Mark Twain On The Crusade

The London Standard publishes a letter froni M.trk Twain on the temperauoe war. We give the r'ollowiug extract : " Would you consider the couduct of those crusadeis justifnibloi' 1 du- thoroughly justitiable. They find theuiselves voieeless in the makiiig of laws and ihe election of officers to exeeuto thetn. Buru with braius, oorn in the country, tduuated, haviug large uiterests at stake, ihey timl their tongues tied and their hands fettered, while eveiy iguorant, whisky drinkintc. foreign-born savage in the land inay hold uth'ce, help to make the laws, aegrade the dignity of the tonner and break the lalter ut hitt owu sweet will. ïhey spe tbeir fatht-ro, husbands and brothers sit inanely at homo and allo w the Kcuni of the country to assemble at the ' primarles,' name the eandidates for office trom their own vile rank?, and, unrebuked, elect t hem. They live in the luidst of a country where there ia no end to the laws and no begiuuing to the execut'un of theiu. And wheu the laws inteutled to protect their sons from desiruction by iutfuiperauce lie torpid xnd without sign of life year after year, they recognize that there is a matter whieh iuterests theui personally, a matter whic'i comes btraight home to tnem. And siuce they are allowed tu litt no legal voice Hgaiust the outrageoua state of things they suffe; r uuder in thiti regard, I think it is no wonder that their patieoce bas brokeu down at last, and they have tried to persuade themselves that they are justitiable in breaking the luw of trespass when the laws tbat should make the trespass needless are allowed by the voters to lie dead and inoperative. " The present crusade will doubtless do but littlu woik against inteinpoiance that will b rettlly permanent, but it will do what is as niuch, or even more, to the purpote, I think. I think it will suggest to more tban one man that it' woinen could vote they would vote on the side of inorility; even it' they did vote and speak rut her frautically and furiously ; and it will also suggest that when the women once made up their minds that it was uot jood to leave the ail-powerful " primaries " in the hands of loafets, thieves, and ernicious littlu politicians, they would lot sit indolently at home, as their husmnds and brothers do now, but would ïoist their praying banners, take the field n force, pray the assembled poiitical scum jack to the holes and slums where they elong, and set up souie candidates fit for decent human beings to vote for. I dearly want the women to be raised to the politcal altitude of the negro, the imported savage, and the pardoned thief, and alowed to vote, lt is our last chance; I hink. The wonien will be voting before ong, and then if B. F. Butler can still continue to lord it in Congress ; if the lighest offices in the land can still coniuue to be occupied by perjurers and rob)erg ; if another Congress like the Forty 8econd, consisting of 15 honest mon and 296 of the other kind, "can oncb more be created, it will at last be time, I fear, to jive over trying to save the couniry by minan nieans and appeal to Provideuce. 3oth the great parties have failed. I wish we might have a woman's party now and se& how that would work. I feel peruaded that, in extending the suffrage to women, this country could lose absolutey uothing, and might gain a great deal ?or 30 centuries histury has been iterating and reiterating that in a moral fight wouan is simply duntless, and we all know even with our eyes shut upyn Congres.-. and our voters, that, from the day that Adam ate of the apple and told on Eve down to the present day, man, in a moral ight, has pretty uniforiuly shown himseli ;o be an arrant ooward."