Grace Greenwood, Phœbe Couzins, and Other Advocates of the Cause.
Washington,January 18, 1870.
The National Woman Suffrage Convention was inaugurated last evening in Washington by a lecture on domestic life by Grace Greenwood. A respectable-sized audience, with young people largely in the preponderance, under the auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association, welcomed the authorities to the platform, and listened with grace, respect, and occasional spice of applause, to the essay christened “Indoors.” With a handsome, gallant preamble, Mrs. Lippincott (better known to the world as Grace Greenwood), was introduced, and her lecture went far to prove that women “indoors” could accomplish far more for the benefit of the human race than on the platform. There was intellect enough in the talented woman to fill Lincoln Hall, but unfortunately physical power was wanting. Not over one-third of those present were within hearing of the speaker’s voice.
Nature has set her face against women as public speakers unless they have been trained for the stage, like Olive Logan. No woman’s voice can bear the tension of an hour and a quarter without becoming husky and even painful to the last degree, and the speaker of the evening was no exception to the rule. Grace Greenwood appeared upon the platform in heavy black silk, with scarlet trimmings, which well became her dark autumnal beauty. She has a face of character, like Fanny Kemble, which glows and pales according to the combustion within. She commenced her lecture by saying that “Horace Greeley has said that old-fashioned domestic life has taken itsdeparture.” She said she hoped the time would come when the women would be developed mentally, morally, physically, but about that time the millennium would appear. She said woman, though denied the privilege of an equal chance to earn her own living, yet had the same chance on the scaffold, and the same swing at death. From English literature she abstracted what purported to be a description of the ideal woman. This creature was to be blessed with patience, a desire to stay at home, little learning. By no means was she to know how to spell correctly; as an accomplishment she was to know how to lisp. Then she drew a picture of Fanny Kemble as Lady Macbeth, a woman whose trained robe would sweep the men who concocted such pictures off the stage. At one time she intended to write a course of lectures to young men, but she did not say what deterred her from doing so. She gave us a glowing description of home, but regretted that the homes of the aristocracy were invaded by the “Jenkinses” and all the sacredness therein laid bare. Among those she denominated as Jenkins were the distinguished writers, George Alfred Townsend and Don Piatt. In painting the home she gave the “old maid” the most exalted position, and she decided that single life is not entirely bereft of comfort. The marriage relation, its joys, its sorrows, its struggles, were delineated with poetic fervor, and those who were fortunate enough to hear her pronounced the evening’s entertainment a success.
Ten o’clock, January 18, the hour and day appointed for the Woman Suffrage Convention, found Lincoln Hall decorated. Soon after a few women came in; slowly the number increased until a small and appreciative audience had gathered. Very few men were sprinkled around, but quite enough to receive the anathemas that were to be showered upon the whole sex. At just a quarter to 11 a side door from the platform opened and some of the shining lights of the “cause” came into view. ElizabethCady Stanton, majestic and beautiful as a snowy landscape, came forward with that grace as indescribable as it is incomparable. An elegant black silk and a camel’s hair scarf made up her perfect costume. At her right sat Mrs. Pauline Davis, of Providence, R. I., another exquisite picture of the snow. She was most daintily attired in blue satin and black velvet, and in the contemplation of this serene and noble picture the mind is reconciled to old age. Susan B. Anthony was there in black silk, with soft white lace around her throat, but even lace, frothy as sea-foam, failed to relieve that practical face. Just what a gnarled oak is amongst trees Susan B. Anthony is to her sex,—hard, obdurate, uncompromising. Josephine Griffin, best among women, was there at her post, one of the most earnest in the cause. Mrs. Wright, the sister of Mrs. Mott, brought a kind greeting from that venerable woman, who was kept at home by age and other infirmities. But the ornament of the platform was Phœbe Couzins, of St. Louis, a young law student of that distinguished city. Her elegant outfit was made of a light, neutral-tinted silk adorned with tiny flounces. A double-breasted jacket of blue velvet, with jaunty Lombardy hat to match, upon which a bird of paradise seemed to nestle from choice. Don’t we pity the judge when Phœbe shall plead before him! One flash from those eyes surmounted by the arched brows—but, stop, the illusion is not complete, the rosy lips are wanting. Henry Clay had a large mouth, and it did not prevent his becoming a great lawyer.
