The American New Woman Revisited: A Reader, 1894-1930

“The Campaign Girl,” Kate Masterson

43 “The Campaign Girl” Kate Masterson R Journalist Kate Masterson (1871?–1927) was raised in Brooklyn and began her career by writing poems for Judge and Puck. She published under a number of sobriquets, including Kittie Kelly, Lady Kate, and Little Kate, and was known for her poetry and humor pieces, which circulated in a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Smart Set, Life, and Lippincott’s Magazine. In 1894 she argued that the women most likely to succeed in journalism weren’t those with a college degree but rather those with a “good common-school education,” a “modicum of common sense,” “an ability to push,” “a physical strength that will brave all weathers and conditions,” and a willingness to start at the lowest rung as proofreaders. In 1900, she published the novel The Dobleys about a bohemian couple in the suburbs.1 Masterson’s poem “The Campaign Girl” originally appeared in the New York Herald but was reprinted by the Washington Post in November 1894.The Post had been founded in the nation’s capital as a Democratic daily paper by Stilson Hutchins in 1877,the year that marked the official end of Reconstruction with the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. In 1889, Frank Hatton and Beriah Wilkins purchased the paper and soon afterward announced that they would deliver the news “without personal or partisan bias.” Under their leadership, the Post grew steadily more influential and successful.By 1890 it claimed to sell about 16,300 daily and 19,900 Sunday papers regularly. By 1905, when the Post changed ownership again, the figures had increased to 33,967 daily and about 45,000 on Sundays; the price continued at three cents daily and five cents on Sundays.While under Hatton and Wilkins, the paper criticized Theodore Roosevelt in his post as a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, but it supported his call, as Washington Post, Nov. 7, 1894, 10. New York police commissioner, for imperial expansion before the war of 1898. The paper opposed the federal income tax, unrestricted immigration, and what the editorial writers considered the“anarchist”impulse of striking labor unions. It supported, however, the eight-hour day and women’s suffrage. In 1895, when a “fashionable young woman” was caught smoking on Pennsylvania Avenue and sent to the workhouse for fifteen days, the Post conceded that the young woman was foolish—like the“organ-grinders’monkeys hoping to attract a crowd”—but the police were even more so for arresting her.2 Although Masterson claims in “The Campaign Girl” that the New Woman’s quest for reform has overridden her desire for suffrage,she displays the often-used suffrage argument that politically empowered women would clean up politics. You will know if you have seen her Through these fierce election days By her positive demeanor And her captivating ways. She is working really, truly, And of course she’s bound to win, In the fight with rings unruly, And with Tammanistic sin!3 She has ceased to care for fashion, All her hair is out of curl, Politics is now the passion Of this dear Election Girl; Neath the mantle all unheeded And forgotten sticks her gum; Now for higher things she’s needed, And the nation wants her some! Put away the “rights” petition, Vanished is her wish to vote, For reform is now her mission, She must have the Tiger’s coat. Difficulties, dangers, maybe, But there’s no such word as “fail,” And papa can mind the baby While its mother’s on the trail! She can out-talk any speaker, And her word will be the last, Though her sex is called the “weaker,” She can make mere men aghast; “Parkhurst,”“Lexow” on her banner,4 “Goff” she cheers for with a will,5 american new woman revisited 44 And not for a moment can her Patriotic tongue be still. Oh, the “Future Woman” coming, All the poets love to sing, And their lyres they’re fond of strumming, Garlands at her feet to fling, But for even a single minute, Though the harps for her may play, The “New Woman” isn’t in it With the woman of to-day. defining the new woman 45 ...