nder the protection of the established order of
things, and from there they hurl the shafts of satire and ridicule
upon all who demand that this violent condition cease. Ridicule is
the most powerful weapon now used against the woman who attempts to
obtain justice and the vindication of the rights of her sex, some of
which rights, such as that of governing the peoples, were not even
withheld from them in many of the primitive states.

The result is that many persons have a very queer idea of the
suffragist. She is represented as a woman who dislikes home work and
is absent from her home at all hours of the day and night. The most
common picture is that in which the wife addresses a gathering of
other women, while the husband is busy at home, sweeping the floor
and attempting to pacify the squalling baby. This is the idea which
has been spread by cinematographs and reviews and which has impressed
itself upon the minds of the unthinking masses, who are incapable
of rising above a superficial view of things.

Nothing, however, is farther from representing her as she really
is. The suffragist is a true product of our era of liberty. Having
received the same education as man, she knows and does not shirk her
responsibilities towards her family; but at the same time she is free
from prejudice and deems it her duty to cooeperate with man in all work
concerning social reform and the public welfare of the community in
which she lives. She believes that for the very reason that there are
duties in the home which are assigned to woman, she has also duties to
perform in public life. The distribution of the work between man and
woman causes no conflict between them in their home and family life,
and there is no reason why there should be any conflict in public
life if each sex is assigned the duties adapted to it.

Being a suffragist does not mean being antagonistic to the family
duties. On the contrary, the suffragist realizes that the happiness
of the family is the foundation of the happiness of society, and she
knows that social distress and vices affect the family and that she
can and should cooeperate with man in the relief of that distress and
the suppression of those vices.

No, the general idea people have of the suffragist is altogether
a wrong one and it is high time that at least the educated and
intelligent correct their views where they are based on prejudices and
ideas belonging to the past. We can not prevent the