A description of Professor J. K. H. Wilcox, so prominently identified with the “cause,” is necessary, in order to show why, in some respects, the movement is retarded. This man is afflicted with a mild form of lunacy, after the form of George Francis Train, and, like every other decoction of weakness, becomes sickening from its insipidity. He is called professor, but the most minute inquiry fails to discover by what means he has earned this appellation.Like Train, whom he takes for his model, his object is notoriety, and it is safe to assume he will achieve a success. Professor Wilcox was entrusted with a message to his countrymen from Clara Barton, who is now residing abroad. A few simple words were sent to the late soldiers by this good woman, but why the paper should be read at a woman’s meeting only Professor Wilcox can disclose.
But if the solemn women who represent the “cause” have a desire to see the world move they had only to look at the reporter’s desk and see the large yellow envelopes marked “New YorkTribune.” Behind the papers might be seen Miss Nellie Hutchinson, who has earned the title of the “spicy little reporter of theTribune.” Miss Nellie allows her hair to wander in “maiden meditation, fancy free.” Her jaunty military suit, trimmed with gilt cord and buttons, shows at once her determination to win a battle. She is said to be a strong advocate for the “cause,” and writes it up just as much as theTribunewill permit. As all valuable papers were handed to her by Miss Anthony from the platform, whilst your correspondent was left in the cold, she gives this fact as a slight proof of the kindness bestowed upon a lady who is engaged upon theTribune. As the perusal of these papers was not shared by the correspondent ofThe Press, any omissions are requested to be overlooked.
In a few handsome words, Mrs. Stanton introduced Miss Phœbe Couzins, who began her brief address by quoting, “Westward the Star of Empire takes its way.” Then she told us that the East must look to her laurels, else she would wake up and find them stranded on the shores of the Western rivers. Had Phœbe read the Scotch Parson in an old number of theAtlantic Monthlyon the subject of “veal,” she never would have gone so far sky-rockety on the subject of the Territory of Wyoming. Mrs. Stanton says the subject is settled out there once and forever.
Mrs. Paulina Davis read a letter from John Stuart Mill, in which he said he regretted not being able to respond to their kind invitation, but that he thought Americans abundantly able to take care of the cause. He then eulogized his wife, and said she had been the means of converting him.
Senator Pomeroy, the only man from Congress in the hall, followed with a few appropriate remarks. But considering that Mrs. Pomeroy was at home, and did not countenance the meeting with her presence, it looked something like those electioneering dodges which the best of politicians sometimes indulge in. Senator Pomeroy said he was no new convert to the “theme.” The Scotch parson advises young people never to talk about “themes,” but as Senator Pomeroy is no longer young, the advice of the parson cannot be meant for him. The Senator said he would not compel a woman to vote; he would simply remove the impediments in the way. He talked about “the mountains near where God dwells.” He said he had been waiting two months for petitions to be sent in. Mrs. Stanton interrupted him and said she had brought them. He said he was for carrying woman suffrage into the fundamental laws of the land. He would let a Chinese vote, only a Chinese could not be naturalized, and therefore could not vote. If a woman was convicted of crime, she must die. A woman had once been hung in Washington. This is the new year for the rallying question. He only hoped this convention would be a triumphant success.
Susan B. Anthony then came forward and attempted to read a letter from a Jersey “Honorable,” but the writing was so poor that she could not. Then she explained what the man meant, but by what process is known only to Susan herself.
Mrs. Cady Stanton came forward and said if the Republican party did not come forth and champion the cause, the Democrats would, and therefore infuse a newlife into their decaying body. She also instanced a case where a Democrat had paid the fare of all the ladies in the omnibus that morning coming from the depot to the hotel.
The beautiful prayer delivered at the opening of the session by the Rev. Mr. May, from Syracuse, was worthy of a better cause. The few remarks which followed by the same man were more creditable to his heart than head; but he was sincere and honest, and one could not help but wish that more men like him could be found in the world.
The audience was made up mostly of women, but not the curled, dainty fashionables of the capital. Sad-faced, sorrowful women were there. A poor woman touched your correspondent on the arm, and asked if they “got places for women to work here.” Queenly Mrs. Davis was reading, regal in diamonds and point lace. The woman added, pointing to the speaker, “Do you think she can help me?”
Olivia.
How She Engineers the Suffrage Movement.
Washington,January 19, 1870.
