nd that I knew nothing about any Men and women are not as she says, "urging their members to The fair-minded woman, then, started ง nearly doubled, and it takes much l to get election returns. There is onl thing that will take the average political citizen, male or female, regt to the polls; and that is conscience. excitement there may be in it will off presently for women as it wears o every man after he has passed the a twenty-one. What women have no had time to develop is political consci Like the young man of twenty-one, feel that they are entering upon a Į lege. They must be older hands at v before they take it as a duty-somet all in the day's work, which has t done, and as well done as possible. 1 of the very conscientious women I k do vote; but more than half of them because their men-folk have prove them that they ought to. The amou argument that the American man used to persuade his women-folk to g the polls would appall the suffrage Our aliens may threaten their wive keep them at home: the civilized A ican, in many cases, has to use all powers of persuasion to get his wife to polling-place. Even then, though may yield to his arguments, may inte tually agree with them, she does not the white fire of civic conscience tha burning behind them. She has not be voter long enough. One of the mos fective arguments used by the cons tious male is the old one of the neces of counteracting the ignorant vote. the colored women in town are goin vote, and the white women ought to o that. But the practical female asks you mean (say, in a presidential year offsetting it. Both candidates are g to receive both intelligent and unin gent votes. The colored woman, all, can only vote for Mr. Davis or Coolidge: she cannot vote for Ma Garvey. About local officers, where election of one official may mean cle streets, or a better police force, or a l gas-rate, women can get excited; but have not yet the habit of larger conc The women's magazines, the cou over, have long been printing appea the women to get together and ou war. Yet the women did not, appare vote in any overwhelming numbers way, in each case, lay the League of Nations. No: the hope of the women's vote, it would seem, lies in habit. We must learn to vote precisely as men do, taking the same attitude to the ballot. We must drop the kitchen-pantry-sewing-roomnursery state of mind, and realize that the foreign policy of the United States is more important than a uniform divorce law. We must feel that the constitution of the United States Senate is a more serious matter than the constitution of the town council. We must cease to be mere householders and become citizens. I know very few women who are mentally citizens in the complete sense. That is something we have yet to learn. We shall learn it in time, of course; and most of our slacking and stupidity as voters is due to the simple fact that we have not learned it yet. Another handicap, I believe, is more nearly social than intellectual. The best women of the country are not, as we have said, going to give their allegiance to those survivors of suffrage leadership who are still trying to stress sex antagonism and make a political bloc of their sex. They must work in co-operation with men; and American women are not used to doing that. Except for such purely social gestures as dining and dancing, the sex barriers are raised very high in America. The sexes pursue their business, and their more serious pleasures, apart. The Englishwoman, who is accustomed to free intellectual intercourse with men, steps much more easily into the rôle of voter. Men and women in the United States, on the plane of mere acquaintance, do not talk seriously with each other; and the general social habit in America is that of the Quaker meeting. The man develops his political ideas and affiliations in the companionship of other men. There is no mixed conversation of any serious kind, and the habit of mixed consultation is going to be hard to arrive at. The intelligent woman will tell you that she is given no opportunity to develop political opinions in a normal way-by the contact and clash with other opinions, other personalities, other points of view, and other sets of facts. Her aversion from sex is merely her practical to consult people who are no than she. Broadly speaking has any respect for another litical opinion. It may inte it will not influence her. Unt councils are enlarged to incl will feel herself incompetent; say when the Long House v doors to her? The history of the West think, that Eastern women ally become what you might ral" voters. In Western s women have been long enfran vote, I am told, without fuss shyness. Each time I vote, resolved never to do it again. question, each year, of the m ence of my husband. Excep when he let me off (in vain !), h tically forced me to the polls. not in the least care how I vote, I vote. He trusts me, I suppo seriously, if I vote at all. I bow viction that I do not myself sense that it is a duty to vote not in me. It is probably the to be developed in me because universal suffrage a mistake fr point of view. If we had limited I should probably be anxious to and willing to discharge my d qualified. But when I am told the illiterate colored washerw town are voting, and therefore vote, I feel I am being asked to m foolish gesture of Mrs. Partingto not mentally a citizen yet. Nor, matter, are most of the women w been enfranchised only since 192 not know what the political lead going to do about us. We are no to take orders from the W. C. T. home bureau, and you cannot set young Jewesses to Americanize us still indulge the superstition that, been here for two or three hundred we are American. I am afraid th men will have to do this, as the done everything else. They gave] vote; and they will have to educ until we see in it the shining sym civic rights and civic responsib They will have to teach us, that is, merely her practical unwillingness istory of the West proves. I at Eastern women will eventu me what you might call "natu ers. In Western states where ave been long enfranchised, the m told, without fuss or worry a Each time I vote, I am mor never to do it again. It is alla each year, of the moral int my husband. Except in 