Samantha on the Woman Question   By: Marietta Holley (1836-1926)

SAMANTHA ON THE

WOMAN QUESTION

BY

MARIETTA HOLLEY

"Josiah Allen's Wife"

Author of

"Samantha at Saratoga," "My Opinions" and "Betsey Bobbet's," etc.

CONTENTS

I. "SHE WANTED HER RIGHTS"

II. "THEY CAN'T BLAME HER"

III. "POLLY'S EYES GROWED TENDER"

IV. "STRIVIN' WITH THE EMISSARY"

V. "HE WUZ DRETFUL POLITE"

VI. "CONCERNING MOTH MILLERS AND MINNY FISH"

VII. "NO HAMPERIN' HITCHIN' STRAPS"

VIII. "OLD MOM NATER LISTENIN'"

IX. THE WOMEN'S PARADE

X. "THE CREATION SEARCHIN' SOCIETY"

ILLUSTRATIONS

"AND I WONDER IF THERE'S A WOMAN IN THE LAND THAT CAN BLAME SEREPTA FOR WANTIN' HER RIGHTS" (p. 29). Frontispiece

"I WANTED TO VISIT THE CAPITOL OF OUR COUNTRY.... SO WE LAID OUT TO GO"

"HE'D ENTERED POLITICAL LIFE WHERE THE BIBLE WUZN'T POPULAR; HE'D NEVER READ FURTHER THAN GULLIVER'S EPISTLE TO THE LILIPUTIANS"

"SEZ JOSIAH, 'DOES THAT THING KNOW ENOUGH TO VOTE?'"

I

"SHE WANTED HER RIGHTS"

Lorinda Cagwin invited Josiah and me to a reunion of the Allen family at her home nigh Washington, D.C., the birthplace of the first Allen we knowed anything about, and Josiah said:

"Bein' one of the best lookin' and influential Allens on earth now, it would be expected on him to attend to it."

And I fell in with the idee, partly to be done as I would be done by if it wuz the relation on my side, and partly because by goin' I could hit two birds with one stun, as the poet sez. Indeed, I could hit four on 'em.

My own cousin, Diantha Trimble, lived in a city nigh Lorinda's and I had promised to visit her if I wuz ever nigh her, and help bear her burdens for a spell, of which burden more anon and bom by.

Diantha wuz one bird, the Reunion another, and the third bird I had in my mind's eye wuz the big outdoor meeting of the suffragists that wuz to be held in the city where Diantha lived, only a little ways from Lorinda's.

And the fourth bird and the biggest one I wuz aimin' to hit from this tower of ourn wuz Washington, D.C. I wanted to visit the Capitol of our country, the center of our great civilization that stands like the sun in the solar system, sendin' out beams of power and wisdom and law and order, and justice and injustice, and money and oratory, and talk and talk, and wind and everything, to the uttermost points of our vast possessions, and from them clear to the ends of the earth. I wanted to see it, I wanted to like a dog. So we laid out to go.

[Illustration: "I wanted to visit the Capitol of our country.... So we laid out to go."]

Lorinda lived on the old Allen place, and I always sot store by her, and her girl, Polly, wuz, as Thomas J. said, a peach. She had spent one of her college vacations with us, and a sweeter, prettier, brighter girl I don't want to see. Her name is Pauline, but everybody calls her Polly.

The Cagwins are rich, and Polly had every advantage money could give, and old Mom Nater gin her a lot of advantages money couldn't buy, beauty and intellect, a big generous heart and charm. And you know the Cagwins couldn't bought that at no price. Charm in a girl is like the perfume in a rose, and can't be bought or sold. And you can't handle or describe either on 'em exactly. But what a influence they have; how they lay holt of your heart and fancy.