The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 32

Two, in a group of the largest three, were christened George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and he offered her the privilege of naming the third. She gave it the t.i.tle of Susan B. Anthony, it was appropriately marked, and thus it will be known to future generations.

At San Jose they were the guests of Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, who gave a dinner for them, and over a hundred called during the evening. Sunday afternoon Miss Anthony spoke in the Unitarian church, and Monday morning addressed the students of the Normal School. At noon Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson gave a luncheon party under the great trees at her lovely home, Sunny Brae, where the ladies spoke in the afternoon to several hundred people from neighboring ranches. In the evening they lectured at San Jose and, although fifty cents admission was charged, not nearly all who had bought tickets could get into the building. When they left for Los Angeles Mrs. Goodrich slipped into the hand of each $50 in gold, as a present; just as Mrs. Sargent had done when they left San Francisco.

Long before Miss Anthony had started for California, cordial invitations had been received from the southern part of the State, from old friends and new. It was of course impossible to accept more than a small fraction of these, but from the time the twain reached Los Angeles, there was one continuous ovation. On the evening of their arrival, June 12, they addressed an audience of over 2,000 in Simpson tabernacle, which had been transformed into a bower of choicest blossoms. While in the city they were the guests of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, with whom Miss Anthony had worked for suffrage in Ohio forty years before.

In Riverside a reception was given them at the Glenwood by Mr. and Mrs.

F. M. Richardson, relatives of Miss Anthony. The beautiful drives for which that place is famous were greatly enjoyed, and they went into raptures over the oranges, which they never before had seen in such quant.i.ties. They spoke to a large audience in the handsomely decorated Methodist tabernacle at Pasadena. While here they were the guests of Mrs. P. C. Baker, on Orange Avenue, and received many social attentions from the people of this lovely little city. Thence they went to Pomona, where they were met at the station by a delegation of ladies, escorted to the Palomares Hotel, and found the committee had adorned their rooms with flowers in a profusion which would be impossible outside of California. They spoke here also in the Methodist church. The next day Miss Shaw preached in Los Angeles and Miss Anthony spent the Sunday at Whittier with Mrs. Harriet R. Strong at her ranche, so widely noted for its walnut groves and pampas fields.

Monday morning they journeyed to San Diego where they were the guests of Miss Anthony's niece, Mrs. George L. Baker. Elaborate preparations had been made to receive them and they addressed a large audience in the evening. The next afternoon a reception was given at the Hotel Florence by all the woman's clubs of the city. The Union said: "The two guests of honor were simply loaded and garlanded with flowers. They were presented with baskets of sweet peas by the Y. W. C. A., yellow blossoms by the suffrage club, red, white and blue by the Datus c.o.o.n corps; bouquets of white roses by the W. C. T. U., of red and white carnations in a holder of blue satin by Heintzelman W. R. C., of red roses by the Woman's League, of pink roses by the Jewish women. There was music by an orchestra as an accompaniment to the sociability of the occasion, in which some 700 women partic.i.p.ated during the afternoon."

The following day a picnic was given by the Woman's Club at "Olivewood,"

the home of Mrs. Flora M. Kimball, near National City, where tables were spread on the lawn for the 200 guests who came by train and carriage.

That same evening, by request of many who could not be present at the first meeting, the two ladies lectured again in San Diego. The next day they returned to Los Angeles, laden with souvenirs of their delightful visit; and that evening, without an hour's rest, addressed a ma.s.s meeting there.

The following day the Los Angeles Herald gave an excursion to Santa Monica in their honor. The ladies of that pretty seaside resort, under the leadership of Mrs. C. H. Ivens, met them with carriages and conducted them to the Hotel Arcadia. After luncheon, as they started for the hall where they were to speak, twelve little girls strewed flowers in their pathway, and after the addresses twelve large bouquets of choice blossoms were laid at their feet. They were taken for a long drive by Mrs. E. J. Gorham, then to the residence of her brother, Senator John P. Jones; and at the close of a lovely day, returned to Los Angeles. That evening a reception was given them by Mrs. Mark Sibley Severance, which Miss Anthony always remembered as one of the handsomest in her long experience. The next morning they met a committee from the suffrage club and had a conference on the broad piazza of their hostess in regard to the work of the coming campaign; and in the afternoon took the train for San Francisco, after two of the most delightful weeks in all their recollection. An especially gratifying feature was the att.i.tude of the press of Southern California. There had been scarcely a discordant note in the extended reports of the public meetings and social entertainments, and the editorial comments on the two ladies and the cause of which they were leading representatives, were dignified, fair and friendly.[113]

