NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Spencer, Anna G. Yours sincerely Anna Garlin Spencer it is with a heavy heart that we record the passing of dear Anna Garlin Spencer. Educator, Author, Theologian, Humanitarian, Lecturer, Feminist and Worker for World Peace. Although nearly eighty years old, she was still a valued lecturer at Teachers' College, Columbia University, and gave her last lecture there to 178 students two days before her death. In 1924 she was National Chairman of the W. I. L. A great spirit has gone from among us. Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, in a recent address at Chicago, said: I see the church of the future as in a vision. It will be a place of peace and love. In it men and women will not quarrel over texts of sex. It will have its alters reared to the one God of all human souls, and will have a ritual made splendid with the prayers of all the saints of all ages and all times. It will have a glory which is the shining of the sun of righteousness. Into it men shall go, not for rest alone, but for an aspiring service, for an uplifting of spirit which shall shame all lowness of aim and all selfishness of purpose. When the church thus verifies it credentials and magnifies its office, there shall be no complaint that men and women do not come to hear. We hear it said that we have lost somewhat of the old faith and that there is a falling away in goodness. That is not true. There never was a time when men so hungered to do something for the welfare of the unfortunate. The only trouble is that the church has entangled itself in small ideas and cheap business when it might be running its errand for God with willing feet along the world's great highway. Little, Brown & Company, Publishers 34 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. Mr. G. G. Ross, Advertising Manager Dear Sir: I have received a copy of Miss Alice Stone Blackwell's biography of her mother, Lucy Stone. Thank you and her for the volume. I understood from a private letter from Miss Blackwell that it was desired that those who knew Lucy Stone and valued the biography by her daughter should indicate their appreciation of the book to you as representing the publishers. I cannot speak too highly of the portraiture of both the mother and father of Miss Blackwell. To those, like myself, privileged to know them both in early life the presentation, so long and inexplicably delayed, is most welcome. It seems wholly appropriate that the daughter, who inherited so many of the fine traits of both, should pay tribute to the unique contribution of a husband and wife, ideally wedded, and both devoted through a long life of service to one common cause. If a second edition is called for, this writer hopes Chapter XV will be omitted as that mars the portraiture otherwise so fine a presentation of character and achievement. To paint a portrait is a great art and Miss Blackwell is equal to its demands. Polemics, especially when given an edge of censoriousness, does not belong in such a biographical gift to the picture gallery of the great and good. I am writing this frankly. It is for you to use any thing I write or decline to use anything included, in accordance with your best judgement. I could not however honestly approve of the chapter named and shall in some way take occasion to definitely state my objections and their reasons in some magazine. With gratitude for the biography and the fine setting in the book I am yours sincerely, Anna Garlin Spencer (signed) 435 West 119th St. New York N.Y. Anna Garlin Spencer (copy) THE RECORD OF VIRTUE. THE RECORD OF VIRTUE. THE RECORD OF VIRTUE A bright woman, full of loving kindness and gifted with what George Herbert called "holy wit," devised not long ago a new scheme of education in humanities. It was to establish in a newspaper in which she was interested, and which was especially devoted to philanthropic work, a department to be called the "Record of Virtue." This was intended to offset the record of crime which is so large a part of the daily newspaper, and to make another channel for curiosity higher than that which now prevails among the majority of readers, young and old. "If," says the originator of this scheme, "the newspapers, which really means, of course, the readers of news, took one-tenth part of the interest in virtue which they take in crime, our estimate of the human race would be quite different from what it now is. For it is natural, it it is indeed inevitable, for us to generalize on the facts brought most prominently and constantly before our minds. If a column in our favorite paper is devoted to the description of a murder or a swindle, and two or three lines without comment to an act of 4 heroism, the former is almost sure to make the larger figure in our average." This first distinctive and intentional effort in journalism to let the light make prominent the good in human nature and hold the evil in shadow deserves wide mention as a hint to all who sketch human doings for the panorama of the daily press. But the idea it embodies has already received unique attention in another field of social influence which should be told abroad. Another bright woman, full of original ideas in humanitarian work, and possessed of that quick intellectual responsiveness which catches thought and passes it on in flashes of insight and sympathy, was much impressed by the "Record of Virtue." How she helped its underlying principle to further development can best be told by her own words, written to the originator of the idea:- Dear Mrs. Grant, - I write, hoping that it will give you pleasure to hear of one result of your beautiful thought in having a "Record of Virtue" in the Journal of