Samantha on the Woman Question by Marietta Holley (love letters to the dead TXT) đ
Read free book «Samantha on the Woman Question by Marietta Holley (love letters to the dead TXT) đ» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Marietta Holley
Read book online «Samantha on the Woman Question by Marietta Holley (love letters to the dead TXT) đ». Author - Marietta Holley
Well, Josiah always loves to have me with him, anâ though heâd made light of the Parade, he didnât object to my goinâ. And suffice it to say that we arrove at that Middlemanâs safe and sound, though why we didnât git lost in that grand immense depo and wander âround there all day like babes in the woods, is moreân I can tell.
The Middleman wuznât dishonest: he convinced Josiah on it. He had shipped the colored eggs somewhere, and of course he couldnât pay as much, and he never had hearn of Ratage or Satage. He wuz a real pleasant Middleman, and hearing me say how much I wanted to see the Womanâs Parade, he invited us to go upstairs and set by a winder, where there was a good view onât. Weâd eat our lunch on the train and we accepted his invitation, and sot down by a winder then and there, though it wuz a hour or so before the time sot for the Parade. And I should have taken solid comfort watchinâ the endless procession of men and women and vehicles of all sorts and descriptions, but Josiah made so many slightinâ remarks on the dress of the females passinâ below on the sidewalk, that it made me feel bad. And to tell the truth, though I didnât think best to own up to it to him, I did blush for my sect to see the way some on âem rigged themselves out.
âSee that thing!â Josiah sez, as a woman passed by with her hat drawed down over one eye, and a long quill standinâ out straight behind moreân a foot, anâ her dress puckered in so âround the bottom, she couldnât have took a long step if a mad dog wuz chasinâ herâto say nothinâ of beinâ perched up on such high heels, that she fairly tottled when she walked.
Sez Josiah: âDoes that thing know enough to vote?â
âNo,â sez I, reasonably, âshe donât. But most probable if she had bigger things to think about sheâd loosen the puckerinâ strings âround her ankles, push her hat back out of her eyes, anâ get down on her feet again.â
âWhy, Samantha,â says he, âif you had on one of them skirts tied âround your ankles, if I wuz a-dyinâ on the upper shelf in the buttery, you couldnât step up on a chair to get to me to save your life, anâ Iâd have to die there alone.â
âWhy should you be dyinâ on the buttery shelf, Josiah?â sez I.
âOh, that wuz jest a figger of speech, Samantha.â
âBut folks ort to be mejum in figgers of speech, Josiah, and not go too fur.â
âDo you think, Samantha, that anybody can go too fur in describinâ them fool skirts, and them slit skirts, and the immodesty and indecensy of some of them dresses?â
âSez Josiah, âDoes that thing know enough to vote?ââ
âI donât know as they can,â sez I, sadly.
âJest look at that thing,â sez he again.
And as I looked, the hot blush of shame mantillied my cheeks, for I felt that my sect was disgraced by the sight. She wuz real pretty, but she didnât have much of any clothes on, and what she did wear wuznât in the right place; not at all.
Sez Josiah, âThat girl would look much more modest and decent if she wuz naked, for then she might be took for a statute.â
And I sez, âI donât blame the good Priest for sendinâ them away from the Lordâs table, sayinâ, âI will give no communion to a Jezabel.â And the pity of it is,â sez I, âlots of them girls are innocent and donât realize what construction will be put on the dress they blindly copy from some furrin fashion plate.â
Then quite an old woman passed by, also robed or disrobed in the prevailinâ fashion, and Josiah sez, soty vosy, âI should think she wuz old enough to know sunthinâ. Who wants to see her old bones?â And he sez to me, real uppish, âDo you think them things know enough to vote?â
But jest then a young man went by dressed fashionably, but if he hadnât had the arm of a companion, he couldnât have walked a step; his face wuz red and swollen, and dissipated, and what expression wuz left in his face wuz a fool expression, and both had cigarettes in their mouths, and I sez, âDoes that thing know enough to vote?â And jest behind them come a lot of furrin laborers, rough and rowdy-lookinâ, with no more expression in their faces than a mule or any other animal. âDo they know enough to vote?â sez I. âAs for the fitness for votinâ it is pretty even on both sides. Good intelligent men ortnât to lose the right of suffrage for the vice and ignorance of some of their sect, and that argument is jest as strong for the other sect.â
But before Josiah could reply, we hearn the sound of gay music, and the Parade began to march on before us. First a beautiful stately figure seated fearlessly on a dancinâ horse, that tossted his head as if proud of the burden he wuz carryinâ. She managed the prancinâ steed with one hand, and with the other held aloft the flag of our country. Jest as women ort to, and have to. They have got to manage wayward pardners, children and domestics who, no matter how good they are, will take their bits in their mouths, and go sideways some of the time, but can be managed by a sensible, affectionate hand, and with her other hand at the same time she can carry her principles aloft, wavinâ in every domestic breeze, frigid or torrid, plain to be seen by everybody.
Then come the wives and relations of Senators and Congressmen, showinâ that beinâ right on the spot they knowed what wimmen needed. Then the wimmen voters from free Suffrage states, showinâ by their noble looks that votinâ hadnât hurt âem any. They carried the most gorgeous banner in the whole Parade. Then the Wimmenâs Political Union, showinâ plain in their faces that understandinâ the laws that govern her ainât goinâ to keep woman from looking beautiful and attractive.
