Woman And The Ballot

Krom the Wntchman and Reflector. l noio are many thousands of intelligent, reasonable and consciontious men still left va this " most despotic nation on earth, who, with no insuporable obiectioiis to this mattor of woman's voting, feel not a httle disturbed at the methols by which so great a movoment is soueht to be effocted. Some persons aro so remarkably constituted that they won't pack up their household effectsand ' move ' intosome antipodal township without good roasons for such a change. It is not Uut they are bliudly prejudiced against Pekín, nor that thoy refuso to adniit that under some circumstancos Pekin mislit be a dchghtful place of residence, th.it they don t icol impatiunt at once to emigrate thithor. And somehow people of this sort that wo are considering would be apt to view with uneasinoss any measure or influence brought to boar upon t hem the result ofwhieh would be tosend thom to China against their judgmont or at loast without thoir froe and intelligent MSeni Thore is a vast numbor who feel like that in regard to this matter of Woman'g Suffrage. We feel called to say something at this time in bohalf of the silent thousands. Iheso men and women for whom we are speaking have listenod without preiudiee to theso thousand appeals which have been made in journals and from pUttorms in favor of this great chango. Womonhave spoken with a moving pathos ot their trials, their wrongs, and their suftenngs. They claim that the ballot in woman's hand will sweep out of existence the whole hst of these tiercé injuríeos under which woman groans. But hov the ballot is to do this,- what magie po-n-cr there is in a vote to strike out of lifc these evils, many of which aro inseparable from human lot and which the voting man shares equally with her, those patiënt roceptive listenere fail to sec. What gross wrong is there which to-day bears with unequal weight upon woman ? There may be sonio such. But can a woman's ballot do moro to lighton such wtong than the man's ballot is ablo and waitinji to do f t ueu ii can De snown that some ovil cxists whioh the m;in's ballot cannot right or won't right, and which a woman's ballot can alono right and will be mre to right, then it will bo time to cry aloud for woman's enfranchisement through woman's sutfrago. And yet women speakers have gone on, in utter disregard of common sonso and common logic, all tho ills with which woman suffers "vith this tact, that women cannot vote, Thoy persist in picturing a millennial day of woman's intellectual majesty, social and civil autocracy, and perfect sinlossness, and happiness,- a day too of universal peaco and nationalbjotherhood, the dawning of which ia to begin with woman's voting. "We aak for the logic in all this : for tho rolation between the vote and the coming glory; and no woman has yet given answer. For logic she has given assortion ; for reason sho haa given sentiment; for common senso sho has given us the oloquence of her woes aud aspirations. so porsistontly have these women advocates ignored all known rulos of argument and rational discourse that many a man hoping the best for woman, has about ooncluded that she stands condemned out wh'ore tiio roason ; rne juugment ana tno logical facultiua hold empire. But has the cause been served better as man has como to the resoue and spoken for woman, or rather for theso women ' Listeuing to tho argument of Bev. Mr. Murray, atMusic Hall laat week, we feit more than ever ;hat these countless men and woinnn for whoni we are to-day speaking had fresh occasion for thcir coinplainings. Again ;hey are ealled upon to sull out aud ïuove io Pekin without ncuont given. In all ;hat Mr. Murray said ho nevor onco got )eyond the doniuin of t:tlk which women ïad alroady iilled witk issortiona, pathos, sentiinouts, prophecy, assertion. He ehalcngod tor lm logic the closest scrutiny, lonying all flaw in it. But where was the ogie to striko imd sound for flaw ? There was statement, vivid painting, a good deal of bathos, but of honest attempt at showng how ballotiug is to save woman aud Jie world - -nothing - nothing at all. Standing beforu that maguificent audience, made up so largely of women of cul:ure and refinement, of wives and mothers rejoicing in the freedoms, and rights, and 8overeignties of wifehood and motheriiood, hu saw all as " dolls, " " slaves, " " harem mistresses, " " giggling girls, ' ' " idiots. " They wero apathctic about this matter of voting, and they were sluggishly content under their crushing wrongs. Why couldn'tthey see as ke, the actor, saw it ' They were in dungeons ; they were trammeled ; they wero fettered. Wrists and anklos were bloeding from the cutting cords. What facts were given upon which to erect this towering scaffolding of iumgery ' Not one ; not one. It was a good thing to writho and twist over, and shout and cry about, but an utterly inane ana senseiess tüing tor roasonablo beings to incet togother and seriously talk about. But Mr. Murray suddenly transforma his auditory into ono of wholly different character. When he speaks of woinan's wrongs, his womon are suffering slaves ; when he speaks of their notorious indifforencc to this whole question of sufiY;ifí-, his woinen are idiota and Turkish mistresses ; but noW, whon he comes to spoak of woman's capabilities for suffrageship, why, any one of these degraded, cnslaved, and giggling croaturos, " taken at randoin out of his audience, " is one " in whose blood beats tho spirit oí' Bunker Ilill and the HaijUncer, ono familiar with history, adonied with tho best culture of our civilization, wise in tho loro which bringeth lifo and immortality to light. " What a luighty transformatiou is this ' But how could Mr. Murray havo liad tho boldness, after this last ohange of cliaracters, to ask, " Where is the fliiw in my logic ': " Is thoro a man who with one eye can fail to seo it 'r1 Plaw ! Why, thero is not rim onough in the argument to circumscribo tho infinite holo in it. This " clear-eyed woman of tho Nortli, ripo with tho choicest culturo of twenty conturies, " has never once held in her " pink palm a ballot, embloin of powor. " If tho ballot, is the mighty fulcrum which these reformers woukï make us think wherewith to raise wumaii niw gruuwiess, now is ït iit.ih ■woman has already como up without tho ballot into such au attitude of wisdom and culturo as is here MOlibed to hor? Agaiu Mr. Murray says that " at woman's prosenoe passions havo aubsided, ignoranco boen dispelled, moráis improvi'd, and evory good rofonu, advancod. " Wo believe this and thank God for it Bat ihthai doiw tfii vithout votinff; that is our point. AVoman, by Mr. Murray's own confession, is what she is, a reprosontative of " ono-half of the intolligonce and two-thirds of tho piety of the country, " nul voiuiiii " has woverl the royal tapestry of tho past, thick with manii'old and oloaely wovcn testimonios of her purity and povVor, " and yet Woman is all this and has dono all this not boing and uever having buen a Voter ! Tho Gemían officitil newspapersc xplicitly deny that any any encouragemeut has boen givon to tho insurgont Paiisians by the Germán Govornmont or Geinlan comnianders in Franco. " Going out with tho tiod " - aocoinpaByiiig thö bridu.1 party out of chureh.