many pregnant with
hope for a new impetus to civilization, for others with a
misfortune only to be compared to that which happened in Greece
when Ino boiled the seed corn of a whole kingdom, and thus not
only lost the crop of that year, but, by the subtle interplay of
the laws by which evolution proceeds, set back humanity for a
period not to be reckoned in years. Mrs. H. S. Mendenhall of
Georgetown wrote to Dr. Avery on the evening of election day:

Before this reaches you the telegraph will have given you
the result of the day's work all over the State, but I
thought I would jot down a line while the experiences of the
last ten hours were fresh in my mind. Last evening our
committee appointed ladies to represent the interests of
woman suffrage at the polls. To my surprise, many evaded the
work who were, nevertheless, strongly in favor of the
measure. Mrs. Dr. Collins and I were the only ones at the
lowest and most important precinct until one o'clock, when
we were joined by the wife of the Presbyterian minister. Our
course was somewhat as follows: On the approach of a voter,
we would ask him, "have you voted?" If he had, we usually
troubled him no further; if he had not, we asked, "Can you
vote for woman suffrage?" If he approved, we supplied him
with his ticket; if he disapproved, we asked him for his
objections, and we have listened to some comical ones
to-day. One man asked me, though not rudely, "Who is cooking
your husband's dinner?" I promptly invited him to dine with
us. Another spoke of neglected household duties, and when I
mentioned a loaf of bread I had just baked, and should be
glad to have him see, he said, "I expect you can bake
bread," but he voted against us. The Methodist men were for
us; the Presbyterians and Episcopalians very fairly so, and
the Roman Catholics were not all against us, some of the
prominent members of that church working and voting for
woman suffrage. The liquor interest went entirely against
us, as far as I know.

The observations of the day have led me to several general
conclusions, to which, of course, exceptions exist: (1)
Married men will vote fo