Life, 1894-05-24 · page 12 of 16
Life — May 24, 1894 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Questions of the Hour: Shall the Word 'Male' Be Stricken Out?" This *Life* page satirizes anti-suffrage arguments circa the 1910s women's voting rights movement. The main essay mocks female suffrage by claiming intelligent women voters would be outnumbered by wives of criminals and "ignorant foreigners," thus worsening urban governance. It also objects to women serving on juries, suggesting they'd be corrupted by exposure to men of "random morals." The accompanying cartoons are lighter sketches unrelated to suffrage—one contrasts working-class courtesy with wealthy club members' rudeness; another plays on the word "spectacle"; the final depicts a tramp's dismissive response about nostalgia. The satire's target is ambiguous: it may mock suffrage opponents' hysteria, or endorse their views. *Life's* actual editorial position on women's voting remains unclear from this page alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
STRICKEN OUT? S there a sadder sight than that of a woman, with outward. indica- tions of intelligence, arguing for the right to vote? A drunkard in a gutter, a debt you cannot pay, a Fifth Avenue stage—these also are unpleasant things, and are sometimes ridiculous and hard to forgive, but they are far less dangerous than the woman who wants to vote. Le Why, O misguided angels, can you not see that for every vote offered by an intelligent member of your sex, at least four will be cast by those who are neither intelligent nor thoughtful, and whose interests are hostile to your own? Your inability to grasp this simple truth is in itself over- whelming proof of how dangerous you can become when once possessed of an idea. You are only endeavoring to aggravate an existing evil; to multiply the ignorant vote that is already sufficiently strong to render good government almost impossible in our larger cities. Open but one of your lovely eyes and, if you can see anything, you can see this... Try and remember that the wife of every burglar, anarchist and pauper ; that the wife of every ignorant foreigner of any possible description will march beside you to the ballot box, and will swamp you, fathoms deep, by a majority so overwhelming that conservative, order- loving citizens will curse you with a curse so heavy and so black that you yourself will turn about and curse the hour of your birth. And the women who vote would also serve on juries. Now, LIFE is no more prudish than the law allows, but he does sympathize with certain narrow, unprogressive males who would dislike having their daughters or even their wives locked up all night in a jury room with six men of random morals and antecedents, discussing the evidence in a divorce suit. J. 4. M. $ $ $§$ WORKMAN (to solitary member in big room of New York Metropolitan Club): Sorry to disturb you, sir, but I have to fix this window. SOLITARY MEMBER (moving): Why certainly, certainly. No con- sequence. WoRKMAN: You are the first real gentleman I have seen in this club, Those millionaires in brass buttons, that the hall is full of, have no manners ; they treat me like hell. AN EARLIER RECORD. RS. CUMSO (reading): Spectacles were first made in Italy in 1234. Mr. Cumso: My recollection is that Noah. made a spectacle of himself soon after leaving the ark. FARE $7.98. ~>YMPATHETIC STRANGER (¢o tramp): Amid the vast popu- lation of this great city have you never found a voice that took you back to the scenes of your childhood ? TRAMP (with disgust): Naw—allus had to walk. comicbooks.com