They reached San Francisco June 24 and were welcomed at the ferry by a number of friends from the two cities. The next day they were entertained at an elaborate dinner-party of ladies and gentlemen in the artistic home of Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard, of Oakland. From the table they went at once to the evening meeting. The Enquirer said: "It needed no preliminary bra.s.s band or blare of trumpets to pack the Congregational church with a live Oakland audience. The simple announcement that Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna H. Shaw were to speak was sufficient, and the chairman, Colonel John P. Irish, looked out over an animated sea of faces."

The following evening the San Francisco farewell meeting was held in Metropolitan Temple. Friday and Sat.u.r.day were filled with social engagements, sight-seeing and shopping. On Sunday Miss Shaw preached in the California street Methodist church in the morning and the Second Congregational in the evening, while Miss Anthony addressed a union meeting of all the colored congregations in the city at the M. E. Zion church, the historic building in which Starr King preached before the war. Monday they spoke again at the Ministers' Meeting. The fact that they would be present had been announced in the papers, and ministers of all denominations were there from most of the towns within a radius of forty miles. Miss Anthony told them in vigorous language: "The reason why they, as a cla.s.s, had so little influence with men of business and political affairs was because the vast majority of the people they represented had neither money nor votes; that if four or five hundred ministers of the State should go up to Sacramento to ask for any legislation, they would be treated politely and bowed out precisely as would so many of their women church members. Whereas, on the other hand, one manufacturer, one railroad official, one brewer or distiller, could go before the same body and get whatever he asked, because every member would know that behind this request were not only thousands of dollars but thousands of votes." The ministers seemed to realize fully the force of this statement and many expressed themselves thoroughly in favor of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

The State Suffrage a.s.sociation, with a good delegate representation, met in Golden Gate Hall, July 3, for their annual convention. There had been heretofore some dissensions in this organization and, at this critical time, co-operation was so vitally necessary that the friendly offices of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw were requested in the interests of harmony.

In view of the arduous campaign approaching, all desired that Mrs. A. A.

Sargent should accept the presidency, and the close of the convention found the forces united and ready for work.

The Fourth of July witnessed the last public appearance of the two eminent visitors, and thereby hangs a tale. The last of May Miss Anthony had received from the chairman of the Fourth of July Executive Committee, William H. Davis, the following: "Fully realizing the great importance of your life-work, and rejoicing with you in the certainty that the fruition of your labors and hopes is now no longer problematic, but merely a question of days, we take much pleasure in extending to you the right hand of American fellowship ... We cordially invite you to an honorary position on our committee, and hope that you will do us the honor of allowing us to select for you an appropriate and prominent place in the celebration of our national independence."

When it had been decided to celebrate the Fourth on a more elaborate scale than usual, an auxiliary board was appointed, composed of the leading women of the city, with Sarah B. Cooper, chairman. Thinking to add an interesting feature to the occasion, she requested of the literary committee that Rev. Anna Shaw be placed on the program as one of the orators of the day. To her amazement she was refused in discourteous manner and language. The executive committee, learning of this action, requested that it should be reconsidered and Miss Shaw invited to speak. This being refused, the executive committee notified them that unless it was done, their committee would be discharged and a new one appointed. They then yielded to the inevitable, placing Miss Shaw's name upon the list of orators, and the announcement was received with cheers by all the other committees. The reverend lady had not the slightest desire to make a Fourth of July speech, but she did wish to see Mrs. Cooper win her battle with the little sub-committee. Meanwhile the committee in Oakland, P. M. Fisher, chairman, did not wait to be asked, but invited her to deliver an oration in that city as soon as she had finished in San Francisco, and she accepted.

In the great Fourth of July procession, the very next carriage to that of the mayor contained Mrs. Cooper, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, and the rousing cheers of the people along the whole line of march showed their appreciation of the victory gained for woman. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the ladies took seats on the platform at Woodward's Pavilion, facing an audience of 5,000 people. San Francisco never heard such an oration as was delivered that day by the little Methodist preacher, her natural eloquence fired by the efforts to prevent her making it. After she had finished and the cheers upon cheers had died away, there was a great shout from the immense crowd, "Miss Anthony, Miss Anthony!"

