WOMAN AND THE BALLOT. 243 



of energy which an official oath exacts " without disregarding the 

 spiritual welfare of their flocks ; and if they are true pastors, it 

 would not be amiss to compare them in the multiplicity of their 

 cares to the mothers of young families. Physicians in active 

 practice can not well be judges or sheriffs without neglecting the 

 vocation for which they are especially fitted. Scientific men en- 

 gaged in original research are not expected to abandon their 

 laboratories, where they may be on the eve of bringing forth the 

 fruit of lives wedded to patient observation, even if a mistaken 

 populace should nominate them for mayors or Congressmen. Man- 

 ufacturers and business men have even been known to decline 

 senatorial honors, since these conflicted with the responsibilities 

 of their callings. 



If a count could be made of all these men who, for various 

 reasons, will not accept political candidacy, it might be found to 

 equal in number the mothers who are disqualified for office- 

 holding. 



It is to be observed that at any given time only a minority of 

 mothers are even thus conditioned. That four fifths of woman- 

 kind between the ages of twenty and sixty are ineligible for 

 public office proves thus to be an exaggeration. 



Planted upon this astounding proposition, our antisuffragist 

 then proceeds to discuss the complications that may arise if 

 women enter upon political life. While they attend committee 

 meetings, the scarlet fever may invade the nursery. If they en- 

 gage in jury duty, the husband, fretted with financial cares, will 

 fail to find sympathy at home. 



It may be presumed that women with young children will not 

 generally accept candidacy for public office ; but should they in 

 some cases think best to do so, such contingencies are not unlike 

 those that occur outside of political life. A wife is called to the 

 bedside of a dying mother, one thousand miles away. She leaves 

 her children ; the measles breaks out among them, and the father, 

 although an inexperienced man, nurses the flock back to health. 

 Instances are not wanting in which men have wrestled victori- 

 ously also with other diseases, so that a great gloom need not 

 settle down upon mankind at the prospect of a mother's occa- 

 sional attendance upon a committee meeting. 



The dearth of sympathy at home is no matter for jesting. No 

 doubt thousands of women, in times of anxiety, have gone entirely 

 unconsoled while their husbands were jurymen. If men have a 

 taste of this experience, where is the injustice ? 



Not very relevantly our opponent breaks in here with the as- 

 sertion that " the suffrage is a question of readjusting the occupa- 

 tions of men and women as established by all civilized and unciv- 

 ilized people." As the occupations of men and women vary with 



