A Difference

A youth, he loved a maiden,
The maiden loved him too;
For that was just the way
That her grandma used to do.

She said, "We're equal partners,"
As down life's road we walk"-
Which was not quite the way
That her grandma used to talk.

"Now, I can earn my living,
And support myself I can,"
Which was not the way at all,
That her grandmamma began.

"I will never wash the dishes,
I can talk and write, instead"-
Which was not the thing at all,
That her grandma would have said.

"For I am independent,
A suffragette you see.
If grandmamma were here today
I'm sure she'd envy me."

Bess De Bow Thompson, 1903.

Kalends, March 1912