"But," Dolly went on, sweeping the faces of the masculine row beside
her and turning to the audience, "this stalwart bunch of Nature's
noblemen here on the platform will tell you that women haven't got
sense enough to vote. That's it, Mrs. Timmons, they think at the bottom
of their hearts that women have skulls as thick as a pine board. They
don't know this: they don't know that some of the most advanced
thinkers in the world are now claiming that intuition is the greatest
faculty given to the human race and that woman has the biggest share of
it. Oh no, women oughtn't to be allowed to take part in any important
public issue! Away back in France, some centuries ago, a simple,
uneducated country-girl, seventeen years of age--Joan of Arc--noticed
that the men of the period were not properly managing the military
affairs of her country, and she took the matter under consideration.
She stepped in among great generals and diplomats and convinced them
that she knew more about what to do than all the men in the realm. The
King listened to her, gave her power to act, and she rode at the head
of thousands of soldiers to victory first and a fiery death later. Now,
Warren Wilks will tell you that a woman of that sort ought never be
allowed to do a thing but rock a cradle, scrub a floor, or look pretty,
according to her husband's disposition or pocket-book.
"Then, after all, did you all know--while you are talking so much about
the harm of a woman voting--that if it hadn't been for a woman there
wouldn't have been a single vote cast in all these United States? In
fact, you wouldn't be sitting here now but for that woman. Away back
(as I was teaching my history class the other day) Columbus tramped all
over the then civilized land trying to get aid to make his trial
voyage, and nobody would listen to him. He was taunted and jeered at
everywhere he went. Men every bit as sensible as we have to-day said he
was plumb crazy. He was out of heart and ready to give up as he rode
away from the court of Spain on a mule, when Isabella called him back
and furnished the money out of her own pocket to buy and man his ships.
Folks, that is the kind of brain Warren Wilks and his crowd will tell
you ought to be kept at the cook-stove and the wash-tub. Oh, women will
be given the vote in time, don't you bother!" Dolly said, with renewed
conviction. "We can't have progress without change. I never thought
about it myself before, but it is as plain as the nose on your face. It
has to come because it is simple justice. A law which is unfair to one
single person is not a perfect law, and many a woman has found herself
in a position where only her vote would save her from disaster. Women
are purer by nature than men, and they will purify politics. That's all
I'm going to say to-night. Now, I'm not managing this debate, but it is
getting late and I want everybody that feels like it to vote on my
side. Stand up now. All in favor, rise to your feet. That's right, Mrs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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