Women's Work. An Episcopal minister, a friend of mine, has a Sunday class of one hundred bad boys,-at least, they were so rough and rude that the regular Sunday school teachers would not tolerate them, and turned them out of the Sunday-school. This minister, whom I will call Mr. White, 5 told me about them and some of his original methods of civilizing them. I was much interested in the account; and it occured to me that he might set his boys to work collecting records of praiseworthy deeds, and so I sent him a copy of your paper, with the "Record of Virtue" marked, and I wrote: "How would it do to interest your one hundred bad boys in that pursuit, and offer prizes for those who could report a certain number of good or kind or noble deeds which they had themselves witnessed or heard or read about, either at the present time or in past history?. . . . . . . . . . I feel so strongly that the right way to help is to present examples of goodness instead of picturing wickedness and vice that I think this experiment might be worth trying. The daily papers, I believe, do much harm by their detailed and sensational reports of crimes." Mr. White at once accepted the suggestion; and I will quote from his letters, showing what he has done. He says: "I thought of your idea to-day when I saw three little fellows holding on by their toes and fingers to reach their heads above the window-sill of a school-sutlers' shop to study the red police gazettes. Now, I will buy a valuable prize and exhibit it next Sunday to the boys; and I will buy fifty little passbooks to be given to the larger boys in which they may write down the ten best and noblest acts they have seen or read in the papers during the past year, Christmas week I will give a grand banquet. The boys shall sit down to a feast; and at its close a song or two - some ballad of brave and noble deeds - shall be sung, 6 followed by a reading of some noble act, after which the prize shall be brought out and awarded to the successful competitor. What do you think of my plan? I hope it will set some people thinking in a good way." He goes on to say that what the neighborhood is pleased to call his "Bad Boys' School" he means to name the "Banner School." In the next letter he says: "I enclose two slips which are pasted on the books. I have distributed fifty, but must increase the number to seventy - five. The boys take eagerly to the scheme, and I think it will be a success." He goes on to say that the boys are very rough and rude: but he was surprised that day when one of the roughest came quietly into his study, and said he would go to work if Mr. White could obtain him a place to learn a trade, for he did not wish to grow up to be like a neighbor whose name he mentioned, a man of bad character. The slips to which he referred were as follows, on pink paper:- "ST. JAMES'S BANNER SUNDAY-SCHOOL. Three Grand Prizes, 1888 "Write in this book the ten kindest, noblest, or best acts you have read or been told. Write plainly on one side of the paper, and as short as possible, and return Christmas. "THE PRIZES. "First. Every holder of a book will be entitled to a ticket to the grand banquet 7 when the prizes will be awarded. "Second. A Waterbury watch. "Third. Watch with chain "Fourth. St. Nicholas for one year. "Fifth. Wide Awake for one year." In the same letter he says: "It is a dreadful community in which my lot is cast; but I have one advantage: I have been here so long that I understand the ways through which the young are led astray; and, if my schemes are somewhat unusual, it is because they have originated in the attempt to meet the peculiar needs of my work." He says, "You must remember that these are not nice little boys, but outcasts from Sunday - schools, and very rough and rude; and I watch the outcome of our scheme with great interest." I will quote from one letter that I sent to Mr. White about this time: "It will be interesting to see what ideas your boys have as to what constitutes a truly brave and noble action. If you can train them not to find it in warlike or showy deeds, but in acts of loving self-sacrifice often never known or recognized, in little ways of kindness and self - denial, you will do a good work. My idea is that they should be taught to love peace and all that is beautiful. After a while he wrote: "The books are coming in. I have twenty-two now. The boys evidently have done the best they could, but some of them did not understand the requirements of the competition. But these books will be very interesting, exhibiting the idea these boys have of what is kind, noble, and good. A considerable 8 amount of valuable discussion has been raised in the neighborhood over this novel competition. I am sure it will pay. "It has been a great pleasure to me; and I think I am learning a lesson myself, that there is a better vantage-ground for me than I have gained in my efforts to teach these wild boys: that it is love and kindness they need more than facts. "As I read over these strange collections of crude ideas that these boys have brought me, I am gaining a valuable knowledge of boy life and boys' needs that I never dreamed of before. I thought I knew these boys, but I did not." After the banquet and the awarding of the prizes Mr. White wrote me:- "I am sure you will be anxious to learn how our banquet succeeded. They had a royal feast, - oysters, turkey, and ice-cream. After dinner I called them to order, and spoke to them at some length on the subject of kindness to all, but especially to the weak. I read the books that obtained the prizes, and explained the value of the brave, kind acts in each. As once I stopped a moment, I was struck with the picture. I stood on a bench at the light. Most of the boys had crowded round my feet; some had climbed into the braces and timbers above me. All were deeply intent. Even the man with the concertina I had hired to play for them stood before me, both hands still in the straps, but with his mouth wide open. I was intensely pleased that they should be so deeply interested. The first prize fell to a little boy only six years old; and, when he stepped up to take his watch after his book was read, he was loudly applauded. 