Finally she was obliged to come forward and, when a stillness had settled upon the audience, she said in strong, ringing tones: "You have heard today a great deal of what George Washington, the father of his country, said a hundred years ago. I will repeat to you just one sentence which Abraham Lincoln, the savior of his country, uttered within the present generation: 'No man is good enough to govern another man without his consent.' Now I say unto you, 'No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent;'" and sat down amidst roars of applause.

Miss Shaw had been placed at the very end of the program and when she got out into the street it was 5 o'clock. It would require an hour to reach Oakland, and she supposed of course some one had telegraphed the situation and the people there had long since gone home; but this had not been done, and a great audience on that side of the bay had a.s.sembled in the Tabernacle, many going as early as 1 o'clock, and had waited until 6. Knowing there was some mistake they separated with the understanding that if Miss Shaw could be secured for the evening the church bells would be rung. That lady had just seated herself at the dinner table when a telegram was received explaining the situation. She replied at once: "I will be with you at half-past eight." Miss Anthony would not let her go alone and so, exhausted as they both were by the hard demands of the day, they crossed the bay, reaching Oakland at 8 o'clock. No one was at the station to meet them, so they took a carriage and drove to the Tabernacle but found it dark and deserted. They then went the rounds of the churches, but all were closed. Finally they gave up in despair and made the long journey back to San Francisco, reaching the Sargent home at 11 o'clock. Why the telegram was not received was never satisfactorily determined.

After a meeting with the amendment campaign committee the next morning and a long discussion of their plan of work, the travellers started eastward at 6 P. M. They were met at the Oakland ferry by a crowd of friends from both cities with flowers, fruit and lunch baskets, and left amidst a shower of affectionate farewells. They carried away the sweetest memories of a lifetime and could find no words to express their love and admiration for the people of California.

Miss Anthony preserves, as a memento of this visit, a large sc.r.a.p-book of over 200 pages entirely filled with personal notices from the newspapers of that State during the six weeks of her stay, all, with a few exceptions, of such a character as to make their reading a pleasure.

A source of even greater satisfaction was the wide discussion of woman suffrage which her visit had inspired and the favorable consideration accorded it by the press. In the months which followed she received scores of letters from California women, many of them unknown to her, expressing the sentiments of one from a teacher, which may be quoted: "Many of us who could attend but few of the meetings and had not even time to meet you personally, have caught something of their spirit and have been with you in heart. We bless the day which brought you to us; for your kindly words to women, and to men for women, have lifted the fog, and the veiling mists are drifting away, leaving us a clearer view of our duty not only to humanity but to ourselves. You have left a trail of light."

FOOTNOTES:

[112] As soon as they arrived in California they were presented by Mrs.

Stanford with railroad pa.s.ses throughout the State.

[113] The Los Angeles Times, Harrison Gray Otis, editor, furnished the only exception of any importance to this rule.

CHAPTER XLVI.

MRS. STANTON'S BIRTHDAY--THE BIBLE RESOLUTION.

1895-1896.

On the way homeward they were met at every large station by friends with something to add to the pleasure of their trip. Miss Shaw went through to Chicago, but Miss Anthony journeyed towards Leavenworth. She dined with friends at Topeka, and while waiting in the station, one of them remarked, "We are to have our suffrage meeting tomorrow, what shall we tell them from you?" In a spirit of fun she dashed off a resolution saying that "since 130,000 Kansas men declared themselves against woman suffrage at the late election and 74,000 showed their opposition by not voting; therefore it is the duty of every self-respecting woman in the State to fold her hands and refuse to help any religious, charitable or moral reform or any political a.s.sociation, until the men shall strike the adjective 'male' from the suffrage clause of the const.i.tution."

She was in Topeka only five hours, but during that time attended a dinner party, gave a two-column interview to a reporter from each of the city papers, and furnished a resolution which set all the newspapers in the country by the ears. "Talk about hysterics," she said, laughingly, as she read the clippings, "it takes the editors to have 'em, if they are opposed to woman suffrage and can get hold of something to help them out." Any one who could have the patience to read the fearful morals which were deduced, the frightful sermons which were preached, from what was intended as a joking resolution, would quite agree with her. Even had it been meant seriously, it would have been only such retaliation as men would have visited upon women had the latter been possessed of the power and voted three to one to take the ballot away from them.

