NAWSA General Correspondence Reynolds, Minnie J. Women's Political Union of New Jersey Headquarters: 79 Halsey Street, Newark, NJ Telephone 3150 Market Officers President Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle Newark First Vice President Mrs. F. A. Sturgis Westfield Second Vice President Miss Julia Sampson Hurlbut Morristown Secretary and State Organizer Mrs. M. J. Reynolds Newark Treasurer Mrs. Stewart Hartshorn Short Hills Chairman Finance Committee Mrs. Frank W. Smith Westfield Legislative Chairman Mrs. Everett Colby West Orange Legislative Secretary Miss Eleanor Garrison FILE 21 E. Park St. Newark, N.J. Feb 7, 1914 My dear Miss Blackwell; In regard to the above report of our New Jersey legislative Hearing, clipped from from your edition of Feb. 7, I would say that Mrs. E.F. Feickert and Mrs. S. Norris Craven did not speak, and I did. The three speakers were Rabbi Wise, Mrs. Breckenridge and myself. Mrs. Colby introduced the speakers, and read two letters, one from the governor of Wyoming and one from the Governor of Kansas. Probably the mistake occurred through the fact that there was a suffrage meeting in Trenton after the Hearing, at which Mrs. Feickert and possibly the other lady were speakers. My statements can be checked through Mrs. Colby or Mrs. Feickert herself, if necessary. Perhaps in the interest of correct news you would be willing to publish this correction next week. Very sincerely yours, Minnie J. Reynolds 21 E Park St Newark, N.J Secretary and State Organizer Women's Political Union of New Jersey. In addition to Mrs. Everett Colby, Mrs. E. F. Feickert, president of the New Jersey W.S.A. and Mrs S. Norris Craven of Trenton, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Mrs. Desha Breckinridge upheld the suffrage cause. Mrs. Colby read many letters from Governors and other distinguished men in the suffrage States, showing that it was beneficial and not detrimental. Eighty-two North Nineteenth Street East Orange, N.J. Dec. 12, '30 Dear Miss Blackwell, I have just finished, at one sitting, your life of your mother. You can imagine with how much eagerness I read it, but I really did not expect to find in it anything about the Colorado campaign of '93 which I did not know before. I had never known that it was by reason of a letter from your mother that Mrs. John R. Hanna recognized and "took up" Mrs. Catt, then Carrie Lane Chapman. Mrs. Catt, although at that time as beautiful, charming and talented as she has always been, was young, poor and comparatively unknown. The Colorado Equal Suffrage Association had some very ardent and competent workers in it. It was composed of respectable middle class women, none of whom had any money or social position. These two valuable things were perhaps more important to the suffrage movement in its early days than they have ever been to any other. Certain rich women in Denver were themselves convinced suffragists. Mrs. Hanna was one, Mrs. John L. Routt, whose husband had been several times Republican governor of the state was another, and another was Mrs. N. P. Hill, whose husband was a very of the women was in the moderate the women outvoted the men consist Stand by Temperance Mayor erside, " the Mayor was threatened w s enforcement of the liquor laws. Th quashed the movement." The wom inspected streets and alleys, and wo ments. A bend issue for municip an overwhelming vote. "The interes the women's campaign." Get Better Fire Protection 2 rich man, owner of the Denver Republican, and a for- mer Republican U.S. Senator. None of them had come forward publicly for the amendment, however. Our lo- cal organization was too entirely unfashionable in its composition for then to join. Senator Hill had given us the first contribution for our campaign fund, and the Republican was held level for the amendment. That was the only recognition we had received from the pillars of society in Denver. Then one day Mrs. Hanna invited Mrs. Catt to dinner. I can see now that, moved by your mother's letter, she did this in order to look Mrs. Catt over and make up her mind about her. The organization of the Denver Woman's Equal Suffrage League followed. It was composed entirely of women of wealth and assured social position. They gave a great public meeting in the most fashionable theatre. It was def- initely for Mrs. Catt, but they secured also speeches by some of the most distinguished men in Denver, C.S. Thomas among them. The theatre was packed, the society people turning out en masse. This organiza- tion and this meeting contributed "morale" to the campaign in a very marked degree. It was held that "our best people" had come for the amend- ment. There were plenty of them who had not, but they never peeped. No one who was decent in the city ever said a public word against the amendment excepting the Denver Y.M.C.A., who said a few un- pleasant words. A most marked result was that not one paper in Denver said a word of ridicule or even mild amusement concerning suffragists I am sure that the stand taken by the women whom Mrs. Hanna led was the reason for this. Papers over the state very generally took their cue from the Denver pa- pers. Only one paper in the state was really mean to us. Eighty-Two North Nineteenth