A Woman for Mayor | Page 5

and work. It is possible they may win. But what a thing for
Roma to do! I don't see how we can--"
"Then they came for help from the League?" asked Morgan, still more
incredulously.
"They came," replied Allingham, "to offer to co-operate with us. They
asked no help, come to think of it; they just offered to co-operate and
they seem to have a very definite idea of what they are going to
do,--women!" he finished abruptly, remembering his rash endorsement
of their plans before their unfolding.
"I'm not certain but it would be a good thing for the town," began the
secretary. "A radical change would--"
"Morgan," interrupted his chief, "we should make ourselves ridiculous,
we should be a laughing-stock for the whole state. I shall never
consent," he added, with the more heat when he recalled Gertrude's
confident poise and--how he had already half pledged himself to their
cause.
"I suppose you'll call a meeting of the committee to consider their
plan?" asked Morgan. "If they are really in earnest, these women are a
factor to be seriously considered, whether for or against."
"Oh, yes, I suppose so," answered Allingham, turning back to his desk.
"But I was brought up to believe a woman's place was at home with her
husband and children."
"So was I," said Morgan, who was a privileged friend as well as
secretary. "But the teachings of twenty years ago are out of place today.
Indeed, they are as old-fashioned as they were a hundred years before.

Miss Van Deusen is a magnificent woman,--the fit daughter of the old
Senator."
"You know her?" said Allingham, irrelevantly.
"Well, no, not exactly. I've met her. But my cousins know her well, and
she must be,--from all I hear, a thoroughly womanly woman. And, they
all say, will marry Armstrong."
"Let her keep out of politics, then," growled Allingham. "Look here. A
woman like that, according to my mind, would better get down on her
knees and scrub her own front stairs than try to clean out City Hall.
And she's not the woman for either job."
He chewed his moustache savagely, and strode out of the room,
knocking over his chair in the process and causing his stenographer
considerable alarm as he banged the door together on his way out.
Morgan looked after him and smiled.
CHAPTER III
Learning the Ropes
The next morning's newspapers were embellished with scare-head-lines,
all more or less complimentary to the women's candidate.
"WOMEN TAKE MATTERS IN THEIR OWN HANDS."
"SENATOR'S DAUGHTER RUNS FOR MAYOR."
"MEN TO BE LAID ON THE POLITICAL SHELF."
"SENATOR VAN DEUSEN WILL TURN IN HIS GRAVE IF
DAUGHTER ACCEPTS NOMINATION."
were some of the head-lines which Roma editors had produced by late
use of midnight oil, and the articles that followed them were
incredulous, mildly tolerant, openly snobbish or given over to ridicule,

according to the policy of their several papers.
One of them read:
"It is both a disgrace and a menace to this fair city that city politics
have sunk to such a level that our best men will have nothing to do with
them, and that no one with the ideals of good government, other than a
handful of women, will undertake the improvement of our municipal
government. With all deference to the ladies,--and who knows their
many charming qualities better than we?--it is inevitable that, 'trained
to keep silence in the churches'--(and the City Hall as well)--our
women are without the large-minded grasp of affairs,--the broad and
liberal judgment, necessary to cope with these affairs. Neither can we
as self- respecting husbands and fathers, consent to see them so belittle
their own dignity and influence as to step out into the arena of public
life. The election of a woman,--no matter how able and high-minded
she might be,--would be a step downward for our city. It can never be."
Another editor said:
"The late Senator Van Deusen was one of the most distinguished jurists
in the country. He had a mind singularly open to the best interests of
his native town; his constituents always knew where to find him on
questions of law and polity. He did not favor woman suffrage, nor
giving important offices to the 'weaker sex'; although personally he was
distinguished by a gentle courtesy for and towards women. What, then,
would he say to this wild proposition of a few so-called 'progressive'
women to put his daughter in the mayoral chair of Roma? Verily he
would turn in his grave. Neither can we believe that this movement has
the sanction of one who was so near and dear to the late senator's heart,
nor that Miss Van Deusen herself has given her consent to let her name
be used as candidate for the highest office in the city."
A