Page 532 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

Betsey (rises).— The gentleman who has just tuk liia sent has my
thinks for his complimentary collusions to my humble poem ; and I
would just take this opportunity to say to him that if he will call down

to our house some evenin', T will be happy to read the poem to him
in iolot multnm in parvo et staccato. I would also say that if he should
calf we will not he interrupted by noisy boys. As the poet has
touchingly said, “ A ll will be still." I might also add, we will have
the best room all to ourselves.
P r e s i d e n t ,— This meetin' will now debate the important question,
u Should women have the right of suffrage?" Polly Snipper and
Jane Jones will speak on the affirmative, and Pelcg Swipes and John
lirown. on the negative, Polly Snipper will take the floor and
elucidate her position.
F o l l y S n i f f e r (rises and speaks in a loud voice);— M r. President,
this is an important question, and the Frog Hollow Lyceum are
awakening to her duty when she takes up ihis question lor debate. Tt
is high time we were a raisin' our voices and makin’ the hills echo ana
reverberate with our clamors for the right, Mr. President why not, I
ax you, shouldn’t a woman be allowed to vote? Cant a woman read?
Can't a woman write? And if a woman can readr and if a woman can
write, why shouldn’t she be allowed to vote? That’s the question of
the day.
Throughout the length and breadth of the land we see millions of
ignoramuses rushin' madly to the ballot-box and votin’— votin' for
what? W hy, Mr. President, they don't know what they arc votin’ for.
They can’t read, they can't cipher in long division, they can’t spell
t.heir names, they can't do nothin' but guzAn down the red-hot
whiskey. They vote just as somebody tells 'em to vote. Is this
right Mr, President? No, a thousand times no! Women have never
had their rights I they have been ill-used; they have been trodden
down, as it were, and they have been treated bad. There are some
women who will not stand up for their rights, but T am not one of ’em,
N<?t sir !
There are some men in this neighborhood, and even within the