The hour having arrived for the opening of the last evening’s session, and the great lights not appearing on the stage, it was moved by Professor Wilcox and seconded that Mrs. Joseph Griffing be chosen temporarily to occupy the chair. The Hon. James M. Scovel, of New Jersey, was asked to speak, and immediately began. He said it was the coming question whether women shall have the ballot. He believed the thing is right. His mother had said when she went to a village and saw men coming out of a house she knew that to be a tavern; when she saw women going in she knew that to be a church. It is not flattery that women want; it is their rights. The time had been in Jersey when women had no more rights than lunatics and idiots, and it was not much better to-day. He didn’t come there to make a speech; he came there a convert. We shall have no peace until women can go side by side with men to the ballot-box. At this point Mr. Scovel retired, having proved to the rather slim audience that “stump speaking” was an accomplishment that sometimes made its escape from Jersey.
Again the irrepressible Wilcox appeared and read a letter which he had received from the wife of O’Donovan Rossa, in answer to his polite invitation to be present at the meeting. Madame Rossa regretted that unavoidable departure from the country prevented her attendance. She also added some nice things about liberty and her good wishes for the speedy advancement of the cause.
Just as the letter was concluded, Mrs. Stanton swept upon the stage, followed by the planets in her train. Shecame forward and introduced Mrs. Wilbour, of New York. Mrs. Wilbour, stately in black velvet, point applique, and diamonds, came forward and read a rather prosy, dry essay. Mrs. Wilbour has a voice for public speaking superior to most of her sex. She varied the old question by asking for human rights instead of woman’s rights. She said it is urged that woman has less force than man, and therefore, should not exercise this inalienable right. She asked what should rule—force power or beauty power? Brain not brawn rules this world. A small white hand can move an engine, or wield a pen, an instrument stronger than the sword. All that gives harmony to the world is the beautiful. Religion beautifies the soul. A preponderance of beauty is on the feminine side, but force is found on the masculine. Mrs. Wilbour talked about the ballot as a little slip of paper. She might as well have spent her strength on the paper wadding instead of the deadly bullet that follows it. After a time the sleepy essay came to an end.
Mrs. Stanton then came forward, introducing the Hon. A. G. Riddle, one of the most distinguished lawyers of the District. She prefaced the introduction by calling him a lawyer but an honest man. He gave us the argument; the audience were the jury, but no judge was present to decide the case. Mr. Riddle said the question of the final relation of the sexes had come for final adjudication. These masculines must look the question in the face. It is so broad you can’t go around it. As Mr. Riddle has said the best things so far, it is to be regretted that so much of it has been lost.
The next speaker was Miss Couzins, of St. Louis. She said she felt great trepidation in coming forward when she found the great men at the national capital turning a cold shoulder for reasons of policy, and the women given up to frivolity and fashion. She felt like drinking inspiration from the West, where the leading people were with her. She felt she was fighting a forlorn hope, butWashington fought a forlorn hope at Valley Forge, and won a victory. She graphically delineated the saying of women being classified with lunatics, idiots, slaves, etc. Women have a right to demand that the laws shall be changed in order to insure their happiness. Women had been subjected from the time of William the Conqueror. Bible authority is quoted to oppose the ballot; but there was no law found there for a man and a separate law for woman. Men say when a majority of women desire the ballot they shall have it. She said if the majority had rights the minority had also. Deeds of heroism were related. She said a monument was about to be erected in Washington, dedicated to the martyrs who fell in the late war. The women of St. Louis sent word to know if women were represented. They received the answer: “No, but if the women of St. Louis would raise the money for it, they should have a shaft placed near the monument, with the Goddess of Liberty on the top of it.” She alluded to the freed women of the South, forgetting however, to say that they, being an integral part, were uplifted with the race. At a very late hour, with the termination of Miss Couzin’s speech, the evening session closed.
The second day’s session was opened with a prayer by the Rev. Mr. May, of Syracuse, who thus far has assumed the spiritual direction of the movement. Mrs. Griffing came forward and said the great object of the meeting was to secure legislation by Congress. The press follows every reform with its scandal. Christ has arisen from the dead, and the women all over the country are making application. Will Congress adhere to the Constitution? She had hope and faith that Congress will hear us. No ray of divine life quickens Congress. Women, raise your voices in prayer. A eulogy to Stanton was pronounced, whom she styled the last of the trinity of martyrs—John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and EdwinM. Stanton. She said that this discriminating word “male” shall be expunged from every law of the District.
