Samantha on the Woman Question

antin' the Whiskey Ring broke up, when they think how she's been fooled round with by men; willed away, and whip

ad happened to her. "Yes," sez she, with a axent like bone-set and vineg

er father's side, Huldah Pester, married for her first husband, Eliphelet Perkins. He wuz a minister, rode on a circuit, and he took Huldah on it too, a

anything to please him, so she rode round with him

d hard times to git along. But what property they had wuzn't taxed,

axed it the very minute the breath left his body; run his horse, so it wuz

thought, seein' she wuz havin' trouble, she might jest as well have a litt

e law is quite thoughtful of wimmen by spells. It sez it protects wimmen. And I spoze t

n that it wuz spozed she wanted to settle down and be kinder still and sot. But of all the bad luck she had. She marr

the country and loved to live in the wagon, it wuz his make. And, of course, the law give him control of her body, and she had to go where he moved it, or else part with him. And

regular P

oller the laws of his country as tight as laws could be follered. And so knowin' that the law approved of moderate correction for wimmen, and that "a man might whip his wife, but not enough to endanger her life"; he bein' such a master

ittle children, she thought two or three children would be about all one woman

ome men do git real wrought up about it and want everybody to have all the

had had a few, 'specially if they done their own housework themselves," and Aunt Hetty said that some of the men who wuz exhortin' wimmen t

y than here in this world with saloons on

ntity, but guess she meant the world we all

osiah that men needn't worry about Race Suicide, for you might as well try to stop a hen from makin' a nest, as to stop wimmen from

ps, if a war broke out. But her babies wuz real pretty and cunning, and she wuz so weak-minded she couldn't enjoy the thought that if our male statesmen got to scrappi

health, and make their clothes and keep 'em clean. And when there wuz so many of 'em and she enjoyin' real poor health, I spoze she sometimes thought more of her own achin' back than she did

had been such. But they wuz both law-abidin' and wanted to keep every preamble, so she stood it to be whipped, and never once whipped him in all the seventeen years they lived together. She died when her twelfth child wuz born. There wuz jest ten months difference between that and the one

, good lookin', and played well on the fiddle. Why, it seemed as if he had almost every qualification for makin' a w

body could dispute it, to have company come and have nothin' to put on. Several times she had to withdraw into the woodhouse, and stay most all day there shiverin', and under the suller st

f you don't believe it you'd ort to peeked round them barrels and seen Abagail's eyes, they had hull reams of by-laws in 'em and preambles, and Declarations of Independence, so I've been told. But it beat everything I ever hearn on, the lawful sufferin's of them wimmen. Fo

ot out and made her look so bad it fairly made her ache to look at herself in the glass. And they hurt her gooms too, and she carried 'em back to the dentist and wanted him to make her another set, but he acted mean and wouldn't take 'em back

e in to the law. And ruther than go toothless she wears 'em to this day, and I believe it is the raspin' of them teeth aginst her gooms and her discouraged, mad feelin

P.M., I promisin' sacred

, and I sez to Josiah I do hope that's the very last errent we

ill get a fresh pail of water an

mach. Sympathy is real exhaustin'. Sometimes I think it tires me more'n hard work. And Heaven knows I

f the Jonesville Creation Searchin' Society and, of course, he had a job for us to do on our tower. This Society was started by the leadin' men of Jonesville, for th

to be such a prominent question, they bein' so bitterly opposed to it, have reorganized and meet every once in a while

him know about it, for he said the C.S.S. was goin' to take a decided stand and show their colors. T

ciety, but dassent tell 'em to him, for his idees and mine on this subject are as fur

ess and sin of men and women, they every one of 'em, to a man, fight agin it. And would they do this if they didn't think that their vile trades would suffer if women had the right to vote? It is the great-hearted, generous, noble m

d it don't pay to talk with women

or, an' Josiah sed, "No, it don't pa

uld neighbor with us again. And in three days' time we sot sail. We got to the depo about an hour too early, but I wuz glad we wuz on time, for it would have worked Josiah up dretfully ef we hadn't been, for he had spent most of the latter part of the night in gittin' up and walki

I wouldn't do any sech thing, an' I looked at him in such a witherin' way that I should most probable withered him, only he is blind in on

nto every kind of wickedness. But he didn't ask that. He wanted things done fair and square: he jest wanted to steal horses. He wuz goin'

the cars snorted, and I wuz glad they did. They seemed to ex

id