NAWSA General Correspondence Churchill, Elizabeth K. Nov. 8th 1879 Dear Mrs. Stone, When I saw Rhoda yesterday she had not heard from you relative to coming to the convention next Thursday & something Mrs. Harper said to me Monday made me fear that you mean to stay away. This is to adjure you not so to forsake us. Really & truly my dear friend it will be a positive calamity if you do not come, for so soon after our political meeting we have reason to expect a larger attendance than usual, & a good many who never have before attended a W.S. meeting, & there is no one to depend on for a big gun but yourself. Mrs. Howe is very fine for those who like her, of whom I am one, but she is no good for the mass; & of course in my own city I am heard too often to make my name a magnet. hard struggle to keep our room rent paid & meet expenses of the convention, & could no more send me out there than they could fly. About six women do all the work of this soc -- and find it a hard pull. I couldn't go to St. L anyway as I have a Lyceum lecture at Fall River on the eve of the 20th, and again have no dress that I would wear to such a place as that, nor can have. Please give the enclosed note to Mrs. Hinchley. Yours ever. Eliz K Churchill I enclose this notice of Kate Stanton for the curiosity of the thing. Isn't it amazing that she gets such notices. I may be prejudiced, but the extract from her lecture seems to me remarkably common place & tame. She is a nuisance and prejudices men against us all, although she has never been identified with the society. We have been angling for clergymen & landed four - two Methodists, one Unitarian and Mr. Harris of the orthodox Cong - Miss Phelps' intimate friend. I feel jolly over it because their speeches and presence will go far to counteract the dreadful influence of the last Woodhull scrape. These men will speak but briefly however, & we must have you and Mr. Blackwell too. His pointed & practical speech will be especially apropos to this time. I am quite wild with anxiety about it till we get an affirmative reply. We hope you can come to the supper on the previous evening, not only for our own sakes, but because your presence & influence on a social occasion will be so valuable & I believe you would find it pleasant. Mr. Blackwell wrote me yesterday about my going to St Louis, & thinks if our Soc- can't pay for my expenses it would better be re-organized. That is rather severe. They have absolutely a Hist Eliz K. Churchill Providence R.I. Nov.8/72 n/a Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.