If Women Voted.
Milholland, Inez. Typescript (carbon): "IF WOMEN VOTED.” [NP; ND].
8-1/2 x 11"; typing paper; folded once; rusted imprint of paper clip; about very good.
A brief pro-suffrage skit by Inez Milholland [Boissevain], set in the "Kitchen of medium east side tenement." In dialect, Nora Shea and her husband Barney Shea debate election issues:
Election day is ut? Faith, I'd furgot. An' me intendin' all along t'ave put in me vote in dthe airly mornin.” Nora declares her intention to "vote agin dthat divil av a candidate wid his schames fur reducin' dthe taxes an' takin' from dthe poor whan manes dthey have getting' a dacint edjucashun and clane strates fur dther children.
She explains to Barney that a friend has learned about the candidate and his views from the women's political classes at the Trade Union League. When her husband tells her she is crazy for wanting to vote against Big Bill ("Wasn't it himself dthat got me job las' year…”), Nora inveighs against her husband for allowing himself to be so cheaply bought:
Fur me, an' dthe rest o'dthe wimmin in dthe block, we're going to vote against every las' thing dthat's prov' a curse fur our homes an' our children. And av we don't sweep the men dthat's buys men's souls wid dhrink an' dollars out av dthe district…
Whether or not the play received a formal printing is unclear. Franklin does describe the play ["Rental, 10 cents. Fee for production, $2.50”] as "[a]n excellent lively bit of Irish dialogue, in which a woman makes her husband see why she is going to vote against the ward boss…" and gives it two stars. Franklin notes at the head of the section on plays that a "catalogue of these plays may be obtained on application to the National American Woman Suffrage Association." She also notes the plays available in "book form"; since none of those held by the NAWSA were available as separate publications, it may be inferred that these existed only in a less formal format. Not in the NAWSA Collection at the Library of Congress. Franklin, p. 183.
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