She visited a week in Leavenworth and Fort Scott, arrived at Chicago July 15, and was thus described by a Herald reporter:

Miss Anthony has grown slightly thinner since she was in Chicago attending the World's Fair Congresses, thinner and more spiritual-looking. As she sat last night with her transparent hands grasping the arms of her chair, her thin, hatchet face and white hair, with only her keen eyes flashing light and fire, she looked like Pope Leo XIII. The whole physical being is as nearly submerged as possible in a great mentality. She recalls facts, figures, names and dates with unerring accuracy. It was no Argus-eyed autocrat who told with pardonable pride last night of how her chair at every great function in San Francisco was hung with floral wreaths, how bouquets were piled at her feet until she could scarcely step for them. It was a pleasing story, told by a sweet old woman, of honors which she accepted for the sake of a beloved cause.

The next day she resumed her journey with Mr. and Mrs. Gross and Harriet Hosmer, who were going to Bar Harbor. She reached her own home at daybreak, and here, the diary shows, she sat down on the steps of the front porch and read the paper for an hour or two rather than disturb her sister's morning nap. The first word received from Miss Shaw was that she had arrived at her summer home on Cape Cod with a raging fever, the result of the great strain of constant speaking and travelling so many weeks without rest, and she continued alarmingly ill the remainder of the summer. She was much distressed because of an engagement she had to lecture to the Chautauqua a.s.sembly at Lakeside, O., and to relieve her mind Miss Anthony telegraphed her that she would go in her place.

She herself felt not the slightest ill effect from her journey, and the long interviews published in all the Rochester papers during the week she was at home, displayed the keenest and strongest mental power. She reached Lakeside on the 25th of July and the next day spoke to a large audience. Towards the close of her address, she ended abruptly, dropped into her chair and sank into a dead faint.

She was taken at once to Mrs. Southworth's summer home, at which she was a guest, and telegrams were sent out by the press reporters announcing that she could not live till morning. She learned afterwards that long obituary notices were put in type in many of the newspaper offices. One Chicago paper telegraphed its correspondent: "5,000 words if still living; no limit, if dead." She was very much vexed at this momentary weakness and, using her will-power, by the next day had rallied sufficiently to return home. The national suffrage business committee, by previous arrangement, met at her house, and she forced herself to keep up for two days, but felt very dull and tired, and on the morning of July 30 she did not rise. A physician was summoned and a trained nurse, and for a month she lay helpless with nervous prostration; her first serious illness in seventy-five years.

She is quoted as saying that if she "had pinched herself right hard she would not have fainted." One of the papers remarked that "then she never would have known how much the American people thought of her." Every newspaper had something pleasant to say,[114] many friends wrote letters of sympathy, and scores whom she had not known personally sent their words of admiration. Only her body was weak, her mind was abnormally alert; she appreciated all that was said and done for her, and remarked often that this was the only real _rest_ of her lifetime. A number of relatives came to visit her, and a little later Mrs. c.o.o.nley and Mrs.

Sewall. Mr. and Mrs. Gross also stopped on their way home, the latter leaving $50 for "the very prettiest wrapper that could be had." From her old anti-slavery co-worker, Samuel May, now eighty-five, came the words:

I suppose there is hardly another person in the United States, man or woman, who has been engaged in actual hard public labor so long as yourself; and is it not a part of your business and a part of your duty--in view of the unattained results--to allow yourself larger s.p.a.ces of rest and to put upon yourself more moderate and less exhausting tasks? We would not willingly see you retire from the field altogether; therefore we want you to do less of the common soldier's work and take charge of the reserves, keeping watch from your tower of experience, and personally appearing only when and where the enemy rallies in unusual numbers or with unusual craftiness. This does not imply a lessening of your usefulness but an increase, being a wiser application of your strength and resources.

From Parker Pillsbury, the old comrade, aged eighty-six: "We have heard of your late illness, a warning to constant prudence and care for your health as you come down to 'life's latest stage.' Hold on, my dear--_our_ dear--Susan, hold on to the last hour possible. You have seen great and glorious changes, almost revolutions, but yet how much remains to be encountered and accomplished.... We shall hope you may live to see the one grand achievement--the equal civil and political rights of all women before the law. Then you may well say: 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.'"