9 The second watch fell to a boy who had a black eye from a dreadful fight in which he was engaged. I painted it over for him with glycerine and light red. He came to see me to-night; and my mother has been talking to him, and I have given him some books to read. "The plan has been received by many people with great favor, and the boys have set many of their friends searching for them to find kind and brave deeds. It has taught me invaluable knowledge and opened my eyes to lines of work I had not discovered before. I intend to go on and try the plan again, but in a different way. I will have a free entertainment for the boys, a magic-lantern and a little comedy. That night I will lecture on kindness and explain thoroughly what I want them to write, and I will distribute a great many books; and after two weeks I will have another meeting of the boys, and have some more music, and read the prize books and deliver the prizes, and then try to organize a legion of boys pledged to be kind, noble, and brave." Of his second starting of the boys on the hunt for virtues Mr. White Wrote: "I read your letter to the boys, and they cheered well. And they are hard at work gathering incidents and facts for another contest. I ruled that the boys who had won the other prizes should write up the books, but were not eligible for the prizes this time. Later Mr. White wrote: "I hope it will please you to know that we have held our second banquet, and that the boys cheered in their rough way for the lady who had so generously provided a treat and prizes 10 for them. To my surprise, the first prize, a good watch, fell to a boy who last year was taken by my sexton by the scruff of the neck, - a ragged, barefooted boy, - and landed off the church grounds, and bade never to come back again, he was so troublesome. I learned that his father gave him a beating when he heard of it, and so I hunted him up when I gathered these banished boys at another hour. I am studying these boys. "I think, when the proper time comes, I will draw the net and organize my 'Legion of Honor.' "I will say that these experiments with the 'Record of Virtue' books, in addition to the Sunday-school work, have so gratified and encouraged me that I wish I could confine myself entirely to educational work among neglected children. I have been educated also, and have forbidden the use of coarse songs and rough quotations and slang in the little exhibitions with which I amuse my people. You must know that these are not destitute boys I labor among,. for the most part. Their people work hard for their daily bread; but they are neglected. They are very wild and rude; and, if they grow up as they are, they will make very brutal husbands and coarse, vicious fathers, - just like their own fathers and grandfathers, who work almost like brute cattle. I cannot interest many even among philanthropic people in them. Some even think the boys deceive me, and I do them little real good. Perhaps even you, Miss Maxwell, would not encourage me to go on if you should hear and see 11 them. But they come to me so confidentially and confide in me in so many tender ways, I cannot feel about them as others do. I see in them two natures, two personalities; and even the most sceptical must admit there has been a great improvement in them. I will go on. I will organize the boys, beginning with thirty of the largest. If I could learn the best way of working with them, I would make much sacrifice to try it." That Mr. White is discovering some very good ways of working with neglected children is proved by the testimony of a leading paper in this city, which, in giving an account of a novel entertainment, an originally illustrated lecture of travel, which the clergy gave them, says, "Already the lads, most of whom are waifs from the street, show signs of decided improvement in demeanor under the influence of the training to which they voluntarily subject themselves." Now, what can be said of the books which the hands of these rude boys have inscribed with their crude ideals of virtue and kindness? They lie before this faithful chronicler, a curious testimony on the most wonderful and encouraging fact in human nature, - the fact that some of the highest qualities of character can be seen and appreciated by those habituated to the lowest social conditions. The gallery gamins applaud the hero of virtue at the theatre. The neglected waifs, thrust from 12 sacred places "by the scruff of the neck." know what is meant when kindly bade to speak of noble and generous deeds. And, if the eye be so keen to see the good when evil so clogs the growth toward goodness, who shall dare say that with better conditions about them these neglected children could not walk in the light they discern? If a tender, hopeful patience like Mr. White's could oftener "make channels for the streams of love," and sweeten the currents of social influence for these rude boys, perhaps even the coarse and brutal fathers would not hold them always to vicious ways. It may seem odd that a boy fresh from a street fight, with black eye painted over for the occasion, should take a prize for the recital of kind acts, but that such a boy should be able to tell so well what virtue is shows a misguided or undeveloped