Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter XXXVI The Centennial Year. The Year 1876 was one of intense excitement & laborious activity all over the country The anticipation of the of the Centennial birthday of the republic, to be celebrated in Philadelphia showed the patriotism of the people to the highest point of enthusiasm. As each State was to be represented in the great exhibition, local pride added another element to the public interest, Then, too, every 2 one who could possibly afford this journey was making busy preparations to spend the 4th of July, the natal day of the Republic, 'mid the [historic] scenes where the Declaration of Independence was issued in 1776, the government inaugurated, & The first national councils were held. As the women were to take part in the exhibition, they were inventing all kinds of artistic designs for home decoration, every variety of bric-a-brac -, marvellous bed-quilts & busts of distinguished men & women made in butter as rich as clay. Those 3 interested in their political rights - decided to make the [4th] Fourth a Woman's Day, to celebrate the occasion in their various localities by delivering orations & reading their own Declaration of Rights, with dinners & picnics, in the Town Halls or Groves as most convenient. But large numbers of women from every state in the Union made their arrangements to spend that historic period in Philadelphia. With the large number or foreigners that came over 4 to join in the festivities, that city was crammed to its utmost capacity. With the crowd & excessive heat, comfort everywhere was sacrificed to curiosity. The enthusiasm throughout the country had given a fresh impulse to the Lyceum Bureaus. Like the ferry boats in new York harbor, running hither & thither, crossing each other's tracks the whole list of lecturers were on the jump. rushing through every town & city from San Francisco to New York. As soon as 5 a new railroad ran through a village of 500 inhabitants, that could boast a school house, a church, a Hotel & one enterprising man or woman a course of lectures was at once inaugurated, as a part of the winter entertainments. On one occasion I was invited to a little town, the same evening with the Christy Minstrels. It was arranged as they had only one hall, that I was to speak from seven to eight & the minstrels to have the remainder 6 of the time. One may readily see, that with the minstrels in anticipation a lecture on any serious question would occupy, but a small place in the hearts of the people in a new country where they seldom have entertainments of any kind. All the time I was speaking there was running to & fro, behind the scenes, the singers transforming themselves with paint & curly wigs into Africans, chattering & laughing at the comical appearance of each other. As 7 it was a warm evening & the windows being open, the hilarity of the boys in the street added to the general din. Under such circumstances it was difficult to preserve my equilibrium,. I felt like laughing at my own comical position, I decided to make my address a medley of anecdotes & stories like a string of beads held together by a fine thread of argument & illustration. The moment the hand of 8 the clock pointed at eight the full band struck up cracking one of my beads right through the middle, & announcing that the happy hour for the minstrels had fully come. Those of my audience who wished to stay were offered free seats, those who did not slipped out & the crowd rushed in soon packing the house to its utmost capacity. I stayed & enjoyed the performance of the minstrels more than my own ministrations 9 As the Lyceum season lasted from October to June, I was late in reaching Philadelphia. Miss Anthony & Mrs Gage had already been through the agony of finding appropriate headquarters for the National Woman Suffrage association. I found them pleasantly situated. on the lower floor, 1431 Chesnut Street, with the work for the coming month clearly mapped out. As it was the year for nominating a President 10. The Republicans & Democrats were about to hold their great conventions, hence letters were to be written to them, recommending a woman suffrage plank in their platform, asking seats for women in the conventions, with the privilege of being heard in their own behalf. On these letters our united wisdom was concentrated, & 20,000 of each were published. Then it was thought preeminently proper that a Woman's Declaration of Rights 11 should be issued. Days & nights were spent over that document & after many twists in our analytical tweezers with a critical consideration of every word & sentence it was at last, by a consensus of the competent, pronounced very good & 20,000 copies ordered to be printed. All these documents were folded put in envelopes, stamped & divided, & scattered to the four winds of heaven. