the license and prohibitory laws, she will handle them more wisely than men have done?  Will her more ardent zeal solve the problem on which so much zeal has already been lavished in vain?  In large cities, for instance, where there is already more law than is enforced, will her additional 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 same change?  They will soon have—­at least in the “ladies’ department”—­elegance instead of discomfort, beauty for ashes, plenty of rocking-chairs, and no need of spittoons.  Very possibly they may have all the modern conveniences and inconveniences,—­furnace registers, teakettles, Washington pies, and a young lady to give checks for bundles.  Who knows what elaborate comforts, what queenly luxuries, may be offered to women at voting-places, when the time has finally arrived to sue for their votes?