You voted yesterday (DIDN’T YOU?), and maybe you took a moment to be thankful for our hard-won, not-even-a-century-old-yet right to vote. Today, check out this bizarre anti-suffrage slash household hints pamphlet from the 1910s. The pamphlet, put out by the National Organization Opposed To Woman Suffrage, is a strange mixture of political arguments against women’s suffrage (“BECAUSE in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule”) and housekeeping tips that could still be helpful today (“Grass stains may be removed from linen with alcohol”).
Here are a few of the weirdest “tips”:
• You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout. A handful of potash and some boiling water is quicker and cheaper.
• Control of the temper makes a happier home than control of elections.
• Good cooking lessons alcoholic cravings quicker than a vote.
• Common sense and common salt applications stop hemorrhage quicker than ballots.
• Sulpho naphthol and elbow grease drive out bugs quicker than political hot air.
You can read a full transcript on the Jewish Women’s Archive here or a summary on the Atlantic here.
Images from jwa.org