At this point of the speech Professor Wilcox came forward and said that no effort had been put forth by the President to close the Departments so that the clerks would be enabled to attend the woman-suffrage convention. Mrs. Stanton said she had seen the President, and he had said he was too busy to attend the convention, so the cream of the movement was skimmed to confer with the ruler of the Republic. This committee which is to beard the lion in his den is composed of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Wilbour, Mrs. Davis, Rev. Olympia Brown, Phœbe Couzins, Mrs. Beecher Hooker and several others. After this business matter was finished Miss Anthony came forward to excuse the absence of Miss Lillie M. Peckham, of Milwaukee, by saying she was detained at home by the sickness of her brother. This incident went to prove that strong-minded women have sympathies and feelings like other people. A few letters from obscurity were brought forth, but did not add any brilliancy to the proceedings.
At this point of the meeting Senator Pomeroy, who was on his way to Congress, called in to give a word of encouragement. He said it was a long time before the movement could even get the ear of the public. Men were for making fighting the basis of suffrage. Who are those who are called to bear arms? Would you disfranchise a man because he is over forty-five? The military power is subservient to the civil. This is a government of law, not of force. Who feeds, clothes, and supports the soldiers in the field, and thus secures our victories? Services were rendered by women in those hours who cannot vote. Women have borne arms. In Northampton, Mass., near where the Senator was born, was a tombstone on which was cut in the marble, “Her warfare is accomplished.” This stands there in time-honored memory to prove the military qualities of the sex. There wasan inequality in the basis of representation, and if the mothers, wives, and sisters were not so much better than we are, they would not have borne the deprivations of their rights. Remove the obstacle to education; open every hall to black and white, male and female. Remove the obstacles; repeal the law; I am for the sixteenth amendment; a woman is a citizen, and should have the power to legislate in the District of Columbia. There are places of employment not open to women. There are offices under the government which women should have. We must “fight it out on this line,”—but the quotation was left unfinished, and the distinguished Senator sat down. But wishing to see the effect of his glowing words, he moved that those women in the audience who wished to vote should raise their hands. Not a score of hands were to be seen.
At this unfortunate moment Mrs. Stanton came forward to the rescue of the bewildered Senator. “Allow me,” said this lieutenant-general, “to correct the Senator. Those who wish to vote are requested to sit still.”
The command was instantly obeyed. Not a woman was seen to move. The Senator wiped the perspiration from his forehead and looked his thanks to the gallant chief of the staff, whose strategy had saved the day. Afterwards those who did not wish to vote were requested to show their colors. A few women were noticed making themselves conspicuous, but the great mass were not to be deluded into giving an expression either one way or another.
Mrs. Stanton then introduced Madame Anneke, a German woman who could not talk English, but could talk the language of the heart—an immense woman, whose weight would reach the hundreds. The stage shook under her powerful trampings. She made up for language in pantomime. She drew her hands through her short hair as only a poet can describe. She said she had waded fields of blood, but this had not been her greatest trials.She had come from Wisconsin with a heavy load—the petition of many hundreds who wanted to vote. She had come with credentials from “t’ousands and t’ousands.” She appealed in the name of Germany—in the name of all Europe. The enfranchisement of women would be the enfranchisement of the whole human race.
Madame Anneke then retired, giving place to a woman as lean as she was fat—a Quaker woman from Philadelphia. This dear, good old Quakeress looked spiritual enough to be translated. She gave us some good Quaker doctrine, such as Philadelphia knows all about, and her remarks, for this reason, are omitted. She was called Mrs. Rachel Moore Townsend.
After Mrs. Townsend the Rev. Olympia Brown came forward, the brightest, freshest, strongest woman we have ever heard devoted to the “cause.” She is a small woman, and looks exactly as one might imagine Charlotte Bronte—a picture of exquisite nicety, from the dainty point lace collar to the perfect fitting shoe.