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Gage and I Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter XXX[IX] VIII Centennial = All through our civil war, the slaves in the southern plantations, had an ab[j]iding faith that the outcome of the terrible conflict was to be freedom for their race. Just so through all the busy preparations 2 of the centennial the women of the nation felt sure that the great national celebration could not pass without the concession of some new liberties to woman. Hence they pressed their claims at every point in the 4th of July celebration, in the Exposition buildings & in the Republican & Democratic nominating conventions, hoping to get 3 a plank in the the platforms of both the great political parties. How closely they matched the words that fell from the lips of our most distinguished orators & statesmen may be seen from the following [letter] editorial of Sarah Langden Williams Ed of the Ballot, Box 4 [Letter of Ernestine L. Rose, 1876. 51] [though absent in body I am with you in the cause for which, in common with you, I have labored so long, and hope not labored in vain. The glorious day upon which human equality was first proclaimed ought to be commemorated, not only every hundred years, or every year, but it ought to be constantly held before the public mind until its grand principles are carried into practice. The declaration that "All men [which means all human beings irrespective of sex] have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," is enough for a woman as for man. We need no other; but we must reassert in 1876 what 1776 so gloriously proclaimed, and call upon the law-makers and the law-breakers to carry that declaration to its logical consistency by giving woman the right of representation in the government which she helps to maintain; a voice in the laws by which she she is governed, and all the rights and privileges society can bestow, the same as to man, or disprove its validity. We need no other declaration. All we ask is to have the laws based on the same foundation upon which that declaration rests, viz.: upon equal justice, and not upon sex. Whenever the rights of man are claimed, moral consistency points to the equal rights of woman. I hope these few lines will fill a little space in the convention at Philadelphia, where my voice has so often been raised in behalf of the principles of humanity. I am glad to see my name among the vice-presidents of the National Association. Keep a warm place for me with the American people. I hope some day to be there yet. Give my love to Mrs Mott and Sarah Pugh. With kind regards from Mr. Rose, Yours affectionately, Ernestine L. Rose. A new Paper, The Ballot-Box, was started in the centennial year at Toledo, Ohio, owned and published by Mrs. Sarah Langdon Williams. The following editorial on the natal day of the republic is from her pen:] 5 52 History of Woman Suffrage. [*solid*] The chief concern in this regard, to us and the rest of the world is, whether the proud trust, the profound radicalism, the wide benevolence which spoke in the declaration and were infused into the constitution at the first, have been in good-faith adhered to by the people, and whether now the living principles supply the living forces which sustain and direct the government and society. He who doubts needs but to look around to find all things full of the original spirit and testify to its wisdom and strength. [*lead*] Yet that very day in that very city was a large assemblage of women convened to protest against the gross wrongs of their sex - the representatives of twenty millions of citizens of the United States, composing one-half of the population being governed without their consent by the other half, who, by virtue of their superior strength, held the reins of power and tyrannically denied them all representation. At that very meeting at which that polished falsehood was uttered had the women, but shortly before, been denied the privilege of silently presenting their declaration of rights. More forcibly is this mortifying disregard of the claims of women thrust in their faces from the fact that, amid all this magnificent triumph with which the growth of the century was commemorated, amid the protestations of platforms all over the country of the grand success of the principle of equal rights for all, the possibility of future according equal rights to women as well as to men was, with the exception of one or two praiseworthy instances, as far as reports have reached us, utterly ignored. The women have no country - their rights are disregarded, their appeals ignored, their protests scorned, they are treated as children who do not comprehend their own wants, and as slaves whose crowning duty is obedience. Whether, on this great day of national triumph and national aspiration, the possibilities of a better future for women were forgotten; whether, from carelessness, willfulness, or wickedness, their grand services and weary struggles in the past and hopes and aspirations for the future were left entirely out of the account certain it is that our orators were [*solid*] [*4 1/2*] THE RETROSPECT. - Since our last issue the great centennial anniversary of American independence has come and gone; it has been greeted with rejoicing throughout the land; its events have passed into history. The day in which the great principles