There's Wisdom in Women

Chapter Five

Chapter Two

Angie Morgan:

I exited the book store and the motorcar keys slipped from my grasp so bent down to retrieve them. When I looked up I saw a tall man standing over me. His broad shoulders and well muscled arms stood distinctly from his large frame. He reeked of hard liquor and he seemed to be having trouble standing.           

"Pardon me, Missy..." The man asked leaning in quite to close for comfort. "Are you free this evening... Would you like to go dancing with me?" He said with a distinct slur.             

“No,” I retorted, “but you can get away from me before you get some serious damage done to you.”

            “Nay a pretty girl like you couldn’t even kill a fly.”  The drunkard said with a foolish grin.         

“ First of all I’m a woman and an independent as a matter of fact and second you really need to learn to not to mess with the wrong person.”            

“Perhaps I’ll leave you alone if you tell me your name.”  

           “My name is Angie Morgan, you stinking oaf.”  I ignorantly said shoving him away. I knew as soon as I said it I had made a grave mistake. The man’s face grew red with rage and the look in his eye turned to an angry stare.            

“You ain’t so pretty no more, Angie.” He said my name with such venom it paralyzed me with fear. He reached for my arm but I was faster I dogged and ran around him. I felt him grab me around my waist. I kicked but when I screamed he put a hand to my mouth and dragged me into an alley. I bit down on is dirty hand, hard. He released me with a yelp, but when I got up to run away  I felt his fist crash into my skull.

I lay upon the alleyway barely aware of anything, and waited for seemingly inevitable death. I can vaugely remember someone rolling me over, and a pair of dark brown eyes. Then it was darkness.           When I awoke I felt something cool against my forehead. I slowly opened my eyes it took awhile for me to stop seeing double of everything. Then I remembered the man and checked my pocket and felt my car keys and then around my throat for the Susan B. Antony pendent that was tied around her throat with a pink ribbon. She heard a door open and eminently tried to sit up.             “No Miss Morgan, isn’t it, I don’t think you should sit up right know that guy hit you over the head very hard.”             “Thank you…”             “Richard, Richard Young”             “Mr. Young but I must be going.”             “Well at least meet me for tea tomorrow.”             “Well…” I was really was tempted I had never met a young man for tea willingly before “How about the café on 5th Avenue?”             “That’s amazing how about noon… that’s my lunch break.”             “Well why thank you Mr. Young now I must be going.”             He held open the door and I walked out my heart soaring. Maybe I was wrong, maybe love isn’t so bad when you meet the right guy. When I got to the house I stepped into the bath the servants had drawn. When the water had become cold she stepped out of the tub. I stepped into my blue gown and a large brimmed hat.             My dear sisters I come here today to gain a right for every female tonight. Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws. We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their inalienable right. When throw to the winds the old dogma that government can give rights. The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several States and the organic laws of the Territories, all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights. All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, or exclusion of any class from their full and equal enjoyment. Here is pronounced the right of all men, and "consequently," as the Quaker preacher said, "of all women," to a voice in the government. And here, in this first paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can "the consent of the governed" be given, if the right to vote be denied? . . . The women, dissatisfied as they are with this form of government, that enforces taxation without representation - that compels them to obey laws to which they have never given their consent - that imprisons and hangs them without a trial by a jury of their peers - that robs them, in marriage, of the custody of their own persons, wages and children - are this half of the people who are left wholly at the mercy of the other half, in direct violation of the spirit and the letter of the declarations of the framers of this government, every one of which was based on the immutable principles of equal rights to all. By these declarations, kings, popes, priests, aristocrats, all were alike dethroned and placed on a common level, politically, with the lowliest born subject or serf. By them, too, men. As such, were deprived of their divine right to rule and placed on a political level with women. By the practice of these declarations all class and caste distinctions would be abolished, and slave, serf, plebeian, wife, woman, all alike rise from their subject position to the broader platform of equality. The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.