Street East Orange, N. J. 3 I imagine that no one can ever say that any one thing carried a campaign. It was the Populists who gave us our Majorities in '93. Wherever they elected their men we got our majorities. Where the Republicans carried, it broke about even, or went slightly against us. The Populist platform had declared for it, and they voted for it as a party measure. but had the Republicans fulminated against us, or any organized anti work been started, the result might easily have been different. The various activities of the organized suffragists, I think, must be credited with holding the rest of the state level. Among these must certainly be counted your mother's letter to Mrs. Hanna, which brought us, I now believe, that backing of wealthy and influential women which I do not believe we would have gotten otherwise. This letter is not in any way for publicity purposes. I just thought you might like to know these things. My only criticism of your book is that it is too short. I would like to have it two or three times as long. I hope life is treating you well, and that the afternoon is pleasant. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing that Macmillan published a new book of mine a few weeks ago-The Terror; a historical novel of the French Revolution. It was published at the same time in England, by another company, under the name of The Guillotine. Sincerely yours, Minnie J. Reynolds. Minnie J. Reynolds [*Eighty-two North Nineteenth Street East Orange, N.J.*] 3-6-11 Corso Mentana, Genoa, July 17, 1911. Dear Miss Blackwell, If you will pardon paper written on both sides, with a pencil, you will get a long letter now. I want to write you about the Italian freedom poems, to see if I am on the right track. My typewriter is in cold storage, & I won't write a long letter with a pen for anybody on earth. I am afraid that these poems will prove unsatisfactory for your purpose, because they are so localized, & contain so many references which require a knowledge of the Italian freedom story to understand . For instance "La Spigolatrice di Sapri" "The Gleaner (feminine) of Sapri," in the original is exquisitely & tracically beautiful. It cuts to the heart. The innocent figure of the wondering littler gleaner girl is presented with the simplicity of perfect art, & in reading it I felt the whole sense of the awfulness of all that blood that has been spilt for freedom before the time was ripe; apparently only to wet the ground. For years there were abortive risings & rebellions in Italy before the revolution was finally successful in the 60's. In 1857, June, a young man named Carlo Piscane, plotted an uprising in the province of Salerno near Naples. With 26 companions he went to Ponza, one of the prison islands, liberated 300 prisoners, & with them landed near Sapri, a little village on the mainland. They thought the populace would rise & join them, but it was against them instead, & the Bourbon troops of Naples cuts them to pieces. The revolution was boiling in Italy then, & into the seething cauldron Luigi Mercantini threw this tragic poem, which touched the intellectuals to madness. The 300 died to give Italy a poem. My prose translation is stupid. I fear it cannot convey to you any sense of the original. The Gleaner of Sapri By Luigi Mercantini There were three hundred: they were young and strong And they are dead. I went out in the morning to glean, I saw a boat upon the sea. It was a steamboat, And bore a tri-colored flag. At the island of Panza it stopped, It stayed there a little while, & then came to the shore. Armed men landed from it, but they did not make war upon us There were three hundred; they were young & strong And they are dead. When a fresh uprising was being plotted they played a part in Italy's freedom story which Americans can never understand. A part which is taken with us by speeches, public meetings & newspapers, is taken in Italy by music & poetry. These hymns were all set to music, & they played the marching feet of the early martyrs of the revolution to many a forlorn uprising & nameless grave. They are still played. As my husband & I sat studying them last night a band went by playing one of them, & children still sing some of them in school. But I hardly see how things so fragmentary & so intensely local can serve your purpose. In March, 1821, the first notes of the revolution sounded in Piedmont, destined to finally lead the last assault & place her royal house on the throne of Italy. A conspiracy was formed among the officers of the army. The King resigned, & the regency was assumed by Carlo-Alberto, Prince of Savoy, who had held military office under the first Napoleon, & was impregnated with the revolutionary ideas which Napoleon's armies sowed through Europe. 