THE ILLUSTRATED WEST SHORE.
255
SALUTATORY.
I do not resume the duties of a journalistic life with the overwrought
expectations of the novice. Kail well I know the uncertain character of the
sea of public opinion. There are reefs and shoals, whirlpools and sunken
rocks, fathomless pits and treacherous typhoons to be discovered and shunned
by the journalistic ship which embarks on such a sea, bound for the port of
u Liberty," whose way stations are Equality," "Justice," " Business," " Lit
erature," " Art," " Science,' " Fashion," " Society," and " Home." But
The West Shore is a staunch and well-rigged ship, and the flag at its
masthead floats bravely out on the breezes of Progress, and dips proudly as
it approaches its many competing crafts and proffers this journalistic salute.
Experience has taught me valued lessons in the discovery and avoidance
of journalistic dangers. The same patient, impartial and painstaking teacher
has taught a constantly increasing majority of women in all localities the same
important lessons, and we are ready now to sail together, as editor and read
ers, the one at the helm and the multitude on deck, assured, as we touch at
the many different wayports of business, in which all are interested, that our
greatest common interest centers in the peaceful haven of Liberty.
make my editorial bow with respectful deference to many new readers,
as our helm bears hard-a-starboard ; and I greet my many old time friends
with the cordial confidence of long acquaintance as we embark together on
our voyage of endurance and hope.
The traditional " woman's rights woman " is dead. She of the " strident
voice " and nondescript attire, of whom we used to hear so much, is either a
creature of the past or has been an ignis fatuns from the beginning, existing
only in the brain of the man's rights editor. In her place has come the
' equal rights woman," whose voice is modulated and her manner sweet. If
she is young her cheeks are dimpled and rosy i or, if long years of service in
the home, or school, or anywhere else that duty or necessity commanded have
made her old and wrinkled, her smile is still kindly, her voice charming and
her deportment gracious. The equal rights woman does not want to try,
nor world she if she could, usurp a single one of the rights of man. She is
the mother, wife, sister, daughter, niece, sweetheart or cousin of whole battal
lions of men. She wouldn't live in the world without men if she could i and,
from the way her hand and heart are sought in matrimony by men of sense
and wisdom, it is safe to say she couldn't live without them if she would. The
equal rights woman is not the queen of a realm, but the president of a repub
lic, called home. If she is married, her husband and children are copartners
in 'the establishment i and, if she isn't married, she confidently expects to be.
She is often distinguished of late years as a preacher, professor, author,
teacher, artist, electrician, merchant, farmer, manufacturer, actress, editor,
compositor, stenographer, agent, broker or physician, just as she has ever
been distinguished in the past as a homckeeper. But, with all the added
responsibilities of these various vocations, but few of which are self-sought,
her home has not suffered nor her husband become t castaway. " Her hus
band is known in the gates, when sitteth among the rulers of the land."
Such are the women who are demanding the recognition of their equal
right with man to a vow in making the laws of the land in which they live
and do business i the land in whose government they have no voice, but whose
tax-gatherers never fail to find them t where their sons, whom they have risked
their own lives to endow with existence, may be lorn from their tender em
brace to be made targets for the bullets of those ambitious lovers of conquest
who are alone responsible for war.
The equal rights woman is olten at home on the rostrum and always at
home at the hearthstone. Her children arise and call her blessed." There
are few deaths in her household, for she has studied and obeyed the laws of
sanitation, the chemistry of good cookery and the charms of perenmal good
nature. Her husband can't afford to be disagreeable or ungracious, fur
she can be so nearly independent of him if necessary-ami he knows II
that he involuntarily appears at his best in her presence. Her cMdren learn
useful trades or go to college. Th.-y become farmers, editors, merchants,
preachers, lawyers, professors, bankers, manufacturers, artisans, doctors,
statesmen and parents, but not drunkards, idlers, vagabonds, courtesans or
tramps. The wise mother has noble sons and loving daughters, for whose
welfare, even more than ner own, she desires to do her part to secure for all
women that equality before the law, without which both man and woman fall
short of their highest destiny. The equal rights woman knows that a one
sexed government is like a one-sexed home. She doesn't like a home without
men in it, and she knows that no man would like a government without women
in it if all men knew what was best for themselves and their country. Many
noble men have learned this truth already, to their everlasting credit, and all
the rest will learn it also, if they grow in knowledge with advancing years.
