2
T H E TO R C H OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , OREGON , M ARCH 22, 1900.
She consulted Frederick S tanton commenced her public the logic of events has given us the
Elizabeth Cady Stan ton and the Douglass ( as he could speak from work, and then M bs . S tanton was public school.
personal experience), who agreed indeed m ade whole. W ith Susan
Dutch Aristocracy.
T h at the public school if doing
with her th a t the first need of an by her side, she was ready to defy its appropriate work well, its worst
BY H ELEN II. G ARDENER.
oppressed class was a voice in the the world. Arm in arm with her, enem ies will r.ot deny.
T h at its
laws and law-m akers; so he helped she did not care if every woman instruction is thorough, practical,
Few of us who belong to the her to argue the point with their gathered her sk irts about her and and cheap, will not be denied. T hat
younger generation have any r e ­ opponents, and together they car­ crossed over to th e other side. It it does not give religious in stru c­
alizing sense of the m ethods and ried the resolution by a large m a­ seems to me it is not asking or ex­ tion is its fault in the eyes of its
motive which attended the birth of jority vote.
pecting too much th at, while Mrs. enem ies; yet the sam e people will
the woman suffrage idea. It is
Mrs. Stanton was the only Stanton is still alive, her bust may allow th a t it could not give such in ­
only recently th a t I have learned woman in the state who interested be placed beside th a t of A unt struction and be tru e to its nature,
why the old D utch aristocracy of herself in the “ Divorce Bill” when Susan. U nited in life and in labor, and conform to th e conditions es­
New York approved certain fea­ th a t was pending. She was in ­ death should not divide them .
sential to its life. Its enemies do
tures of the work of E lizabeth vited to address the legislature,
not seek to im prove or reform , but
Cady S tanton, at a time when she and her able speech was published
To Susan B. A nthony.
to destroy, the free public school.
stood as pre-em inently the leader by th e hundreds and widely circu­ ON HER 80 th BIRTHDAY,FEBBCARY 15,1900. It is folly to argue with m eh peo­
of th a t derided cause, as early as lated. The bill, asking divorce for
ple. The m otive of th eir hostility
[We think th« follow ing fr-»m Mrs Stanton’s
drunkenness, desertion, im prison­ own pen, is a very appropriate com panion to the renders all reasoning nugatory.
1844.
Residing in A lbany several years, m ent and cruel and brutal tre a t­ above noble tribute — E d .J
An exhibit of the good done by the
My
honored
friend,
I
’ll
n
e
’er
forget
Mrs. S tan to n , being interested in m ent, lacked only four votes of
schools in th eir peculiar line, only
T h a t day in J u n e when first we m et.
the bills before the legislature, passing. A gain, Mrs. Stanton was O h, would I had th e skill to p a in t
increases the hatred of the enemv,
.My
vision
of
th
a
t
Q
u
ak
er
S
ain
t.
took an active p a rt in the discus­ the only woman who had a hear­
and, incased in an arm or of bigotrv
Robed in pale blue and silver gray,
sion on the “ M arried W om an’s ing on the bill to license the social No silly fashions did she essay.
and prejudice, he is proof against
H
er
brow
was
sm
ooth
and
very
fair
Property Bill,” then pending, from vice. The com m ittee who had that
’N eath coils of w avy, soft, brow n h a ir. appeal and im pervious to reason­
1844 to 1848. W ith E rnestine bill in charge were to report the H er voice was like th e la rk —so clear,
ing.
Rose an d Pauline W right Davis, next day. A m em ber strongly op­ So rich and p leasan t to th e ear.
One argum ent used against pub­
T he “ P ren tice h a n d ,” on m an oft trie d ,
she scattered petitions in favor of posed to it met Mrs. Stanton by Now m ade in h er a N a tio n ’s pride.
lic education is th a t the S tate has
the bill all over the state.
chance in the corridor, and urged We m et and loved, no m ore to p a rt,
no right to do w hat the parent
As she was personally acq u ain t­ her to go before the com m ittee and H an d clasped in h a n d , h e a rt bound to should do; and th a t, if the S tate
h e a rt.
ed with m any of the members, and m ake her protest in the nam e of
educates, it should, to be logical
W e’ve trav eled in th e W est to g eth er,
connected with the Dutch aris­ wom an. He at once secuied her Both day and n ig h t, in storm y w e a th e r; and consistent, feed, clothe, cate­
lim bing th e rugged suffrage hill,
tocracy through the Livingstons an invitation to do so. As she had C
chise, and create the child. This
And bravely facing every ill,
and Schuylers, she had many no speech prepared, she thought W hile restin g , speaking, anyw here,
sty le of argum ent, so fond of the
social opportunities for discussing th a t the bill itself, read by a Q u ite Often in th e open a ir;
F rom sleighs, o x carts, or, m ay h ap , g arb of logic, is ap t to be exceed­
the question before the legislature. woman in the presence of a woman,
coaches,
ingly nonsensical in its final deduc­
Besieged
w ith beetles, bugs and roaches.
As the young men belonging to would rouse every spark of chivalry
tions. Because the S tate does one
All th is for th e em ancipation
the aristocracy were generally ex­ there was in the soul of man. H er Of th e d e a r wom en of th e n a tio n .
thing, it does not follow th a t, to be
trav a g an t and luxurious, th eD u tch rich, deep voice and im pressive Now we have had enough of trav el,
consistent, it m ust do everything.
farm ers were not willing to see m anner revealed a new depth of And in o u r tu rn laid down the gavel.
