e. Will you be good enough to
tell me which woman you think to-day is the superior? There is
the problem: the Asiatic woman is the woman we hear tell about;
just look at her--a do-nothing, a know-nothing woman! The
European woman is the woman that has been cultured. Which is the
superior to-day? which commands most respect?

Delicacy in woman is sentiment, not appearance, not enamel, not
languishing airs. But it is asked, why make this disturbance? Why
not let a woman, if it is desired that she should be a student,
inquire of her husband? Suppose she hasn't got one. Young
gentlemen that are so fond of talking about the matter say, let
the women stay at home and take care of their families. Let me
ask you if you will agree to give every woman a family that
hasn't got one? If you will not, then hold your tongue. But even
taking the question in the way they put it, how would these young
men like their fathers to say, "Tom, Bill, you are both
Republicans. You have gone away from my notions; I am a good,
stanch, old-fashioned Democrat; and my advice to you, boys, is
that you stay at home and read, and think these matters over, and
I will go and vote for you,"--how would the boys like that?
Everybody is willing to be above everybody else, and this thing
of one man assuming that he is the superior of another, and
asking that other to knuckle down to him, is not popular. You
don't like it. And women don't like it any better than you
do--and they ought not to like it, either. Women can have all the
benefit of holding an opinion, but they shall not have the power
of expressing it. They go through all the labor and trouble of
loading, but can't fire off. Now, I affirm, that it is wrong to
give women the responsibilities of public life without giving
them the safety of public life, too.

But what practical use will the ballot be to women? Tell me what
practical use the ballot will be to men; then I will tell you of
what use it will be to women. A man that denies the right of
woman to the ballot must deny it to any body and all bodies. I
affirm another thing. I affirm that the ballot is a natural
right. To say that voting is an artificial thing is merely an
evasion. If there is any such thing as natural rights in the
world, it is the right of every