embodied the Declaration of Independence were announced by the revolutionary fathers to the world has been celebrated through all this vast heritage, with pomp and popular glorification, and the nation's finest orators have signalized the event in "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." Everywhere had the country been arrayed in its holiday attire - the gay insignia which, old as the century, puts on fresh youth and brilliancy each time its colors are unfurled. The successes which the country has achieved have been portrayed with glowing eloquence, the people's sovereignty has been the theme of congratulation and the glorious principles of freedom and equal rights have been enthusiastically proclaimed. In the magnificent oration of Mr. Evarts delivered in Independence Square , the spot made sacred by the signing of the Declaration of Independence which announced that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," these words occur: [*(over)*] AN ARAB SAYING. ------------- The Century. Remember, three things come not back: The arrow sent upon its track - It will not swerve, it will not stay Its speed; it flies to wound or slay. The spoken word so soon forgot By thee; but it has perished not; In other hearts 'tis living still, And doing work for good or ill. And the lost opportunity, That cometh back no more to thee. In vain thou weepest, in vain dost yearn. Those three will never more return. -------- too much absorbed in the good done by men and for men, to once recur to the valuable aid, self-denying patriotism and lofty virtues of the nation's unrepresented women. There were a few exceptions: Col. Wm. M. Ferry, of Ottawa county, Michigan, in his historical address delivered in that county, July Fourth, took pains to make favorable mention of the daughter of one of the pioneers, as follows: [*solid*] Louisa Constant, or "Lisette," as she was called, became her father's clerk when twelve years old, and was as well known for wonderful faculties for business as she was for her personal attractions. In 1828, when Lisette was seventeen years old, her father died. She closed up his business with the British Company, engaged with the American Fur Company, at Mackinaw, receiving from them a large supply of merchandise, and for six years conducted the most successful trading establishment in the northwest. [*5 1/2*] Think of it, ye who disparage the ability of woman! This little tribute we record with gratification. Colonel Ferry remembered woman. Henry Ward Beecher, in his oration, delivered at Peekskill, is reported to have said: [*solid*] And now there is but one step more - there is but one step more. We permit the lame, the halt and the blind to go to the ballot-box; we permit the foreigner and the [*6*] [Retrospect of "The Ballot-Box"] 53 [*solid*] black man, the slave and the freeman, to partake of the suffrage; there is but one thing left out, and that is the mother that taught us, and the wife that is thought worthy to walk side by side with us. It is woman that is put lower than the slave, lower than the ignorant foreigner. She is put among the paupers whom the law won't allow to vote; among the insane whom the law won't allow to vote. But the days are numbered in which this can take place, and she too will vote. But these words are followed by others somewhat problematical, at least in the respect rendered to women: [*solid*] As in a hundred years suffrage has extended its bounds till it now includes the whole population, in another hundred years everything will vote, unless it be the power of the loom, and the locomotive, and the watch, and I sometimes think, looking at these machines and their performances, that they too ought to vote. But Mr. Evarts approached the close of his oration with these words - and may they not be prophetic - may not the orator have spoken with a deeper meaning than he knew? [*solid*] With these proud possessions of the past, with powers matured, with principles settled, with habits formed, the nation passes as it were from preparatory growth to responsible development of character and the steady performance of duty. What labors await it, what trials shall attend it, what triumphs for human nature, what glory for itself, are prepared for this people in the coming century, we may not assume to foretell. Whether the wise (?) legislators see it or not - whether the undercurrent that is beating to the shore speaks with an utterance that is comprehensible to their heavy apprehensions or not, the coming century has in preparation for the country a truer humanity, a better justice of which the protest and declaration of the fathers pouring its vital current down through the departed century, and surging on into the future, is, to the seeing eye, the sure forerunner, the seed-time, of which the approaching harvest will bring a better fruition for women - and they who scoff now will be compelled to rejoice hereafter. But as Mr. Evarts remarked in his allusions to future centennials: [*solid*] By the mere circumstance of this periodicity our generation will be in the minds, in the hearts, on the lips