"
"Yes," said he, "I am ready to agree to that,--a long and protracted war
must have a hardening and brutalizing influence on the community even
when it is fought for a good cause."
"Did not Hawthorne," I said, "predict something like this in an article
in the 'Atlantic Monthly'?"
"Yes," he replied, "I remember that article,--it was just a year before
his death,--and there was a good deal of wisdom in it. Some of my
friends are inclined to think that woman suffrage would improve the
present condition of politics, but I do not feel sure that it would."
"I have no doubt it would do good if only the sensible women were
permitted to vote," I said. "My faith is that what we need to purify
politics in America is not an extension, but a restriction of the
suffrage. It is easy to see, for instance, how favorably that would work
in the city of New York, which with its custom-house is now the heaviest
burden we have to bear."
What Whittier thought of this idea I never knew; he seemed to be
reflecting on it when the ladies of his party came in sight and we both
rose to meet them.
Though he was not fond of travelling, he liked to read books of travel;
and once, according to his doctor's advice, spent a winter at Amesbury
reading everything of the kind that he could hear of and obtain. He
spoke of Wilson's book on the Himalaya Mountains as the most interesting
of them.
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