Because a m an swallows a m outh­
So, in th e tim e-h o n o red retre a t,
their hard-earned fortunes pass into infam y in th a t execrable bill. As G
ladly now we’ll tak e o u r seat.
ful of salt w ater he is not bound to
such hands. By the old common she slowly read its gross provisions, In triu m p h , having reached four-score,
We,II give o u r th o u g h ts to a rt an d lore. drink up the sea. Because man
law of E n g lan d , a t th a t time m ar­ its advocates one by one bent their To
younger h an d s resign the reins
bores into the earth for ore, is he
ried women could in h erit nothing; heads. At the close she said: W ith all th e honors and th e gains.
by consistency compelled to work
U n ited , down life’s hill w e’ll glide,
th e husbands not only owned their “ H onorable gentlem en, would any W
h a te ’e r th e com ing years betide.
through to C hina? T ru ly consist­
wives, but th eir in heritance and of you be willing th at one of your P arted only w hen first, in tim e,
ency is the bugbear of little minds.
ev erything they possessed. The d au g h ters should be subject to the E te rn al rest is th in e or m ine.
I he S tate is an artificial person,
father owned the children; could provisions of such an odious bill?”
and, like all such, it has its powers,
will away the unborn child. He Deep voices answered in chorus, For the Torch of Reason.
owned the wife’s clothes, her o rn a ­ “ No, no, no!” “ T hen,” said she, E nem ies of th e Public Schools. obligations, privileges, and lim ita­
tions lines well defined in all clear,
ments, her wig, false teeth, her “ legislate for the unfortunate w ards
BY G. A. W ALK ER.
honest m inds. Surely in view of
cork leg, if she had one.
of the state as you would for your
th e close relationship of ignorance
The Dutch fathers, wishing their own daughters. This bill is an in ­
The question of public education and crim e; in view of the u tter u n ­
fortunes to descend to their d au g h ­ sult to every woman in the E m pire
ters and grandchildren, were deep­ State. K ill it in your com m ittee is h ard ly debatable any longer. fitness of m any parents to provide
ly interested in the passage of the th a t it m ay never appear before the T hroughout the greater portion of for the education of their children;
“ M arried W om an’s Property B ill.” legislature, and thus, gentlem en, the country the public school sys­ in view of the fact th a t the central
tem is an established fact, and the I principle of governm ent is associa­
T hus, the influence of the aris­ honor yourselves!”
question of its policy is as irrele­ tion for protection, im provem ent
tocracy on one side and reform ers
The com m ittee adjourned, and
on the other, com bined to secure a nothing more was heard of the bill. vant as would be the com parison and preservation; in view of the
speedy passage of the bill. Mrs. Mrs. S tanton was unsparingly de­ of th e full-grained cereals of mod­ m ultitudes ofch ild ren on ourstreets
S tanton had several hearings be­ nounced for her appeals in the ern cultivation with the shriveled for w hose education no p aren tal or
fore the com m ittee th a t had the halls of legislation. Women w’ould kernels of wild, original grow th, or religious provision is made; in view
bill in charge, from year to year, cross the street to avoid speaking the fine wool of the Merino with of the fact th a t with all m ale adults
th e hair-like fieece of the sheep’s citizenship m eans suffrage and suf­
until it passed in 1848.
to her (ancestors, probably, of the
frage m eans rule; in view of the
H aving removed to Seneca F alls, present anti-suffragists, all of whom, first parents.
Debates on public school educa­ fact th a t nothing is so conducive to
New Y ork, Mrs. S tanton called a then as now, grasped eagerly all of
convention there the sam e year, the benefits of property and other tion, whose argum ents are ground­ intelligence as education, and noth­
the first ever known for the discus­ rights which her labor thus se­ ed ou w hat A ristotle, or any other ing so conducive to honesty and
an tiq u ated H eathen or C hristian, m orality as intelligence— in view of
sion of the rights of women. She cured to them).
may have said, are as puerile as all this, m ight it not seem to be the
made all the arrangem ents, wrote
A lthough the busts of several were the argum ents on the slavery
province and privilege of the State
the bill of rights and th e resolu­
women from other states have question backed up by passages
to educate the children within its
tions, and there made the first de­
been placed in our C apitol, Mrs. from the scriptures, or on the tem ­ borders?
m and for the right of suffrage.
S tan to n , who was born w ithin perance question with weapons po­
T his resolution was opposed by
If the enemies of the public
forty miles of A lbany, and who in ­
lem ical, extracted, often extorted, school can not see the force of this
all th e friends in com m ittee, and
augurated the m ovem ent for the from the sam e source.
Not w hat argum ent, let them go west and
she was urged not to present it to
political rights of women in this
any one said a few years or cen tu r­ learn how, on the vast prairie, a
th e convention. But she said it
state,
has
as
yet
no
place
there.
was the most im p o rtan t resolution
ies ago, but w hat obtains today, is com m unity of “ buffalo bulls” would
in the series, an d she would take
F o rtu n ately , Susan B. A nthony w hat we should consider. The log­
form a circle outside their huddled
the responsibility of its success or appeared, eight years after Mrs.
ic of events wiped out slavery, and herd of young when a formidable
For the Torch o f Reason.
defeat.