our countrymen at the next centennial commemoration in comparison with their own character and condition and with the great founders of the nation. What shall they say of us? How shall they estimate the part we bear in the unbroken line of the nation's progress? And so on, in the long reach of time, forever and forever, our place in the secular roll of the ages must always bring us into observation and criticism. Shall it then be recorded of us that the demand and the protest of the women were not made in vain? Shall it be told to future generations that the cry for justice, the effort to sunder the shackles with which woman has been oppressed from the dim ages ot the past, was heeded? Or, shall it be told of us, in the beginning of this second centennial, that justice has been ignored, that only liberty to men entered at this stage of progress, into the American idea of self-government? Freedom to men and women alike is but a question of time - is America now equal to the great occasion? Has her development expanded to that degree where her legislators can say in very truth, as of the colored man, "Let the oppressed go free"? [*6 1/2*] [*7 The Editors of the*] 54 History of Women Suffrage [*said*] The woman's pavilion upon the centennial grounds was an after-thought, as theologians claim woman herself to have been.* The women of the country after having contributed nearly $100,000 to the centennial stock, found there had been no provision made for the separate exhibition of their work. The centennial board, Mrs. Gillespie, president, then decided to raise funds for the erection of a separate building to be known as the Woman's Pavilion. It covered an acre of ground and was erected at an expense of $30,000, a small sum in comparison with the money which had been raised by women and expended on the other buildings, not to speak of State and national appropriations which the taxes levied on them had largely helped to swell. The pavilion was no true exhibit of woman's work. First, few women are as yet owners of business which their industry largely makes remunerative. Cotton factories in which thousands of women work, are owned by men. The shoe business, in some branches of which women are doing more than half, is under the ownership of men. Rich embroideries from India, rugs of downy softness from Turkey, the muslin of Dacca, anciently known as "The Woven Wind," the pottery and majolica ware of P. Pipsen's widow, the cartridges and envelopes of Uncle Sam, Waltham watches whose finest mechanical work is done by women, and ten thousand other industries found no place in the pavilion. Said United States Commissioner Meeker,+of Colorado, "Woman's work comprises three-fourths of the exposition; it is scattered through every building; take it away and there would be no exposition." But this pavilion rendered one good service to woman in showing her capabilities as an engineer. The boiler which furnished the force for running its work was under the management of a young Canadian girl, Miss Alison, who from a child loved machinery, spending much time in the large saw and grist mills of her father, run by engines of two- and three-hundred horse-power, which she sometimes managed for amusement. When her name was proposed for running the pavilion machinery it brought much opposition. It was said the committee would some day find the pavilion blown to atoms; that the woman engineer would spend her time reading novels, instead of watching the steam gauge; [*8*] [The Woman's Pavilion] 55 that the idea was impracticable and should not be thought of. But Miss Alison soon proved her capabilities and the falseness of these prophecies by taking her place in the engine-room and managing its working with the ease that a child spins a top. Six power looms on which women wove carpets, webbing, silks, etc., were run by this engine. At a later period of the printing of The New Century for Women, a paper published by the centennial commission in the woman's building, was also done by its means. Miss Alison declared the work to be more cleanly, more pleasant, and infinitely less fatiguing than cooking over a kitchen stove. "Since I have been compelled to earn my own livelihood," she said, "I have never been engaged in work I liked so well. Teaching school is much harder, and one is not paid as well." She expressed confidence in her ability to manage the engine of an ocean steamer, and said there were thousands of small engines in use in various parts of the country, and no reason existed why women should not be employed to manage them - following the profession of engineer as a regular business - an engine requiring far less attention than is given by a nurse-maid or mother to a child. [*#*] But to have made the woman's pavilion grandly historic, upon its walls should have been hung the yearly protest of Harriet K. Hunt against taxation without representation; the legal papers served upon the Smith sisters when their Alderny cows were seized and sold for their refusal to pay taxes while unrepresented; the papers held by the city of Worcester for the forced sale of the house and