Mrs. Stanton wrote: "I never realized how desolate the world would be to me without you until I heard of your sudden illness. Let me urge you with all the strength I have, and all the love I bear you, to stay at home and rest and save your precious self." From Mrs. Cooper this urgent message: "You are too far along in years to work as hard as you do. Take it easy, my beloved friend, and let your young lieutenants bear the heat and burden of the day, while you give directions from the hill-top of survey. Age has the right to be peaceful, as childhood has the right to be playful. You are the youngest of us all, nevertheless nature cries a halt and you must obey her call in order to be with us as our leader for a score of years to come."

There is a long hiatus in the diary, and then for many days the brief entry, "On the mend." In September she began to walk out a little and then to call on the nearest friends, and by the last of the month she attended a few committee meetings. The rumor had been persistently circulated that she was to resign the presidency of the National-American a.s.sociation and retire to private life. In fact, she never had the slightest intention of giving up active work. She realized that inactivity meant stagnation and hastened both physical and mental decay, and she was determined to keep on and "drop in the harness" when the time came to stop.[115] It was evident, however, that she must have relief in her immense correspondence. This she recognized, and so secured an efficient stenographer and typewriter in Mrs. Emma B. Sweet, who a.s.sumed her duties October 1, 1895. The five large files packed with copies of letters sent out during the remaining months of the year show how pressing was the need of her services. Miss Anthony relates in her diary with much satisfaction, that she "managed to have a letter at every State suffrage convention held that fall."

She thought possibly she might have to work a little more moderately for a while, and one of her first letters was written to the head of the Slayton Lecture Bureau: "I should love dearly to say 'yes' to your proposition for a series of lectures at $100 a night. Nothing short of that would tempt me to go on the lyceum platform again, and even to that, for the present, I must say 'nay.' I am resolved to be a home-body the coming year, with the exception of attending the celebration of Mrs.

Stanton's eightieth birthday and our regular Washington convention."

Among the characteristic short letters is this to Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, of Chicago, who had asked for a word of encouragement in regard to a hospital she was founding for mothers whose children were born out of wedlock:

I hope your beneficent enterprise may succeed. I trust the day will come when there will be no such unfortunate mothers, but until then, it certainly is the duty of society to provide for them. The first step towards bringing that day is to make women not only self-supporting but able to win positions of honor and emolument.

Since no disfranchised cla.s.s of men ever had equal chances in the world, it is fair to conclude that the first requisite to bring them to women is enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. It is not that all when enfranchised will be capable, honest and chaste, but it is that they will possess the power to control their own conditions and those of society equally with men. Therefore my panacea for the ills which your hospital would fain mitigate is the ballot in the hands of women.

The editor of the Voice wrote for her opinion as to the cause of the prevailing "hard times," and she answered:

The work of my life has been less to find out the causes of men's failure to successfully manage affairs, than to try to show them their one great failure in attempting to make a successful government without the help of women. It used to be said in anti-slavery days that a people who would tacitly consent to the enslavement of 4,000,000 human beings, were incapable of being just to each other, and I believe the same rule holds with regard to the injustice practiced by men towards women. So long as all men conspire to rob women of their citizen's right to perfect equality in all the privileges and immunities of our so-called "free"

government, we can not expect these same men to be capable of perfect justice to each other. On the contrary, the inevitable result must be trusts, monopolies and all sorts of schemes to get an undue share of the proceeds of labor. There is money enough in this country today in the hands of the few, if justly distributed, to make "good times" for all.

Reporters were constantly besieging her for her views on "bloomers,"

which had been re-introduced by the bicycle, and she usually replied in effect:

My opinion about "bloomers" and dress generally for both men and women is that people should dress to accommodate whatever business or pastime they pursue. It would be quite out of good taste as well as good sense, for a woman to go to her daily work with trailing skirts, flowing sleeves, fringes and laces; and certainly, if women ride the bicycle or climb mountains, they should don a costume which will permit them the use of their legs. It is very funny that it is ever and always the men who are troubled about the propriety of the women's costume. My one word about the "bloomers" or any other sort of dress, is that every woman, like every man, should be permitted to wear exactly what she chooses.

When women have equal chances in the world they will cease to live merely to please the conventional fancy of men. As long as there was no alternative for women but to marry, it was about as much as any woman's life was worth to be an old maid, and her one idea was to dress and behave so as to escape this fate. She now has other objects in life, and her new liberty has brought with it a freedom in matters of dress which is cause for rejoicing.