THE FEMININE TOUCH

The Rump Parliament and the Tennis Court Oath now have their parallel or parody in the State of Oklahoma where Governor Johnston, in danger of being impeached, flees his nemesis by the efficacious course of placing bayonets before the door of any building where the impeaching body might meet. But these newly created men in the street, with none of the reputed indifference of the other citizens, have already instituted proceedings in what was literally an open session and a standing vote. And the five articles of complaint are but a fire-screen behind which rages the feeling against efficient Mrs. Hammonds, the Governor's secretary, who is alleged to combine the more interesting qualities of Rasputin and Mme. de Maintenon. Her influence is attributed to the fact that she is the head of her employer's chapter of the Order of Rosicrucians. Of this order, whose members have a proper disregard of temporal things extending in this instance to include the legislature, the Wandering Jew is the most famous member.

Governor Johnston says he doesn't now what he would do without the little woman. The angry politicians, to whom she has refused admittance, reply that they know what they will do with her, and with him too. They mutter that woman's place is not in the home, at least not in that of the Governor. At any event, this struggle of the Praetorian Guards with the senate, despite allegations of the electorial use of intimidation in Chicago, does not signify that the day has come when the superior armed force determines the local government. Bernard Shaw wrote of "Arms and the Man"--and now the Oklahoma legislature attempts to determine the relations of arms and the woman.