“Oh, no,” said Mr. Lister, “every one of the things which you mention were granted to women within two weeks after the strike began. So far as they are concerned, woman is to-day the full equal of man. Those rights were all included in one great Omnibus Bill, which was passed as quickly as the most expert legislation could accomplish it. I assure you that such was the awful completeness of the Great Woman’s Strike that it did not take man three days to discover that life was not worth living without her. If it had been simply the withdrawal of a single class of women and their absence from a few scattered households the effect would not have been so absolutely terrifying. But to have woman forsake man as a whole, completely withdrawing her graces and softening influences from his environment, created a monstrous chasm, a void, at which angels might shudder. It was like the divorce of Heaven and Earth, or as if the lamp of civilization had suddenly been turned down, and men appeared to each other in the twilight which ensued like strange, wolfish animals.” “I can readily understand that,” I said with a slight shudder, “but if all the rights I mentioned have been granted to woman, I cannot conceive of any further occasion for the Strike. Why is it not at an end?” “It is not at an end,” said Mr. Lister, “because since woman has discovered her power, she has greatly enlarged the category of her rights, and it includes one now beside which all those you have named are trivial indeed. She has fitly named this great right her Magna Charta, nor could she have ever made such an unprecedented stand as she is now making on a less vital principal of justice than that of Habeas Corpus. It is a striking evidence of the tremendous attachment that exists between the sexes, that man, eager for the restoration of the cheering sunshine of his natural companion, was disposed to grant this final great concession as precipitately as he did the right to political equality, but it could not be done so lightly. It called for the most serious, philosophical consideration on the part of every individual man, and therefore some time has unavoidably elapsed. But the frightful contingency of allowing the race to lapse from the earth admits of but little delay. The granting of Woman’s Magna Charta is to be decided by the ballot. To-day is Friday and on Monday next the fate of the world will be decided.” “What is this Magna Charta?” I said in awe, for the picture which my companion’s words brought to my mind of a desolated planet reeling through space, made me feel strangely weak. I could scarcely persuade myself that I was not dreaming. “The Woman’s Magna Charta,” replied Mr. Lister, “is--” But at this moment a passing newsboy shouted, “Extra Hue and Cry! Rejection of the Button Manufacturers’ Petition! Complete collapse of the Corset Industry! Great failures among the Ladies’ Tailors!”