ballots afford the means to enforce it? It may be so; but it seems wiser
not to predict nor to anticipate, but to wait and hope.

It is no reproach on woman to say that she is not infallible on particular
questions. There is much reason to suppose that in politics, as in every
other sphere, the joint action of the sexes will be better and wiser than
that of either singly. It seems obvious that the experiment of republican
government will be more fairly tried when one half the race is no longer
disfranchised. It is quite certain, at any rate, that no class can trust
its rights to the mercy and chivalry of any other, but that, the weaker it
is, the more it needs all political aids and securities for
self-protection. Thus far we are on safe ground; and here, as it seems to
me, the claim for suffrage may securely rest. To go farther in our
assertions seems to me unsafe, although many of our wisest and most
eloquent may differ from me; and the nearer we approach success, the more
important it is to look to our weapons. It is a plausible and tempting
argument, to claim suffrage for woman on the ground that she is an angel;
but I think it will prove wiser, in the end, to claim it for her as
being human.

FIRST-CLASS CARRIAGES

In a hotly contested municipal election, the other day, an active political
manager was telling me his tactics. "We have to send carriages for some of
the voters," he said. "First-class carriages! If we undertake to wait on
'em, we must do it in good shape, and not leave the best carriages to be
hired by the other party."

I am not much given to predicting just what will happen when women vote;
but I confidently assert that they will be taken to the polls, if they
wish, in first-class carriages. If the best horses are to be harnessed, and
the best cushions selected, and every panel of the coach rubbed till you
can see your face in it, merely to accommodate some elderly man who lives
two blocks away, and could walk to the polls very easily, then how much
more will these luxuries be placed at the service of every woman, young or
old, whose presence at the polls is made doubtful by mud, or snow, or the
prospect of a shower.

But the carriage is only the beginning of the polite attentions that will
soon appear. When we see the transformation undergone by every ferryboat
and every railway station, so soon as it comes to be frequented by women,
who can doubt that voting-places will experience the