We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much. (Sojourn Truth)
As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might. (Marion Anderson)
Matildie and Compatriots
BessieJune again, and I am so excited! You’ll never guess what happened. But so what I tell ya will make sense, I gotta tell ya about Matildie first. Now ya gotta understand, Matildie is not one of the girls, and I don’t think she ever has been. She is the housekeeper and boss at The Yella Rose Schoolhouse, upstairs at least. I don’t think she has much to do with the downstairs saloon. She’s been here forever, and she’s pretty old, mebbe 40 even, and is pretty much like a mama to most of the girls. And she’s the closest thing to a grandma I ever had. I love her like I love Miz Suze, only in a different way.
And ya also gotta know that Matildie is a bonafide Suffergette. Now in case ya don’t know what that is, that is somebody who believes that women oughta have the right to vote, and are willin’ to do whatever they haveta, ta make that happen. She’s a part of a group of women who have reg’lar meetins to discuss how they can help this whole thing along, or in other words, help men to see the light. She says anything a man can do, a woman can, too, and prob’ly better.
But here’s the excitin’ part! Matildie done went and got herself the spiffiest bicycle ever!! An’ she got it painted in the Suffergette colors, purple fer loyalty and dignity, white fer purity, and green fer hope. The first time she got on it, she hiked up her skirts and rode right into the saloon downstairs, and announced that Susan B. Anthony had said that the bicycle had done more to promote equal rights for women than anything else in the world and that was good enough for her. You shoulda seen the men set up and take notice a that! They probably didn’t like it too much, but they know better’n to mess with Matildie.
She was married oncet, and said the best day a her life was when she threw his sorry a__ out. Ya might think it’s kinda queer and all, her house-keepin’ in a whorehouse, but she says somebody’s gotta look after these girls and it might as well be her, and she does a damned fine job. If she knew I said that word, tho’, she’d prob’ly take a switch to me, and Miz Suze, even tho’ she don’t believe in censorin’, she’ll prob’ly mark it out with her red pencil.
Matildie’s got a jolly laugh like AutumnGlory, but she’s not too spiritual-like, she’s more down to earth, I reckon, the kinda woman who gets things done, like AnnabelleLee, another’n of our girls, says. She never had no kids, mebbe ’cause of that ornery husband a hers, and I think she likes a’motherin’ us, and tryin’ to convert us to her way a thinkin’ about equal rights for women. She said she’d take me with her on one of the marches her and her women friends go on soon, altho’ she grouches a lot about how backward we are down here in Texas, even tho’ she’s a loyal Texan herself, says we’re all slower’n molasses. I reckon our bein’ so slow is because it’s so blamed hot in Texas, but it don’t seem to bother Matildie none.
But what I really hope? That Matildie’ll let me ride her new bicycle. I tell ‘er, it’ll prob’ly make a Suffergette outa me, too. Yeah.