moral power which witnesses more strongly to the divinity of human nature than all the perfection of the better born and bred. Two of the boys did mistake utterly the meaning of Mr. White's directions respecting the record-books, and offered a list of murders, thefts, fires, and calamities copied from the crimes and casualty column of the daily press; and several gave a collection of remarkable facts and quotations of no 13 moral significance in the line required. Quite a number of boys seemed to think nothing sacred enough for the books but Scripture texts and narratives of Bible heroes. One devoted to Scriptual subjects evidently believed that "brevity is the soul of wit," and summed up his required items in the following single sentence: "The ten commandments." Several books are historical and political in tendency. Robinson Crusoe and Christopher Columbus divide honors as discoverers, and the latter receives on quite remarkable recognition in the following entry: — Christopher Columbus going on a voyage to discover unknown lands so as to spread the gospels to the heathens to save their immortal souls. Arnold Von Winkelried and other true heroes appear in the narratives, and Abraham Lincoln is mentioned by several of the boys for "his kind act the emancipation proclamation." George Washington is praised both for his devotion to his country in the Revolutionary times, and for, as one boy puts it, "admitting that he did it with his little hatchet." One boy proceeds in so orderly and accurate a manner that his book is very impressive with its array of dates and its 14 dignified items of national and universal importance. His first item is "The Discovery of America"; his second, "The Landing of the Mayflower"; his third, "The motion in Congress that the American Colonies were and are of right ought to be free and independent"; his fourth, "The Emancipation Proclamation"; and his fifth, the surrender of Lee, "thereby puttin an end to the great Rebillion." And then he takes up religious history, beginning with "Martin Luther", and ending his book with the following summary:— But the greatest and kindest act was when Jesus Christ died on the Cross so that our sins might be forgiven. One boy has evidently been impressed with the rhythm of the Church service, and has unconsciously patterned his book upon its stately form. Among other causes for thankfulness he enumerates as follows:— For the great yield of our crops the past year. For the health of our people of— And to God for the preservation of my father and mother. Another boy closes with:— 10th the last but not the least was the 15 kind act of the lady who offered us boys the prizes if we should win. A very good number fill the requirements as regards the topic better than those yet mentioned, and of these a fair proportion fill out the ten items. Several of the boys show real ability in their brief and pithy sentences, as the following indicate:— There was an old woman who was sick and blind and a little girl read the Bible to her. One cold night it happened that a bridge burned and a small girl managed to crawl over to save the train which was to cross the bridge that night she got over to build a fire around the bend the train come the engineer noticed the fire gave alarm to the people they got out of the car and kissed the girl for her braveness. About 5 years ago there was a man who had a brave dog who saved 2 bodies from a fire when the firemen were afraid to go in but the dog was not the dog ran in got an old lady and dragged her out running in again looking all over and found a little baby he dragged her out and the wer both saved by this brave dog. The dog is dead now he died about a year ago. There was a man standing by the gate and a boy passed and snapped a cherry stone into the man's eye and put his 16 out the man planted the stone ten year passed and a hungry tramp came along and the man told him to go up in the cherry tree and eat some cherries it was the same boy who put his eye out. One boy is of a strikingly dramatic turn. He dashes into the heart of his stories without a word of preliminary explanation, after the style of the bold novelist whose forte is plot and thrilling climax. One of his items is as follows:— Brave Toby! The house was on fire and no one thought of poor puss. All were too busy saving themselves. No one: yes: Toby, missing his companion actually ran into the burning house and presently came downstairs holding poor puss safe and sound in his mouth, wasn't he brave and didn't he deserve the shout of Bravo Another runs in this wise:— Will he succeeded The man has fallen over board and in his struggles caught hold of a great sea bird swimming on the water. The bird tries to escape and the man hopes, by its means, to raise himself above the waves. Will he succeed? We hope so for it is sad to be drowned. I think the bird is an albatross. And, again, this boy celebrates the good deeds of the dumb creatures by a striking tale, which we quote:— 17 A few years ago in the city of New York their was a brave polly who saved a man and woman in this way burgallers entry the house and stole the money and then one burgallers said to another we'll shot 'em! Now the Polly hearing this rang the alarm which woke his master up and then the burgallers escaped and a few years after the polly die and was mourn by many people and he was buried in a coffin cost three hundred dollar Brave Polly! Another boy, who failed to complete his book, showed an understanding of true nobility and kindness by his quotation of the following among other incidents:— Not long ago some boys were flying a kite in the street just as a poor boy on horse-back rode by. The horse became frightened and threw