She commenced her address to those who did not wish to vote: “You may say you are in comfortable homes, with kind husbands and kind fathers, and you may wonder what these strong-minded women want. The temperance question alone shows the want of the ballot for the drunkard’s wife. Women have been patient too long, and therefore responsible in a degree for the sin of drunkenness. I wish women would stand up and say they would not encourage men who use intoxicating drinks and tobacco. We are seeking a nobler womanhood. It is the duty of every mother to feel that she is responsible for that society into which she sends her son. Our young lady should have something to look forward to. A young lady, upon leaving school, told her companion that she was sorry that school had ended, because she would have nothing to do. ‘Can’t you stay at home and make pretty things to wear?’ was the reply. This assertion and answer covered the whole ground of young ladyhood.”When she first entered the world as a young woman, she consulted her minister as to what she should do. He told her to sit down at home and amuse herself reading, and occasionally engage in a strictly private benevolence. The time will come when women will go forth to make a name and a fortune just as men do to-day. Women are told that Christ died for them; she would tell them that Christ lived for them. He taught women a life of earnestness, and she bade them go forth and follow his example. She compared the workingmen of Europe to our own mechanics—the bone and sinew of the land. “What makes the difference between them? It is the ballot. When tanners can aspire to be President you can see what the ballot can do. If it does so much for the men, it will do equally as much for the women. We want every incentive to make women brave, wise, and good. Let us learn not to fight with guns, but with our tongues. The warfare is not ended until the ballot is in our hands. Vermont will give women the ballot before the year is out, and Connecticut will soon follow, for I have moved down there to accomplish it. Only a perfected womanhood will satisfy the age.”
Mr. Stillman, the only man in the Rhode Island legislature who dared to stand up for woman suffrage, came forward, but want of time prevents an account of his speech.
Phœbe Couzins followed him after the same style of her first speech.
After she had finished Professor Wilcox came forward as the last crowning glory of the day and moved that Harriett Beecher Stowe, in her dire extremity, have the sympathy of the convention. Mrs. Stanton said it was out of order, and the Professor exhaled.
Olivia.
Fitting Representative of a Distinguished Family.
Washington,January 20, 1870.
Wednesday’s evening session opened with the usual brilliant array of distinguished women on the stage. Among the number might have been seen Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, of Connecticut, another candidate for immortality in this family so widely known to fame. Mrs. Hooker is the beauty of the Beecher constellation. She has a dreamy, poetic face, like the picture of Mrs. Browning, and the early snow has been sprinkled among her curls. Mrs. Hooker is orthodox, and draws inspiration from the old Calvinistic doctrines undefiled. She appears timid almost to awkwardness. She says she intends to be a “speaker,” and an assertion from a member of this family, like some kinds of paper, is worth more than its face.
In the obscurest place on the platform sits the genius of the convention, Jennie Collins, the factory girl of New England, with her sad, hungry face. You can only remember the eyes, which look as if there was something fierce and awful behind them ready to spring out and bite.
The meeting is called to order by Mrs. Stanton, and is followed by a few of her well-chosen words. She had hoped to have a company of distinguished Senators and members, but unfortunately the Congressmen were all hoarse. Two Senators had sent their regrets. Senator Ross pleaded prior engagements, but sent his sympathy. Senator Carpenter regretted that official duties prevented his coming, accompanied with the usual condolence.
Mrs. Stanton proceeded to enlighten the audience onthe sixteenth amendment, which is simply striking the obnoxious word “male” out of every statute of the land. She said the future great memorable day would occur in March, because it was in this month that Mr. Julian had offered this amendment to the Constitution. In changing the fifteenth amendment the voice of every person should be heard in the land. If women are not people, what are they? We are building a model Republic and it needs a crowning glory. That glory is a perfected womanhood.
Miss Anthony arose and proposed a vote. Those who demand that Congress shall adopt the sixteenth amendment say “aye.” The ayes had it. Miss Susan said she had been interviewing members, but did not stop to tell the result. She said there was a factory girl on the platform, Miss Jennie Collins, of Boston. The movement was not to benefit those who had fathers and husbands, but those who had to earn their own living.