Liberty is represented, always, in a symbolic way, as a woman, full
grown. But, so long as woman is a subordinate in the government under
which she lives, subject to " taxation without representation and government
without consent," it is mere mockery of justice to employ her figure as a
symbol of freedom. No matter whether her regal form is displayed on the
dome of a nation's capitol where only men are rulers, or placed as a perpetual
torch-bearer at the gateway ol a nation's commerce, as " Liberty Enlightening
the World," her presence carries with it at once a mockery of'justice as now
administered and a prophecy of the future as foreseen by every patriot. Man,
as a reasoning animal, is always meaning to be just. And the fact that In
spite of his practice in denying liberty to women, his theory is all right in
regard to her future destiny is graphically portrayed' in his prophetic moods
whenever he gets patriotic enough to erect symbolic statues of the highest
order.
Will the sage of the Ortgtmiaii. who happened to be born and reared an
only son among a' large family of daughters, all of whom are leading advo
cates of woman suffrage, be kind enough to tell us how he reached the con
clusion, so often reiterated of late in his otlwrwise excellent and respectful
journal, that " the best women do not want to vote ?
"A FORMIDABLE PLATITUDE."
Our esteemed contemporary, the OrepmiaH, which, when left to the
guiding brain of its senior editor, is noted for its sagacity, nevertheless so
often makes itself ridiculous through the aid of its subordinates, who guage
their often-aired volubility on the woman suffrage question by the vapidity of
their knowledge on the subject, that we, being in an accommodating mood,
give place this week to its recent fulminations under the above caption, merely
adding that the ridiculous admixture of truth and falsehood it contains is com
piled from an anonymous manifesto which is circulated freely by our Iriend,
the enemy, at every point where the special efforts of woman suffragists are
temporarily centered. The thing is a curiosity, and acts merely as a bait to
catch willing gudgeons. The garbled quotation from Colonel Higginson, who
is an honored officer in the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage association, and
has no more intention of giving up the fight than any oiher patriot, is a fair
sample of the methods employed to defeat the cause of justice by the average
" remonstrant."
The OnpmiM has more than once courtcouily rrmlnilnl the advocate! of lull iu(Tni
tor women that their locallrd came wai weaker More llie roilr than II wa trn or even
Mlcen yean (; that the clik-f Humbling block to thr cnwtnwnt of woman mufTrwuo i
the earnest opiioailkin of viul majority of the Intelligent women of llie land. 'Hie anwer
of llie advocates of woman suffrage has tieen lo aucrt lhal the cause of woman suffrage
was never so lining u It b today, and llwl llie niilwn of lh women lo tin gifl of
suffrage wai of to link confluence lhal lu cllalkw wai " noihlng hut plulltuile."
Let us look at the facta which determine Ihe preicnt strength of Ihe came of woman
suffrage. In iBHo, Maine, tiy her legislature, refused munkiinl wflnige lo women by a
vote of more than two lo one In both hoiuei; New Hampshire, In comtilullonal convert
lion, gave Ihe woman luffragUti " leave to wilhilraw ; " I lakoU defeated munk lul suffrage,
for the third lime; Ohio rcluicd munk-iMl auftruge, unit pmpoaltkin for nmilltulkmal
amendment also failed of adoption; Nrlrak voted lo ' Iiii Indcflnilely " a munltl
pal suffrage lull; Massachusetts defeated Iwlh lnunklwl auffrage lull and Ikxru iuf.
(rage lull; Nevada rejected woman suffrage consillullonal amendment; L'onnecllcul