And I could see in her sweet face the brave
determination to do and to dare, to try to help ondo the wrongs, and try to
lift the burdens from weak and achin' shoulders. But Lorinda kep' on with
the same old moth-eaten argument so broke down and feeble it ort to be
allowed to die in peace.
"Woman's suffrage would make women neglect their homes and housework and
let their children run loose into ruin."
I knowed she said it partly on Polly's account, but I sez in surprise,
"Why, Lorinda, it must be you hain't read up on the subject or you would
know wherever wimmen has voted they have looked out first of all for the
children's welfare. They have raised the age of consent, have closed
saloons and other places of licensed evil, and in every way it has been
their first care to help 'em to safer and more moral surroundin's, for who
has the interest of children more at heart than the mothers who bore them,
children who are the light of their eyes and the hope of the future."
Lorinda admitted that the state of the children in the homes of the poor
and ignorant wuz pitiful. "But," sez she, "the Bible sez 'ye shall always
have the poor with you,' and I spoze we always shall, with all their
sufferin's and wants. But," sez she, "in well-to-do homes the children are
safe and well off, and don't need any help from woman legislation."
"Why, Lorinda," sez I, "did you ever think on't how such mothers may
watch over and be the end of the law to their children with the father's
full consent during infancy when they're wrastlin' with teethin',
whoopin'-cough, mumps, etc.
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