluring femininity such a
the poet had in mind when he apos
trophised her:
"Oh, woman, in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy and hard to please
When pain and anguish wiring tn
brow,
A ministering angel thou!"
M. F. H.
Balsam, N. c., Aug. goth, 1920.
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