Josiah Allen on the Woman QuestionHolley, Marietta
General
Josiah Allen on the Woman Question
Holley, Marietta
Feminism -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Sex role -- Fiction; Women's rights -- Fiction
And if a grocer lets his eatin' stuff lay round outdoors for the flies
to roost on, do you spoze they'll buy that stuff? No, their minds not
bein' bigger than them fly specks, they'll hound that man till they
make him cover up that stuff or bring it into the house, and every one
that has got horse sense knows it makes that man extra work, but what
do they care? And if he tries to make a little more money by sellin'
things that hain't jest what you might call hullsome--and of course
every business man understands that he wants to make all the money he
can--why, the woman that buys that stuff once, and thinks it hain't
what she wants to feed her fambly on, she begins to tell petickulars;
she'll call it rotten, and tell how long it has been in cold storage,
she'll say "to lessen population and increase some millionaire's
revenue." And she'll call his canned vegetables mouldy, and tell how
his canned meat smells, and how it made her children sick, and how Eben
Purdy's little girl died after eatin' it, and how it took off old Miss
Lanfear.
All these little petickulars she has to dwell on with other wimmen till
she gits 'em all rousted up and there will be a dozen talkin' at one
time, sez I, and sez he, and sez she, and sez they. And they'll keep it
up and jest boycote that man till he has to keep hullsome goods that
cost him most as much agin, and of course cuts down his profits, but
they don't think of that.
And how them wimmen found fault with the decision of the Supreme court,
that pizen could be used to bleach flour, when they knew the Supreme
court is composed of the very smartest men in the Nation. And they
knowed them supreme men didn't approve of usin' enough pizen in it to
kill the aged and infants.
But they had to argy and boast that if they wuz supreme wimmen, they
wouldn't had a mite of pizen put into bread, jest as if grown folks
can't stand a little pizen now and then. But you can see plain that
they claim that wimmen can manage the home and food bizness better than
men, and want to find fault with men and git the upper hands on 'em.
And it is jest so with milk. A fool ort to know that it makes a man as
much agin work to fuss and clean off his cows and his stables every
day, and keep his milk absolutely clean. But what do they care if a man
breaks his back cleanin' his stables and washin' off his cows' tits.
They'll talk and put in every little petickular about how many babies
wuz killed by his bad milk, and how many folks got tomain from it, till
they carry the day and git the milk they want. Another man made to toe
the mark by petickulars.
And it is jest so with stuff throwed into the street--why, a man can't
call his soul his own, and throw a old cabbage or rotten potato into
the street without their interferin' with him, and makin' him clean up
his primises and keep a covered garbage can.
[Illustration: "Till she gets 'em all rousted up, and just boycote that
man till he has to keep hullsome food"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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