192 t me off (in vain!), he has prac ced me to the polls. He does east care how I vote, as long as e trusts me, I suppose, to vote I vote at all. I bow to a cont I do not myself feel. The it is a duty to vote is simply It is probably the less likely ped in me because I consider ffrage a mistake from every 7. If we had limited suffrage bably be anxious to qualify to discharge my duty i ut when I am told that all colored washerwomen in ing, and therefore I must im being asked to make the of Mrs. Partington. I am 1 citizen yet. Nor, for that ost of the women who have sed only since 1920. I do t the political leaders are out us. We are not going rom the W. C. T. U. or a nd you cannot set earnest to Americanize us, for we superstition that, having o or three hundred years, 1. I am afraid that the do this, as they have else. They gave us the Love to educate us of The late arrivals. The Audience Can Do No Wrong BY ROLAND YOUNG Author of "Actors and Others" ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR E'VE paid our money and now it's up to you" is what every audience says, consciously or unconsciously, to the actors, and whether they say it or not they believe it. It has never occurred to an audience that they have any responsibility in the matter. They sit in beautiful infallibility, committing all the seven deadly sins of an audience happy in the thought that they are so many kings who can do no wrong. If an actor has a violent toothache he has to play just the same and conceal the pain from the audience, but if one of the latter develops a toothache in the theatre he does not try to conceal the fact from the actors or the rest of the audience; he does one of two things-he either gets up and goes out in the middle of a scene with as much noise as possible, or he stays and he is complaining to the actors, but in much as it is the duty of the actor to sensitive to the audience, he is instar aware of the competition of the tootha in the orchestra and the consequent d sion of attention of the audience betw the scene being played and the ailing g tleman in the second row. It seldom seems to occur to a thea goer to stay at home if he is suffering fr a cold in the head or chest; on the o trary it would seem that the theatr the favorite place to bring a trumpet sneeze or a particularly handsome cou Of course, the effect of one or both these ailments on a performance is di trous, and within a few days the mana will receive a letter of this kind from of the unthinking kings of the orches JAMES BLIFFETT & Co. PIANOS LINGERIE-BILLIARD TABLES will get the people round then inattentive and so break up t that had been established b actors and the audience prior trance. Out of an audience of fourtee people there may be but two the front who will persist in co on everything that happens on in penetrating whispers, and in they distract the attention of around them; and the actor, wh not hear what they say, does sibilance of their whispers, an There is an old superstition in the theatre that a coughing or talkative audience means a bad performance is being given by the actors. This is not necessarily true. There may only be one or two coughers in the audience, but if they go to it with a will they will break up the rhythm of a performance, render some lines inaudible, and start the rest of the audience to fidgeting and talking. Similarly, if a party comes in late, an almost invariable occurrence, they will make a fiendishly distracti and one hard to c This habit of whis horribly common, an nees particularly it cally certain to happ Another torture t has to contend wit man with the very lou laugh, who laughs b after every one else, that nothing escapes h if all the rest of the may miss it. Women also but not to the s tent. Nervousness on the commuters toward the minutes of a play d tend to make things e the actors or for the res audience. A scene is sometimes into by some enthusias son who has seen the play before ar not restrain herself from quoting t that is about to be said and quo loudly and incorrectly. All these things have their effec performance in so far as they are instantly by both audience and ac a time when a large number of peop giving their attention under one ro the doings and sayings of another much smaller group of people unde same roof. As an actor, when an unnecessary occurs in the orchestra after a peri quiet, cutting out two or three words a speech, I feel that the tension that existed up to that point has sna me people round them upset and Another torture the actor Nervousness on the part of scene is sometimes broken gs have their effect on a n an unnecessary noise tra rds from THE AUDIENCE CAN DO NO WRONG knowledge that it may be snapped again As a member of the audience, when Audiences vary during I have never thought I have often been asked if companies, An apathetic audience makes an apathetic performance, and that, I think, is 20 natural and understandabla night are usually very bad audience play to. In the case of the first two audience is full of food and there heavy and stodgy and slow, and in case of the New Year's Eve audi there is always a sufficiently large pro tion of citizens who have defied Eighteenth Amendment largely and d ly to ruin any performance. There is one theatre pest I have mentioned, and I am afraid that he is The talkers. creasing in number, and that is the who sits in the front row and makes audible wise-cracks about the actors ing quiet scenes. During a love sc for example, this idiot will turn to companion and say such things as " thinks he's a regular he-man, don't h or "Attaboy-grab her, kiddo." Su it would benefit everybody if a str usher were to hit him over the head w something very heavy and drag him of the theatre. The more you hush a of this sort the louder become his c ments, because he feels he is increas his audience. A close relation to the wise-cracking) is the person who cannot resist makin squeaky noise with his lips when two p ple kiss on the stage. This pest is pres in at least eight audiences out of ten his pastime never seems to lose any of freshness and keen wit for him-or h If anybody who reads this is in habit of indulging in this particular garity, I would ask them to accept 1 1 1 |