lands of Abby Kelly Foster, the veteran abolitionist, because she refused to pay taxes, giving the same reason our ancestors gave when they resisted taxation; a model of Bunker Hill monument, its foundation laid by Lafayette in 1825, but which remained unfinished nearly twenty years until the famous French danseuse Fanny Ellsler, gave the proceeds of an exhibition for that purpose. With these should have been exhibited framed copies of all the laws bearing unjustly upon woman - those which rob her of her name, her earnings, her property, her children, her person; also, the legal papers in the case of Susan B. Anthony, who was tried and fined for seeking to give consent to the laws which governed her; and the decision of Mr. Justice Miller (Chief-Justice Chase dissenting) in the case of Myra Bradwell, denying national protection for woman's civil rights; and the later decision of Chief-Justice Waite of the Supreme Court 9 56 [History of Woman Suffrage] against Virginia L. Minor, denying to women national protection for their political rights, decisions in favor of state-rights which imperil the liberties not only of all women, but of every white man in the nation. Woman's most fitting contributions to the centennial exposition would have been these protests, laws and decisions which show her political slavery. But all this was left for rooms outside of the centennial grounds, upon Chestnut street, where the National Woman Suffrage Association hoisted its flag, made its protests, and wrote the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States. To many thoughtful people it seemed captious and unreasonable for women to complain of injustice in this free land, amidst such universal rejoicings. When the majority of women are seemingly happy, it is natural to suppose that the discontent of the minority is the result of their unfortunate individual idiosyncrasies, and not of adverse influences in their established conditions. But the history of the world shows that the vast majority in every generation passively accept the conditions into which they are born, while those who demand larger liberties are ever a small, ostracised minority whose claims are ridiculed and ignored. From our stand-point we honor the Chinese women who claim the right to their feet and powers of locomotion, the Hindoo widows who refuse to ascend the funeral pyre of their husbands, the Turkish women who throw off their masks and veils and leave the harem, the Mormon women who abjure their faith and demand monogamic relations; why not equally honor the intelligent minority of American women who protest against the artificial disabilities by which their freedom is limited and their development arrested? That only a few under any circumstances protest against the injustice of long established laws and customs does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real, only proves their apathy and deeper degradation. That a majority of the women of the United States accept without protest the disabilities that grow out of their disfranchisement, is simply an evidence of their ignorance and cowardice, while the minority who demand a higher political status clearly prove their superior intelligence and wisdom. Reminiscences by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Campaign in Michigan Chapter XXXVI In 1874, Michigan was the point of interest to all those who had taken part in the woman suffrage movement. The Legislature by a very large majority [vote] submitted an amendment 2 of the constitution to a vote of the [people] electors in favor of striking out the word "male" & thus secure[ing] civil & political rights to the women of the State. It was a very active campaign, crowded meetings were held in all the chief towns & cities. Beside many other local speakers I can recall Adele Hazlett, Mary H. Lathrop, Bishop Haven, Giles Stebbins, Moses Coyt Tyler, Professor in the University 3 and a large numbers of ministers who preached every Sunday somewhere on the subject of woman's position [on Sunday]. The Methodist Conference passed [an] a unanimous vote in favor of the amendment. The "foreign emissaries," as the opposition called us, were Mary Eastman, Phoebe Couzins Susan B. Anthony, & myself. I was in the [the] State during the intense heat of May & June speaking every evening to large audiences 4 in the afternoon to women alone, & preaching every Sunday in some pulpit. The Methodists, Universalists, Unitarians, & Quakers all threw open their churches to the apostles of the new gospel, of equality for woman. We spoke in jails, prisons, asylums, depots, & the open air. Whereever there were ears to hear, we lifted up our voices & on the wings of the mind [or the press] the glad tidings 5 were carried to the remotest corners of the State, & the votes of 40,000 men good & true on election day, in favor of the amendment were so many testimonials to the value of the educational work accomplished. I made many valuable acquaintances on that trip, with whom I have maintained life long friendships. In Detroit I stayed with Captain Ward's family. He & his sister Emily were