Appleton's Journal : a magazine of general literature. Volume 1,. No. 20-With Supplement. August 14, 1869

PERI-1869-03 Appletons Journal Will She Vote 1869-0814 .JPG

Title

Appleton's Journal : a magazine of general literature. Volume 1,. No. 20-With Supplement. August 14, 1869

Description

Appleton's Journal features a cover illustration entitled "Will she vote?" (see page 614), of a woman holding a baby. The illustration accompanies a poem written by Edgar Fawcett with the same title.

Date

1869-08-14

Subject

Mother and child
Poetry
Voting

Creator

Fawcett, Edgar, 1847-1923, author

Publisher

New York : D. Appleton and Company

Language

English

Text

To peaceful altars of our homes
In scorn she points at last,
As lawless, now , she fiercely roams--
Change, the Iconoclast!
Through startled towns her banner floats,
Her vassals, oddly human,
Shrieking from amazonian throats :
"The Equal Rights of Woman!"

They hear affrighted, unto whom,
As high its volume swells,
Their Lares' and Penates' doom
That shriek triumphant tells.
For many an eager spirit years
To join the growing legions,
In purlieus of the pots and churns,
No less than loftier regions.

And will she vote? is met no more
With jest and scoff and sneer;
That which was fantasy before
Takes outlines firm and clear.
A weightier question stirs the time,
A gloomier thought perplexes,
While sorrier discords drown the chime
And harmony of sexes.

To some the future years unfold
Chaotic visions dire--
Sweet customs, beautiful and old,
Consumed in error's fire!
To others, the millenial plan
Reveals its dawning feature--
A woman for the Coming Man,
And man the lesser creature!

But wise are they who yet keep pure
What factious tongues disclaim--
Belief that God's just laws endure
Immutably the same;
That this wild creed shall surely pass,
Whoever its propounder,
And woman still continue as
Old Father Adam found her!

Walking amid no troublous fears
That throng the paths of men,
Wielding no editorial shears,
No keen polemic pen,
Daring no intellectual heights,
And neither sage nor preacher,
True womanhood has yet the "rights"
Fanatics cannot teach her.

What mission lovelier than to be
Home's angel, blithe and fair,
O thou in whose calm looks we see
A mother's holy care?

Original Format

Magazines (periodicals)

Physical Dimensions

28 x 20 cm.

URL

Entire issue available online through Making of America (MOA). http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moajrnl;idno=acw8433.1-01.020

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