On and on they come, gray-headed women and curly-headed children from every station in life: the millionairess by the working woman, and the fashionable society woman by the business one. Two women on horseback, and one blowinâ a bugle, led the way for the carriage of Madam Antoinette Blackwell. I wonder if she ever dreamed when she wuz tryinâ to climb the hill of knowledge through the thorny path of sex persecution, that she would ever have a bugle blowed in front of her, to honor her for her efforts, and form a part of such a glorious Parade of the sect she give her youth and strength to free.
How they swept on, borne by the waves of music, heralded by wavinâ banners of purple and white and gold, bearinâ upliftinâ and noble mottoes. Physicians, lawyers, nurses, authors, journalists, artists, social workers, dressmakers, milliners, women from furrin countries dressed in their quaint costumes, laundresses, clerks, shop girls, college girls, all bearinâ the pennants and banners of their different colleges: Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, etc., etc. High-school pupils, Womanâs Suffrage League, Womanâs Social League, and all along the brilliant line each division dressed in beautiful costumes and carryinâ their own gorgeous banners. And anon or oftener all along the long, long procession bands of music pealinâ out high and sweet, as if the Spirit of Music, who is always depictered as a woman, was glad and proud to do honor to her own sect. And all through the Parade you could see every little while men on foot and on horseback, not a great many, but jest enough to show that the really noble men wuz on their side. For, as Iâve said more formally, that is one of the most convincinâ arguments for Womanâs Suffrage. In fact, it donât need any other. That bad men fight against Womenâs Suffrage with all their might.
Down by the big marble library, the grand-stand wuz filled with men seated to see their wives march by on their road to Victory. I hearn and believe, they wuz a noble-lookinâ set of men. They had seen their wives in the past chasinâ Fashion and Amusement, and why shouldnât they enjoy seeinâ them follow Principle and Justice? Well, I might talk all day and not begin to tell of the beauty and splendor of the Womanâs Parade. And the most impressive sight to me wuz to see how the leaven of individual right and justice had entered into all these different classes of society, and how their enthusiasm and earnestness must affect every beholder.
And in my mind I drawed pictures of the different modes of our American women and our English sisters, each workinâ for the same cause, but in what a different manner. Of course, our English sisters may have more reason for their militant doinâs; more unjust laws regarding marriageâdivorce, and care of children, and I canât blame them married females for wantinâ to control their own money, specially if they earnt it by scrubbinâ floors and washinâ. I canât blame âem for not wantinâ their husbands to take that money from them and their children, specially if theyâre loafers and drunkards. And, of course, there are no men so noble and generous as our American men. But jest lookinâ at the matter from the outside and comparinâ the two, I wuz proud indeed of our Suffragists.
While our English sisters feel it their duty to rip and tear, burn and pillage, to draw attention to their cause, and reach the gole (which I believe they have sot back for years) through the smoke and fire of carnage, our American Suffragettes employ the gentle, convincinâ arts of beauty and reason. Some as the quiet golden sunshine draws out the flowers and fruit from the cold bosom of the earth. Mindinâ their own business, antagonizinâ and troublinâ no one, they march along and show to every beholder jest how earnest they be. They quietly and efficiently answer that argument of the She Auntys, that women donât want to vote, by a parade two hours in length, of twenty thousand. They answer the argument that the ballot would render women careless in dress and reckless, by organizinâ and carryinâ on a parade so beautiful, so harmonious in color and design that it drew out enthusiastic praise from even the enemies of Suffrage. They quietly and without argument answered the old story that women was onbusiness-like and never on time, by startinâ the Parade the very minute it was announced, which you canât always say of menâs parades.
It wuz a burninâ hot day, and many whoâd always argued that women hadnât strength enough to lift a paper ballot, had prophesied that woman wuz too delicately organized, too âfraguile,â as Betsy Bobbet would say, to endure the strain of the long march in the torrid atmosphere.
But I told Josiah that women had walked daily over the burning plow shares of duty and domestic tribulation, till their feet had got calloused, and could stand moreân youâd think for.
And he said he didnât know as females had any more burninâ plow shares to tread on than men had.
And I sez, âI didnât say they had, Josiah. I never wanted women to get more praise or justice than men. I simply want âem to get as muchâjust an even amount; for,â sez I, solemnly, ââmale and female created He them.ââ
Josiah is a deacon, and when I quote Scripture, he has to listen respectful, and I went on: âI guess it wuz a surprise even to the marchers that of all the ambulances that kept alongside the Parade to pick up faint and swooninâ females, the only one occupied wuz by a man.â
Josiah denied it, but I sez, âI see his boots stickinâ out of the ambulance myself.â Josiah couldnât dispute that, for he knows I am truthful. But he sez, sunthinâ in the sperit of two little children I hearn disputinâ. Sez one: âIt wuznât so; youâve told a lie.â
âWell,â sez the other, âYou broke a piece of china and laid it to me.â
Sez Josiah, âYou may have seen a pair of menâs boots a-stickinâ out of the ambulance, but Iâll bet they didnât have heels on âem a inch broad, and five or six inches high.â
âNo, Josiah,â sez I, âyouâre right. Men think too much of their comfort and health to hist themselves up on such little high tottlinâ things, and you didnât see many on âem in the Parade.â
But he went on drivinâ the arrow of higher criticism still deeper into my onwillinâ breast. âIâll bet you didnât see his legs tied together at the ankles, or his trouses
Comments (0)