• A Family of Scots
• Equal Suffrage

A Family of Scots

Years ago a family in Scotland dreamt of emigrating to the United States. The husband and his wife worked and saved, making plans for their nine children and themselves to go abroad. It took years, but finally they had saved enough and had got passports and reservations for the whole family on a new liner to the United States.

The family was filled with anticipation and excitement, but seven days before they were to leave, the youngest son was bit by a dog. The doctor sewed up the boy but hung a yellow sheet on the family's front door; since it was possible that rabies virus was involved, they were being quarantined for a fortnight.

The family's plans were thwarted. The father, angry and disappointed, stomped to the dock to watch the ship leave without him and his family. He shed tears and cursed for their misfortune.

Five days later the news spread that the huge, "unsinkable ship" Titanic had sunk, taking hundreds of lives with it into the sea. The family was to have been on that ship, but because the son had been bitten by a dog, they were left behind.

When the head of the family heard the news, he hugged his son and thanked him for saving the family, and thanked God too, but not the biting dog.

Equal Suffrage

The women promised, if they got the ballot, they would show us something.

They have more than kept their word.

(Schmeerhorn 1934, 144)