Miss Collins was then introduced. She said she had not come to make a speech, but to lay her offering at the feet of the imperial Susan. We have a class of women who have not brains enough to comprehend a comic almanac; but if you would have an opinion, go to the working woman. She who has toiled knows her opinion. Why do girls not go into the kitchen? Because no man will marry a woman from the kitchen; but if she goes behind the counter a man will give her his arm. She said the Republican party had accomplished its mission, and was now dead. A new party was coming up from the people. The trades unions will be heard from. These unions were formed around camp-fires to protect each other, and they now girdle the land. She did not look to the politicians for aid; it must come from the working people. What helped the workingman? It was the ballot. Then why would it not help the working women as well? If the Southerner had whipped the slave woman, the New England stockholder would not stop the loomlong enough to do the whipping. She painted the hideous lives of the 48,000 factory girls of Massachusetts. Her presence breathed the print of the nails. She made you hear the whir of the machinery, and you could feel the flakes of cotton falling like snow. Miss Collins abused General Grant, abused the Republican party, but the audience was under her spell and did not raise a dissenting voice. A young girl in the audience spoke loud enough to be heard by those around her, “Isn’t she a frightful woman?” It was the savage looking out of the New England factory prison, and the picture is the strongest that has been presented in the convention.
Miss Anthony then announced that the Senate District Committee had agreed to meet the leading women of the movement on Saturday at 10 o’clock a. m.
The meeting now adjourned, and the distinguished women proceeded to the Arlington Hotel, where they had previously announced their intention of holding a reception between the hours of 10 and 12 p. m. This midnight reception was held to accommodate members and Senators who were supposed to be disengaged during these hours. But, alas! Senators one appeared, Pomeroy, of Kansas, whilst the gallant General Logan was the sole representative of the House.
Mrs. Stanton was queenly, as usual, in black velvet; Mrs. Hooker in gray moire antique; whilst Mrs. Wilbour eclipsed all the lesser lights in black silk, embroidered with golden grain. Diamonds glittered, wit and satire flashed, illuminating all the beholders; but the grand dames, the philosophers, the politicians of the capital were not there. If the strong-minded can talk better than the fashionables, they must yet learn to “receive.” Mrs. Hooker held up her moire train as if she were keeping it from the mire. But this must have been owing to the neat training in the “land of steady habits.” Mrs. Stanton “is at home” in the masculine way of doingbusiness. To be sure she had talked sense, but she made one long for a little nonsense; for something upon which the mind could rest after the severe tension of the day.
General Logan was dressed in black pants, not very much the worse for wear, while a claret overcoat, bound in black silk braid, was thrown open before. What his boots lacked in polish was made up by a mental lustre which such insignificant things as bootblacks can neither add to nor take away. He moved about hither and thither with as much apparent ease as he intends to move the capital. Senator Pomeroy wore his ordinary apparel with the exception of his hair. Nellie Hutchinson of theTribunesaid the reception was a failure, and the readers ofThe Presscan take her word for it.
Meeting called to order with very few on the stage. The usual prayer was omitted. Mrs. Stanton opened the battle. Daughters should be prepared for every emergency. Cultivate will power, and everything else yields. She said she had visited fashionable women in their luxurious homes and when she talked to them of these great questions, they said they had been so happy they had never thought of these things. She would say to these women, Do you live in Chinese walls? Have you never read Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”? What sort of a soul must people have if they can only feel what sacrifices their own flesh? She then told the drunkard’s story, but she always finishes a convention with the same tale. When Mrs. Stanton tells this personal experience she rises to the dignity of a great actress. The pauses, the gestures, one learns by heart. Do the great and good men of the world repeat themselves in the same way?
Miss Anthony having somewhat recovered, read a letter from Hon. Jacob H. Ela, of New Hampshire, and he assured the convention that he was with it hand and glove. During the evening a few members and Senator Sherman were espied in the audience. Miss Anthony was interrupted in her speaking, and Senator Shermanwas called on by name to come forward and answer how he stood on the sixteenth amendment. As he did not seem inclined to give an opinion, Miss Anthony bade him, unless he was for it, to say nothing at all.
Judge Woodward (Democrat) was also seen, and his name was called out, but he arose from his seat and went quietly out. With the encroachment upon good taste (for certainly Congressmen have some rights which the public should respect) the convention has lived its brief life, and left its mark upon the age.
Olivia.
The Woman Suffragists Tell of Their Trials.
Washington,January 21, 1870.
The last evening’s session of the woman’s suffrage convention opened under the most dazzling auspices. No movement of the kind at the national capital has ever been so honored before. Quite a strong solution of intellect, power, and fashion shaded its eyes before the meteoric display. For the first time in convention, respectable audiences have seen spiritualism, long-haired masculine, and pantaloon feminine banished from the stage. Just as a flame flashes up more brilliantly before it expires, the convention assumed a vermillion hue before its final dissolution.