among the early settlers of that state. I found 6 her a very self reliant independent woman She managed her own financial affairs, & kept up her individual establishment. She was a large, well developed woman & to great strength of character she added a wealth of tenderness & charity. She was very fond of children & always doing something for their amusement. On one occasion she took a party of children for a picnic to a favorite island down the river 7 In the course of the afternoon one of the children mischievously untied the little boat & left it to drift away. Fortunately one oar was left on the bank which served the double purpose of a flag staff or a weapon of defence against all unwelcome visitors. As darkness soon settled down upon the party & the children one by one fell asleep. "Aunt Emily" as she was called by all who loved her constituted herself the 8 night watch, to keep the fire going & guard the children from all harm. On her lonely watch, she constructed too, a flag of distress by attaching one of her most precious undergarments to the oar. To catch the eye of some passing boatmen early in the morning. As soon as the day dawned she was on the shore diligently waving the flag of distress in view 9 of every passing boat, but many glided by with no thought of the helpless condition of the party. At length one Captain, more considerate than the rest, stopped & sent a boat ashore to see what the white flag signified, the party were all carried in safety to the boat which proved to be one of Captain Ward's vessels & as the officers all knew "Aunt Emily" there was great pleasure expressed on both 10 sides after a bountiful repast they were all in a mood to laugh over the midnight experiences. Here too I met Mr and Mrs Giles Stebbins whom I had known in the early days of the antislavery movement & as pillars of strength in the first woman's rights conventions. I passed a pleasant day in the hospitable home of Gov Bagley and his beautiful wife, with a group of pretty children. I found the Gov. deeply interested in prison reform. He had 11 been instrumental in passing a law giving prisoners lights in their cells & pleasant reading matter until nine o'clock His ideas of what prisons should be, as unfolded that day, have since been fully realized in the present grand experiment now being successfully tried at Elmira, New York. I visited the State prison at Jackson, & addressed 700 men & boys ranging from 70 down to 17 12 years of age. Seated on the dais with the Chaplain I saw them file in to dinner, & whilst they were eating, I had an opportunity to study the sad despairing faces before me, I shall never forget the hopeless expression of one young man, who had just been sentenced for twenty years. nor how ashamed I felt that one of my own sex,, trifling with two lovers had fanned the jealousy of one against the other until the tragedy ended in the death of one, & the almost 13 life-long imprisonment of the other. If girls should be truthful, transparent in any relations in life, surely it is in those of love involving the strongest passion of which human nature is capable. As the Chaplain told me the sad story & I noticed his refined face & [nik?] shaped head, I felt the young man was not under the right influences to learn the lesson he needed. Fear, coercion, punishment are the masculine remedies for moral weakness; but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change 14 the system and try education of the moral & intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences. Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self respect, the moral tone, & to harden instead of reform the criminal. My heart was so heavy I did not know what to say to such an assembly of the miserable. I asked the Chaplain what I should say? "Just what you please, he replied." Thinking they had probably heard enough of their sins, their souls and 15 the plan of salvation I thought I would give them the news of the day. So I told them about the woman suffrage amendment, what I was doing in the state, my amusing encounters with opponents, their arguments, my answers. I told them of the great changes that would be effected in prison life when the mothers of the nation had a voice in the buildings & discipline. I told them what Gov. Bagley said, & of the good time coming when prisons would no longer be places of punishment 16 but schools of reformation, to show them what women would do to realize this beautiful dream. I told them of Elizabeth Fry, & Dorothy Dix, of Ms. Farnhams experiment at Sing Sing, & Louise Michell's in New Caladonia. and in closing I said now, I want all of you who are in favor of the amendment, to hold up your right hands. They gave an unanimous vote, & laughed heartily when I said I do wish you could all go to the polls in November, & that we 17 could lock our opponents up here until after the election. I felt satisfied that they had had one happy hour. & that I had said nothing to hurt the feelings of the most unfortunate. As they filed off to their respective workshops, my faith & hope for brighter days went with them. I went all