principles of our Government are more opposed to the exercise of suffrage
by women than are those of monarchies. To me it seems that both despotism
and anarchy are more friendly to woman's political aspirations than is any
form of constitutional government, and that manhood suffrage, and not
womanhood suffrage, is the final result of the evolution of democracy.

The Suffragists repeatedly call attention to the fact that in the early
ages in Egypt, in Greece, and in Rome, women were of much greater
political consequence than later during the republics; but the moral they
have drawn has been that of the superiority of the ancient times. Mrs.
Dietrick says: "The ideal woman of Greece was Athena, patroness of all
household arts and industries, but equally patroness of all political
interests. The greatest city of Greece was believed to have been founded
by her, and Greek history recorded that, though the men citizens voted
solidly to have the city named for Neptune, yet the women citizens voted
solidly for Athena, beat them by one vote, and carried that political
matter. If physical force had been a governing power in Greece, and men
its manifestation, how could such a story have been published by Greek men
down to the second century before our era?"

Mrs. Dietrick's remarkably realistic version of the old myth does not tell
the tale as Greek men published it. Varro, who was educated at Athens,
goes on to say: "Thereupon, Neptune became enraged, and immediately the
sea flowed over all the land of Athens. To appease the god, the burgesses
were compelled to impose a threefold punishment upon their wives--they
were to lose their votes; the children were to receive no more the
mother's name; and they themselves were no longer to be called Athenians,
after the goddess." It seems to me this fable teaches that physical force
was indeed the governing power in Athens at that day, and that men were
its manifestation.