POSTMISTRESS OR NOTHING. Mrs Strongmind Stands Up Valiantly For The Rights of Her Sex.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 396, 24 August 1889, Page 4

POSTMISTRESS OR NOTHING. Mrs Strongmind Stands Up Valiantly For The Rights of Her Sex.

< ' Mrs Strongmind,' said the Congressman, as he sat down on a chair in the widow's parlour and took a document out of his hat, ' 1 have a pleasant surprise for you. Your friends have got up a strong petition recommending you for the Postmastership» and I am about to send it to Washington with my personal endorsement. There is no doubt you will get the place. I , thought you would like to see the petition with the names annexed. Here it is.' Mrs Strongmind took the document and proceeded to read it. 'I observe, Colonel Alltalk,' she .said, after a few moments' inspection, • this is a petition for my appointment as Postmaster. That is wrong. As a woman I cannot) be a Postmaster. With your permission I will change the word to Postmistress. ' ' No, no, Mrs Strongmind,' exclaimed the Congressman hastily. ' Thab will nob do. There is no such officer known to, the law as a Postmistress, and in matters of this kind we mustn't fly in the face of t the law. You can be a Postmaster, but not a Postmistress.' j ' Then as a .representative of a slighted and abused sex,' said the widow, rising i with dignity and handing back the petition, { I refuse to accept an, office under such a government. lam willing to sacrifice myself for my sex, but I will nob sacrifice my sex for an office worth $516 a year/" This is the , shape in which the matter stands at present. Colonel Alltalk is undecided Whether to make an effort to inducethe widow to change her mind or to try to 1 talk the government over to her way, ofi thinking. 'He says he'd jus<- a§ soon tackle? one job as the other, b.' George ! — ' Chicago Tribune.' * ;r; r