through the prison, everything looked clean & comfortable on the surface, but I met a few days after a very gentlemanly prisoner, just 18 set free, who had been there five years for forgery. He told me the true inwardness of the system, of the wretched dreary life they suffered, & the brutality of the keepers. He said the prison was infested with mice & vermin, that during the five years he was there he had never lain down one night to undisturbed slumber always tormented with mice & vermin. The sufferings we endure in summer for what of air, he said, are indescribable. In this 19. prison the cells more in the centre of the building, the corridors running all round by the windows, so the prisoners had no outlook, & no direct contact with the air. Hence if a careless keeper forgot to open the windows after a storm the poor prisoners panted for air in their cells, like fish out of water. My informer worked in the mattress department, over the room where prisoners were punished 20 He said he could hear the lash & the screams of the victims from morning till night. Hard as the work is all day, said he, it is a blessed relief to get out of our cells to march across the yard & get one glimpse of the heavens above, & one breath of pure air, & to be in contact with other human souls in the workshops, for although we could never speak to each other, yet there was a hidden current 21 of sympathy, conveyed by look, that made us one in our misery. Mrs Anthony & I were the guests of Mrs. Jenny at Flint, who organized the first woman's literary club, & started a library there, which at that time numbered two thousand volumes. Women's clubs with their own rooms of libraries was a marked feature in Michigan which I found in no other state at that time I think this was in a large measure due to 22 Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone, who had lectured on History & English Literature to large classes all over the state. She made innumerable trips to the old word, with classes of young ladies, & mid scenes of great historical events explained to them the symbols & beauties in art & architecture, the causes of different customs, religion & governments, & the downfall of mighty nations. 23 While at Mrs Jenny's we visited the deaf & dumb Institution [asylum] & were much pleased with the beauty of the place, & the seeming happiness of the young people. Having been suddenly called on at all points to speak on all subjects, we congratulated ourselves that we should escape on this occasion. But just as we were about to depart the Superintendent came after us in hot haste saying that the students were all in the chapel waiting impatiently to hear us 24 speak to them. "Speak to them! said I. how can we speak to the deaf & dumb, we do not understand the sign language". "Oh! come on," said he, "& I will show you how it is done". So I pushed Miss Anthony forward to take the first plunge, that I might be better prepared for the novel proceeding. The Superintendent & Miss Anthony stood side 25 by side on the platform, he told her to speak just as she would to any audience, & by signs he would tell them what she said. When I saw how simple the operation was I waited my turn with due composure. I was surprised to find a most responsive audience, & soon lost sight of the interpreter. I had never made the experiments before, but have several times since with great 26 satisfaction. I recall with pleasure the few days I spent with the William Ferry family in Grand Haven, at the meeting in the Opera House There the gas went out & I made the experiment of talking in darkness that has a very singular effect. It is like rehearsing to oneself. At Grand Rapids I met a large circle of suffrage saints Time would fail me to tell 27 all the amusing experiences of that Michigan Campaign & give the names of all the good men & women I met in Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Adrien, &c. &c. who deserve honorable mention. Though the press of the state was largely in our favor yet there were some editors who, having no arguments, exercised the little wit they did possess in low ridicule 28 "It was in this campaign that an editor in a Kalamazoo journal said: "That ancient daughter of Methuselah, Susan B. Anthony, passed through our city yesterday, on her way to the Plainwell meeting, with a bonnet on her head looking as if she had recently descended from Noah's ark." Miss Anthony often referred to this description of herself, and said, "Had I represented 20,000 votes in Michigan, that political editor would not have known nor cared whether I was the oldest or the youngest daughter Methuselah, or whether my bonnet came from the ark or from Worth's.- [E.C.S]" Miss Anthony always dressed in the fashion of the day, with good taste & equisite Quaker neatness. She was the one speaker who gave her services freely in that campaign, & raised enough to pay her expences from point to point. In Dakota where she has been speaking for the last six months, she has not only given her services, but paid her expenses in addition. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.