the boy injuring him severely. None of the boys followed but one that witnesses it did. He found that the wounded boy was the grandson of a poor widow whose only support consisted in selling milk. The boy said to the old lady I can drive your cow. He also gave her some money he had saved for a pair of boots to buy medicine and wore a pair of boots that belonged to the sick boy. A girl while going to school was abused by an older girl. Day after day she would throw snow at her. So one day she told her mother and her mother told her to pick out the nicest apple she could find and the next 18 day to give it to the girl. So she did and after that she never hurt her again. In the collections of "little outlaws," it is somewhat surprising to come upon a choice like this, with which one boy begins his book:— Like one who leaves the trampled street for some Cathedral cool and dim where he can hear in music beat the heart of prayer that beats for him. One little boy only six years old had evidently received help in the preparation of his book, and was of different home surroundings and training from the others:— Some very bad boys tied an old tin can to a little black dog's tail, and he was afraid, but a little boy who was good caught the dog and got the can untied so the little dog did not cry any more. That little boy was brave. I am a little boy only six years old and I am afraid of big bad boys. Another item given by this little boy leads us to exclaim, "Wonderful, if true!" A nice fat hen died one day, and her little chicks did not have any place to go: but a big big rooster walked up to them, and took them with him; and he scratched in the dirt for them, and let them sleep under his feathers at night, so they all lived to be fat hens. I think that was a very kind act. 19 One of the best collections contains the following incidents of self-sacrifice and devotion to others:— A true nobleman wounded on the field of Zutphen Sir Philip Sidney refused to quench his burning thirst till he had offered his canteen to a poor bleeding soldier. When the gallant Sir Ralph Abercrombie was mortally wounded in the battle of Aboukir they carried him on a litter on board of his ship and to ease his pain a soldier's blanket was placed under his head from which he experienced considerable relief. He asked what it was. It's only a soldier's blanket they replied. Who's blanket is it asked Sir Ralph, I wish to know the name of the man whose blanket this is. It is Duncan Roy's of the Forty-second Sir Ralph. Then see that Duncan Roy gets his blanket this very night. Even to ease his dying agony the general would not deprive the private soldier of his blanket for one night. Another boy, whose collection of items is excellent, begins with one which shows he was able to discern the worth of little simple acts which any boy might do:— One cold morning last winter the streets were slippery with a thin coat of ice, partially covered with snow, and people who were going to their places of business were obliged to walk very carefully for fear of falling. As I was passing along with the 20 rest I noticed a bright looking lad standing on the pavement, and steadily looking at a spot on the sidewalk. As I approached him he looked up at me and pointed to the place said, "Please don't step there, I slipped there and fell." I thanked the kind and thoughtful little fellow and passed by the dangerous place. The second set of books is an advance upon the first in understanding of the intention of Mr. White, in neatness, in accuracy, and in the proportion of those having the full number of items. In some instances the same boys tried again, and improved decidedly upon their original work, although knowing that they could not get a prize if they had before received one. The far greater number of kind acts done by humble people in every-day fashion which are recorded in the second set of books shows that the boys had at last understood that they were asked to note that which touched or might affect their own lives closely, and not merely to search history for sublime deeds of great men. One records the following:— One day as two boys were walking along they met a poor old woman carrying a large basket of apples she looked weak and ill so the lads carried the basket a long distance and they would not take an apple because it was their duty. 21 Another tells this:— A little boy named Arty said to a boy named Frank Green you're the rudest boy in this street I should think you be ashamed. Frank had a new snowball all ready to strike the poor old woman who had just returned from a hard days work. But when Frank heard those words he drew back his hand. He look angry and Harry said I don't see how you dare tell Frank that he pay you off for it. Well I'd rather he'd pay me off than do a rude thing. Don't you think Arty was brave? I do and I think some day he will be a true gentleman. Another boy, whose whole collection is very good, tells of the heroism of a little drummer boy who refused a glass of wine at the dinner-table of his captain, although urged and cammanded to drink it. Another boy repeats the pretty story of the English sailor who, released from his captivity as a prisoner of war, bought of a bird-dealer a cage full of birds, and and gave them their freedom in gratitude for his own newly regained liberty. The whole collection of books given in at this second contest shows much moral discrimination, and many incidents recorded touch upon those finer and more delicate elements of kindness and nobility which the boys could hardly have seen much of in their homes. 