We political men would fain keep them as they are now; we are
willing to stand the rude buffetin' of--of--voting, in order to guard these
sweet delicate creatures from any hardships. Sweet tender beings, we would
fain guard thee--ah, yes, ah, yes."
Sez I, "Cease instantly, or my sickness will increase, for such talk is
like thoroughwort or lobelia to my moral and mental stomach. You know and I
know that these angelic tender bein's, half-clothed, fill our streets on
icy midnights, huntin' up drunken husbands and fathers and sons. They are
driven to death and to moral ruin by the miserable want liquor drinkin'
entails. They are starved, they are froze, they are beaten, they are
made childless and hopeless by drunken husbands killin' their own flesh
and blood. They go down into the cold waves and are drowned by drunken
captains; they are cast from railways into death by drunken engineers; they
go up on the scaffold and die for crimes committed by the direct aid of
this agent of Hell.
"Wimmen had ruther be flyin' round than to do all this, but they can't.
If men really believed all they say about wimmen, and I think some on 'em
do in a dreamy sentimental way--If wimmen are angels, give 'em the rights
of angels. Who ever hearn of a angel foldin' up her wings and goin' to a
poor-house or jail through the fault of somebody else? Who ever hearn of a
angel bein' dragged off to police court for fightin' to defend her children
and herself from a drunken husband that had broke her wings and blacked
her eyes, got the angel into the fight and then she got throwed into the
streets and imprisoned by it? Who ever hearn of a angel havin' to take in
washin' to support a drunken son or father or husband? Who ever hearn of
a angel goin' out as wet-nurse to git money to pay taxes on her home to
a Govermunt that in theory idolizes her, and practically despises her,
and uses that money in ways abominable to that angel.
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