Does Woman Need the Ballot?
Does Woman Need the Ballot?—We could but involuntarily ask the question as we read Dr. J. W. Palmer’s “The Old Adobe,” a sketch of San Francisco life in 1850. He tells us of “the first lady” who came, and her beneficent influence over gamblers, thieves, cut-throats, wild, rough men, and society in general. And in closing his sketch, the doctor asks, “What was the spell that wrought these changes?” and answers: “The influence of a quiet eye, a graceful mien, a thousand pretty pleas for homage and protection—the power of woman, the potent restraint of her presence, the persuasive eloquence of her very silence, the flattery of her slightest approbation, the sufficing rebuke of her turned-away face—that dim religion of the heart which demands no costlier fane than the humblest root-tree, no altar more formally consecrated than a cottage cradle, no deity more awful than that God of love whose smile makes the wilderness blossom like the rose, and the little hills skip like lambs;” and the question comes, Would her power have been augmented if she had been hustling and begging for the ballot?