22 Not all cities have a Miss Maxwell to start this novel experiment in training rudeness, coarseness and brutality to fix the eye upon gentleness, nobility, and kindness. Fewer cities still have a Mr. White, of devotion, tenderness, and faith, to draw the hearts of the most depraved and wayward toward the better life. But the principle of this unique enterprise in moral training is of universal application,—the principle that attractive power toward the good rather than repressive power toward the bad is the mighty lever in character-building. The great interest already manifested in this boys' "Record of Virtue", wherever it has been known, justifies this public recital of a most private and personal work, while it gives hope of new and wiser ventures in the same direction.— Abstract of a paper in the Century, by Anna Garlin Spencer. 70 Morningside Drive New York City March 26, 1923 My dear Mrs. Algeo Your letter of March 12 has been to California and back. Miss Eddy is spending the winter at Pasadena I should be glad to have you use the whole or any part of the History chapter on R. I. which I wrote, but I think the permission would have to come from the Editor of the Volume, as it is a part of her large historical contribution to the Suffrage cause, - Mrs. Ida Husted Harper. We all wrote for our different States for the Fourth Volume of her complete History. Miss Anthony and she working together for the earlier history embodied in the first three volumes. I do not know about the ownership of the plates or the copyright. Miss Anthony I think owned, as she paid for, the early edition. If you will write to Mrs Ida Husted Harper, c/o The Woman Citizen, 171 Madison Ave., New York City, and tell her what you want to do I hope you may have the permission you wish. Tell her that I am more than willing you should use anything of mine, in the book I think if you will turn to pages 179, 308, and 328 you will see, especially in the last two references, that I early applied sociological material to the suffrage movement. Of the appeals given in summary on page 308 and 328 it was said by two Senators in Washington that it was "the first time they had had a new argument presented." If you have permission to use the R. I. Chapter from the 4th Vol. I hope you will find space for the record regarding the opening of college opportunities to girls at Brown. The impression has been, I find, that the more "conservative" women accomplished that. The more conservative women made it an affiliated college. The Woman Suffrage women started out "to open Brown University to women" on equal terms. There is much confusion as to the early history in that connection I do not mean to crticise. Doubtless all went as was best, surely easiest, after the ball was rolling. But the facts are as I state them in the R. I. Chapter. I wish you all success in your work. I am hoping that the material of such richness and value which Mrs Harper has collected and set in order, a stupendous task which she alone of all the suffragists could I believe render, will find a place in different smaller and more popular volumes in relation to different special interests. Your sincerely Anna Garlin Spencer HOTEL CLENDENING 202 West 103rd Street (ONE BLOCK EAST OF BROADWAY) New York City TELEPHONE ACADEMY 3510 CABLE ADDRESS "CLENCO" Dear friend I send back your Mothers picture with some I have had made for my book. Also and old friend in her last photo, With best wishes Anna Garlin Spencer, Jan 4, 1928, You were the Belle of my Pioneer ball! A G Spencer Am at A. W. A. Club House 353 West 57th St. New York City Which was described in N. J. Hope you are well as usual Saw Mrs Harper this summer Had a letter from Alice Park [?of Paris?] [????] recently in which she mentioned you with love. Wish we could meet Anna Garlin Spencer NEW YORK N.Y.14 Se[ 6 12--PM 1929 REGISTER OR INSURE VALUABLE MALL THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS Anna Gorliu Thenur Miss Alice Stone Blackmell 3 Monaduock 81 ___ . Uplams Slahon Boston . Mass , (Anna Garlin Spencer to Lucy Stone) Boston, Sept. 21, 1872 Dear Mrs. Stone I have waited some time hoping to see you, but in vain. I was intending to ask of you a note of introduction to some one but that is of little consequence. I also wished to say that I should like very well to spend two months or so in lecturing for your N.E. Suffrage Society this winter, provided there was any need or desire for me. I shall not make the slightest effort to push myself forward in any public direction. My work will be for the most part, this winter, I presume reporting and writing for the Providence Journal, at same time I should like to become still more identified with the Suffrage work and should also like to test myself in speaking further. I have no idea that I shall ever be a very popular speaker, but think I may impress some thoughtful persons with the importance of our Reform. I do not ask a personal favor, you understand, neither do I wish you to propose my name except you have reason to think my services would be useful. I simply wish you to understand that I am willing to work for the Suffrage Cause, of course at the same pay that others receive and should be pleased to do some speaking for you if it was best. Our own State Society may possibly ask me to make a canvass of our State, but I should greatly prefer & know it would be more wise for me to work somewhat in other fields. I shall prepare, or rather re-write, a lecture at my earliest convenience and if you think it best for me, as well as the Cause to do any speaking during this Winter you will be kind enough to let me know. Yours sincerely Anna G. Garlin THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S ASSOCIATION [*Dec 1929*] A W A CLUBHOUSE COLUMBUS 6100 My dear friend, I am here at- this Club - House until further notice, Expect - to go back to my lonely, sunny, room at White Plains later but - am now so 'busy' with a piece of research I am doing I cannot commute. Shall be glad and grateful [?t?re] your book. Am glad [?the] corrected [about?] - your father's date of 1st 353 WEST 57 STREET NEW YORK CITY suffrage speech, But the vivid remembrance of the celebration of Worcester of that final "American" Assn. Meeting made me feel he was in at the first. At any rate he and your mother are held together in grateful memory Hope you will get over all aches, pains and sprains soon, With affectionate good regard, Anna Garlin Spencer. Dec 17. 