Mrs. Harrell Explains What It Was Like to Vote, November 1920

Marshville, November 4--We have voted! Bright and early Tuesday morning we were up and rousing the neighbors. And a little later gathering in a car full of ladies we hied us forth to the momentous occasion. There was no time to wash dishes or make beds. The affairs of the nation must be attended to first. We held a man up on the street and inquired as to the whereabouts of the polls. He spat a mouth full of tobacco juice and gallantly directed us pollward. It was a vacant store and frightfully dirty, but we were so entranced over the business in hand that we did not particularly mind. Parenthetically speaking, what do you suppose the world would be like with no women in it to clean the thing up anyhow? But back to the polls. A group of men stood about inside probably to see the sights and be on hand in case anything happened, or more probably to assist any fair damsel who happened to be in distress over the unfamiliar ticket. They all looked--well, you know the peculiar expression a man has when ladies come upon him suddenly and catch him with a mouth full of tobacco and no place to spit? They all looked like that, more or less. If they had tobacco they were very careful with the juice however. There was considerable pleasantry and banter exchanged between the folks, all of whom happened to be acquainted, the women playing as ignorant as possible, to add to the fun. Things finally became so social in and around that our crowd began to decide it was a very pleasant place to hang out. After importantly examining the tickets, which were about the first we had ever seen, we solemnly poked each into its own little box with much the same sensation as dipping into the Holy water fount. This all safely done, and our duty by the League of Nations thus performed, there was no excuse to linger longer even to greet the other ladies who were gathering in, from far and near at that early hour. Then, too, those dreadful dishes, and beds and things began tgo haunt some of the party, because that eternal housekeeping problem we have with us always though dynasties rise and falls and presidents come and go. It was all over anyhow except awaiting returns, so we went along homeward; and the dinners were all on time that day, the dishes all washed, the sweeping and dusting as well done as usual. No one had been the least bit rude to us at the polls, in fact was it just our imagination that made us think the men regarded us with a little bit more awe, as being a real citizen and thuse a more important factor than before. Everything except the weather was lovely. As to voting, we are for it strong. (From the front page of the Monroe Journal, Nov. 5, 1920)