3/ This translation all of them is literal, line by line. Chorus (1831-32) By Giuseppe Giusti Brothers, rise, The country calls you Unsheath the sword, Sword of the freeman, Mariotti & Borelli (recent martyrs) Cry for vengeance Rise, brothers, The country to save. (2) The bugle of Italy Pealing the call, A banner is flung forth, They pray at the altars for victory. The laurel is ready for the heroes, Infamy for the cowards, Rise, brothers, The country to save. There are many such "choruses" & songs, The Italians call them all "hymns-" "patriotic hymns." Flung out in pamphlets & leaflets- there was no free press- circulating in secret from hand to hand- at a moment after some fresh Austrian outrage, or (4) Some people, who don't know when they are well off, Play the lion More than an ass. She, on the contrary, Beast as she is, Modestly drains in her horns. She makes no audacity, But is modest & keeps still, Hail to the snail, Animal of peace. (5) Nature, varying In her prodigies, Has endowed her Above all living creatures. Because- butchers Take notice- Her head will even Grow on again after it has been cut off, Extraordinary but indubitable thing! Long live (or hail to) the snail, Enviable beast! To the astronomer and the architect She perhaps gave the ideas Of the telescope And the stairs, Long live the snail, Dear Animal! (2) Content with the conditions That God has given her One might call her the Diogenes Of her species, To take the air She does not even pass the door! But lives sedately In her own shell! Long live the snail, House animal. (3) Unusual & appetizing foods Rouse a stomach without appetite. But she, quite content in harness, Is satisfied to grow the grass of her own country. Long live the snail, Obstinate beast. next page to work for the N.Y. State Suffrage Assn. early in November. I just received my first bunch of Women's Journals from my sister a few days ago, & you cannot imagine with what avidity I devoured every word in them. How great a contribution the Blackwell family has made, in keeping that paper alive thru all the dark ages! It comes over me every now & then. It must never die. It must live till the last state is won, & after. To tell you the truth, it made me uncomfortable all the time I was working for the Woman Voter to feel that I was building up something to cut into the Journal's field. If in annotating the Italian presses I have told you a lot of things that you know already, forgive me, under the circum- stances. To me there is nothing more of- fensive than to have things carefully ex- plained to me that I knew already. I feel under obligations to you for your request, because it made me learn a lot of things I didn't know before. I have spent 40 days st sea since I left- 15 crossing the Atlantic & 25 in the Mediterranean- visiting many Italian cities. Am now very pleasantly lo- cated in Genoa, where I shall be till Oct.1. What glorious news from Wisconsin, & O how I shall watch for the final news from California! Sincerely yours Minnie J. Reynolds (Mrs Reynolds Scalabrino) 7/ (6) Learned [?] Who preach to your fellows Without teaching them anything, And all you wandering gluttonous folks Crazy masters- Rebellious servants- I beg of you to sing This simple chorus- Long live the snail! Exemplary beast! In the original this is smooth as silk & of the most delicious satire. I think, like the other, it would furnish the idea for a dandy American poem. But I don't see how you are going to translate it. However, I expect you know your own business better than I do. If this is the sort of thing you want, drop me a note & I will bring you some more when I come home. I guess this is enough to work on through August. I sail from Liverpool Oct. 28, taking in Geneva, Paris, Rouen, London & the suffragettes & the Shakespeare country on my way north. Shall get [But they wished to die sword in hand. and before them blood ran upon the earth. I matched them to the battle, I prayed for them.] (4) That day I gleaned no more, I followed them. Twice I saw them meet soldiers, And both times took their arms. But when they were at the walls of the Certosa. (a monastery) I heard drums & trumpets sound, And amid smoke & shot & flames More than a thousand men therein Themselves upon the three hundred. There were three hundred; they were young and strong- And they are dead. (5) There were three hundred, & they would not flee. Three thousand they seemed; they wished to die. But they wished to die sword in hand And before them blood ran upon the earth. I watched them to the battle, I prayed for them, But suddenly I grew faint. I could not look any more. I saw no more in their midst Those blue eyes- that golden head. There were three hundred; they were young and strong. And they are dead. (2) Armid men came forth from it, and made no mar upon us. They went to kiss the ground I looked them one by one in the face, Each one had a tear & a smile. They say that they were thieves, come from robber caves, But they did not steal even a piece of bread from us. I heard them give one cry only- "We are come to die for this our land." There were three hundred; they were young & strong, And they are dead. (3) With blue eyes & golden hair, A young man walked in [the] midst of them. I took courage & touched his hand, And said to him, "Where are you going O my Captain!" He looked at me & replied, "O my sister, I go to die for my dear country." I felt my heart smile. I could not even say, "God help you!" There were three hundred; they were young & strong, And they are dead. *(4) *There were three hundred; they would not flee Three hundred [?] & they wished to die! Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.