1929. [*Apr. 1930*] Dear Alice Stone Blackwell, You did send me your lovely book I wrote at once my thanks--I am so sorry the mail failed us. I use the address [?] 370--7th--Ave for all my mail now as I am not sure where I shall be from week to week. I cannot go back to White Plains. I grieve to say as there is illness in the family. For I am at-present-just perching waiting for the new developments that Spring may bring. Thanks for the Easter card and loving thoughts sent - Love always, Anna Garlin Spencer, April 14. 1930. From Anna GarlinSpencer ,435 West 119th St New York City Dear Alice Stone Blackwell I have your letter of Sept 19th, I have been overwhelmed with work or would have answered sooner, [*in detail*] I received the book and read it with most intense interest. I then sent the note to the publishers which was forwarded to you and now have your letter of Oct 13th. I have decided not to write an article [*about the book*] for any magazine, I desire to pay tribute to your mother and to aid in the sale of the book the interest in which suffers great loss from the delay in its publishing. But I could not speak, even as Miss Papazian does in Unity of the book without, like Mrs Catt, giving a word of regret for the "defect" as she I think rightly calls it, in at this late date setting down what the 15th chapter contains. I shall however send a short note to The Register speaking only of the invaluable picture which your great writing ability has painted of a unique and wonderful character and service. Your letter makes me sad, my dear Alice. It shows that you do not yet recognize the strangeness of your delay in writing the biography; a delay that to me lacks moral justification, I have been on the point of writing to you many times to beg you to either write that biography yourself, while people were still living who loved your mother so greatly, or else give permission to someone else to write it while its interest could command the attention it deserved. Had you published the expected and longed for biography soon after your mother's death and made it wholly a picture of what she was and what she did, it would have given you a chance to answer and criticise anything you felt unjust or untrue in any discussion of the history of women suffrage work;- not indeed in the book itself, to mar the constructive beauty of the life described, but in the many newspapers open to your pen, as occasion indicated. That would would have enable you to answer the ill-natured and inadequate and in places, as it seems to me, unjust book by Mrs. Dorr, That is if you felt, as I should hardly have done, that her book was worthy your steel , The History of Woman Suffrage sud the Life of Susan B Anthony by Ida Husted Harper are both unimpeachable as to facts in my opinion , They, however, give and naturally only one side of the shield and have needed a companion picture of Luo y Stone, Juli Ward Howe, [?] [?] Buffum Chaoe and your noble father, and all the men who helped with Col. Higginson in the America Woman Suffrafe Assn. work, I mean a companion picture, as constructive and as devoted to showing the fine things done and accomplished by that body of workers as Mrs. Harper's shows the National Assn workers particularly. I the two groups who worked sometimes together and often apart. You may not recall that with Frederick Hinckley and Francis Jackson Garrison I worked hard to bring about the union of two branches. I was present at the luncheon in Frank and Mary Garrison's home when you met Mis. Anthony and took those first helpful steps towards such union. A new generation has been born since then I cannot bear without the greatest pain, the smirching of your terribly and hurtfully delayed tribute to your mother by digging u of dead things that smell of forgotten mistakes and mis understandings and do not belong at all with the sweet memories that the very name of Lucy Stone suggests to those who loved her. Remember dear Alice that I have my 80th birthday next April. I signed the first Suffrage petition presented to the R.I.Legislature in the 1969 and became assistant Secretary of the Society in 1872, I thus became early associated with the New England wing and later the "American" group and count among the great blessings of my life knowing your father and mother as the great leaders they were. I have been on the point of writing a brochure entitled " A Great Marriage" to show the unique and beautiful union of your father and mother, But of course no one else could precede you in the sacred duty of biographical tribute. And now; - I trust few will try to go on with the unfortunate debate you invite in your Chapter 15. I shall do my best to ignore it in any word I may write concerting the book so lovely for the most part. Yours with love, Anna Preslim Spencer [*Anna Garlin Spencer*] Excerpt from letter of Anna Garlin Spencer to Alice Stone Blackwell, September 1930, in response to a request for a review of "Lucy Stone Pioneer of Woman's Rights." "Your letter make me sad, my dear Alice. It shows that you do not yet recognize the strange mess of