Samantha on the Woman Question

en family at her home nigh Washington, D.C., the birthplace

fluential Allens on earth now, it wou

it wuz the relation on my side, and partly because by goin' I could hit

d I had promised to visit her if I wuz ever nigh her, and help be

mind's eye wuz the big outdoor meeting of the suffragists that wuz to be

zation that stands like the sun in the solar system, sendin' out beams of power and wisdom and law and order, and justice and injustice, and money and oratory, and talk and talk, an

as Thomas J. said, a peach. She had spent one of her college vacations with us, and a sweeter,

llect, a big generous heart and charm. And you know the Cagwins couldn't bought that at no price. Charm in a girl is like the perfume in a rose, and ca

a on their way to the Cagwins' camp in the Adirondacks. And we all liked him so well that we agreed in givin' him this extr

ious eyes and kinder sad lookin' too under the fun, as eyes must be in this world of ourn if they look back fur,

He went out in the hay field, he and Polly, and rode home on top of a load of hay jest as nateral and eas

., all the neighbors wanted to send errents by me. Betsy Bobbet Slimp

git him a paper of lettuce seed. And Solomon Sypher wanted me

thought it ort to be a extra kind to stand the sharp glare that wuz beatin' down on it constant, and to ask him if he didn't think the

r's housen, to git patterns for 'em. She said she wuz sick of sun flowers and blazin' stars. She thought mebby they'd have sunthin'

aid he wuz goin' to git a pate

vermunt quilt and wanted it approp

in'--she'd counted 'em. And then I remembered seein' it. There wuz a petition fer wimmen's rights and I remember Ardelia couldn't sign it for lack of time. She

quilt. I remember she wuz quiltin' the camel that day and couldn't be disturbed, so we didn't git the names. It took the old lady three years, and when it wuz don

of hisen to git patented. And I thought to myse

me to dicker for a calf from Mount Ver

more hefty and momentous than all the rest

rents for her if a breath wuz left in my body. She come for a all day's visit; and though she is a vegetable widow and humbly, I wuz middlin' g

her in Washington. I spozed it wuz some new kind of tattin' or fancy work. I

ht mebby it wuz a new kind of dance and told her, "I wuz too

she wanted me to canv

ious tone, "How many she wanted canvass

though I wanted to obleege Serepta, I didn't fee

ject, and said she wanted her rights

wuz ruined and the Whiskey Ring had done it, that and wimmen's helpless condition under the law and she cried and wep' and I did. And right while I w

royed and her rights, and she wa

the President about it, and I thought more'n likely as not he would want to do right by her. "An

wuz gittin' along? I hadn't heard from her for years. She married Phileman

n the po

ster!" sez I, "w

sister, Azuba Clapsaddl

"They wuz well off. Azuba had five thousan

gone, it has gone down Phileman Clapsaddle's throat. Look down that man's throat and you

ee!"

a double sleigh, and three buffalo robes. He's drinked 'em all

gin. "And where a

s habits and drink as bad as he duz an

a spell. And then thinkin' I must say sunthin' and wantin

ra's girl? That pretty girl

s in the lun

sez I, "be you t

nd in goin' about from store to store the heat and hard work overcome her and she fell down in a sort of faintin' fit and wuz called drunk and dragged off to a police court by a man who wuz a animal in human shape. And h

agin for quite a spell. But thinkin' I must be soc

derin' in ja

Cassandr

repta's tone wuz now l

property that she earned herself in a store, should be used. But she had been taxed high for new sidewalks in front of some of her buildin's. And then another man come into power in that ward, and he naterally w

humbly. The Pesters are a humbly lot. But I didn't think it out loud, and didn't ophold t

did i

h ago and she has got her grit up and won't pay; and n

mouldy, but that is Serepta's

u think the weather i

turn she would give to the talk, bein' so embittered. But I felt that the weather wuz safe, and

and the laws they've made, for it seems as if I never see a hum

down with billerous colick, voylent four weeks before Serepta wuz born. And some think it wuz the hardness between 'em and some think it wuz th

is brother. Her mother couldn't help herself, he had the law on his side. But it killed her. She drooped away and died bef

knew he hadn't any children and spozed that he wuz rich and respectable. But the truth wuz he had been runnin' down every way, had lost his property and his character, wuz dissipated and mean. But the will wuz made and the law stood. Men are ashamed now to think that the law wuz ever in voge, but it wuz, and is now in some of

erty she had, while he sunk lower and lower until at last he needed the very necessaries of life

other so tight reached out and dragged her back agin. Upheld by them her uncle could compel her to give her servi

werful arms that wuz protectin' her, helped her to slip through 'em. And Serepta come to Jonesville to live with a sister of that good woman; changed her name s

up with a whiskey ring, whipped Serepta--not so very hard. He went accordin' to law, and the law of the United States don't approve of a man's whippin' his wife enough to endanger her life, it sez it don't. He made every move of hisen lawful and felt that Serepta hadn't ort to complain and

ollars for it. Of course the law give the money to him and she never got a cent of it. But she wouldn't have made any fuss over that, knowin' that the law of the United States wuz such. But what made it so awful mortifyin' to h

at--while she lay there groanin' in splints, to have her husband take the m

d to. And it wuz spozed that that very hip money wuz what made the match. For before she wuz fairly out of splints he got a divorce