your delay in writing the biography; a delay that to me lacks moral justification. I have been on the point of writing to you many times to beg you to either write that biography yourself, while people were still living who loved your mother so greatly, or else give permission to some one else to write it while its interest could command the attention it deserved. Had you published the expected and longed- for biography soon after your mother's death and made it wholly a picture of what she was and what she did, it would have given you a chance to answer and criticize anything you felt unjust or untrue in any discussion of the history of woman suffrage work; - not indeed in the book itself, to mar the constructive beauty of the life described, but in the many newspapers open to your pen, as occasion indicated. That would have enabled you to answer the ill-natured and inadequate and in places, it seems to me, unjust book by Mrs. Dorr. That is if you felt, as I should hardly have done, that her book was worthy your steel. The History of Woman Suffrage, and the Life of Susan B. Anthony by Ida Husted Harper are both unimpeachable as to facts, in my opinion. They, however, give and naturally, only one side of the shield and have needed a companion picture of Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Buffam Chace and your noble father, and all the men who helped with Col. Higginson in the American Woman Suffrage work. I mean a companion picture, as a constructive and as devoted to showing the fine things done and accomplished by that page 2. Anna Garlin Spencer, September 1930. body of workers as Mrs. Harper's shows the National Assn. workers particularly. I do not mean in controversial mood. I mean in true portraiture of the two groups who worked sometimes together and often apart. You may not recall that with Frederick Hinckley and Francis Jackson Garrison I worked hard to bring about the union of the two branches. I was present at the luncheon in Frank and Mary Garrison's home, when you met Miss Anthony and took those first helpful steps toward such union. A new generation has been born since then. I cannot bear, without the greatest pain, the smirching of your terribly and hurtfully delayed tribute to your mother by the digging up of dead things that smell of forgotten mistakes and misunderstandings and do not belong at all with the sweet memories that the very name of Lucy Stone suggests to those who loved her. And now - I trust few will try to go on with the unfortunate debate you invite in your Chapter 15. I shall do[try] my best to ignore it in any word I say write concerning the book, - so lovely for the most part. Yours with love, (signed) Anna Garlin Spencer. DATES OF NOTED EVENTS [Compiled By ANNA GARLIN SPENCER 1930] 1848 The Seneca Falls, New York, Women's Rights Meeting, Called by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other Pioneers. [*1849 Wyo. became a state women given the vote when*] [*182*] 1850 The Woman's Rights Convention at Worcester, Masschusetts, called by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and other New England Pioneers. [*1867 Camp in Kansas*] 1868 The beginning of the Women's Club Movement in New York City, and in Boston, by "Jennie June" and other Club pioneers. 1873 The birth of the first large and socially inclusive national organization of women, the Association for the Advancement of Women, of which Julia Ward Howe, Maria Mitchell, Mary F. Eastman, and others were the leaders. 1876 The Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the First World's Fair to have a Woman's Building and to indicate by large Exhibits the contribution of Women to Social Culture. 1888 The 40th Anniversary of the first Woman's Rights meeting, celebrated by an International Council of Women' held by invitation of the National Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Held in Washington, D.C. and giving birth to the Council Idea of permanent organizations of National and International Councils, the National Councils to be composed only of National Organizations of Women, and the International of National Councils so composed. 1889 Formation of the General Federatino of Women's Clubs [*1890 Merger of Am and Natl Assns into NAWSA.*] 1893 World's Congress of Women held at Chicago, Illinois, in connection with the Columbian Exposition; the first World's Fair at which Women served on the official Board of Judges; and at which Women's Congress, presided over by May Wright Sewall, the International Council of Women came to full organization by the election of Lady Aberdeen as President. 1907 The National Peace Congress held in New York City, the first such meeting at which women held official place in Executive Committees and at which a special place in the Program was assigned to women speakers; and at which Mrs. Sewall reported, as Guest of Honor, and by special request, the work for Peace and Arbitration of the Councils of Women. [*1920 Federal Amendment declared a part of the Const. L of W Voters organized.*] 1925 Meeting of the INternational Council of Women in Washington, D.C., the National Council of Women of the United States acting as Hostess under the leadership of Mrs. Philip North Moore, its President. 1927-28 Celebration by the National Council of Women of the United States, under the leadership of its President, Dr. Valeria Parker, of the 80th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Meeting and 40th of the Washington Council. 1930 Quinquennial Meeting of the International Council of Women;- [Whither Shall It Lead?] [*1940- The Woman's Centennial Congress held in New York to celebrate 100 years of Woman's Progress*] Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.