Mrs. Stanton appeared clad in solemn black velvet, but the bright ribbons nestling in her snowy curls, the girlish ornaments in exactly the right place, strangled all thoughts of a funereal aspect.
Mrs. Wilbour glimmered in the black silk of golden wheat memory, and Mrs. Beecher was clad in royal purple; Phœbe Couzins smothered her manifold attractions under a great white opera cloak, and Susan B. Anthony was just as twisted and knotty as ever.
But whilst the beautiful feminine element which Mrs. Wilbour has so faithfully portrayed formed the background of the picture, the great central form of attraction was Professor Wilcox, otherwise known in the capital as “the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure.” A description of his person, as he corruscated upon the stage, is copied from the WashingtonChronicle: “Professor Wilcox appeared upon the scene in wrappings of swallow-tail and patent leather. His polished foundation wasonly eclipsed by the manifold attractions of the other extremity. His whiskers were trimmed to an angle of forty-five degrees, whilst his superb eyes rested in serene beneficence upon the feminine elements that surged and rolled in grandeur on the stage.”
As the women were detained at home for the arrangement of their toilettes beyond the hour appointed, Professor Wilcox moved that Mrs. Griffing address the meeting. This most estimable woman proposed a substitute in the person of Madame Anneke, who came forward and said she could not talk, only “wid her heart.” She could not speak English. “All my friends I embrace.” This last sentence must have been a metaphor, for although Professor Wilcox was in grappling distance, nothing occurred which could shock the most delicate mind. Madame Anneke said that it had been told that Germany was not in favor of this movement. This was a mistake. Germany was with us; all Europe too. Twenty years ago she had started a paper to advocate the cause, but it stopped in two years because of her sickness. One hundred years ago a German philosopher said that women should have equal rights with men. A hundred years ago a good man had said the same things which these women were telling the people to-day. But she could say no more, she was going to act.
Mrs. Stanton then came forward and said Madame Anneke was going to travel all through the West for the “cause,” and this was what she meant by the word act. If Madame Anneke can not talk English to Western barbarians, she can make up by acting on the stage. Her immense rotundity, quivering like a huge caldron of jelly, will stir the human heart to its profoundest depths, and it can safely be said by a Western woman who knows the taste of the home community that Madame Anneke will be able to attract audiences.
Rev. Mr. May now came forward. He said that our late civil war was brought on by the deprivation of therights of four millions of the people, and consequently certain things will follow like a natural law, the taking away of the rights of fifteen millions more. Woman cannot be denied her rights. She cannot be degraded without degrading the other half of creation. God made man dual. How absurd for man to assume the right to all power; to take all power into his hands. Why do not women take all the power to themselves? It would be just as reasonable. Barbarians subject the weak to the strong.
Miss Anthony now came forward and wanted to have a resolution introduced into Congress to equalize wages. The motion was put and carried with the exception of one male voice. Here was a chance for Susan to score the Adam, and the opportunity was not lost. No eagle from his eyrie ever pounced upon a chicken with more force than did Susan upon this masculine biped. Nobody knew whether the unfortunate had a wife, but Susan assumed that he had, and that it was his intent and purpose to sneak away her wages. Susan finished him on the spot, and the audience applauded the heroic act.
Mrs. Stanton then rose and said a woman had just visited her who was connected with the Washington public schools. For a long time she had tried to get her wages; that she was in debt, with all its attendant evils; that she had applied time after time for her dues, but they were withheld, but that a school trustee had put his hand in his pocket and offered the teacher forty dollars instead of forty-five, the amount due. She instanced this as an atrocious advantage taken of a helpless woman. As she took her seat a man in a distant part of the hall arose for an explanation. He painted the awful picture of a depleted city treasury, of the inability of the school committee to get blood out of a stone, and thought the man did a most generous act to give the woman forty dollars and wait indefinitely for the forty-five. He said the man was touched by her necessities, and no doubt crampedhimself to do a good act, for the school committee are poor men.
A silence followed. Mr. May again came forward to bring forth some mental gem that in his former speech had been forgotten. He wanted to say something about woman as an inventor. A woman had invented the cotton-gin, but in this case she had been maliciously deprived of her rights. The audience listened patiently and his last talk came to an end. Then Mrs. Charlotte Wilbour took the stand and read one of her sleepy essays. But she made rather a handsome figure with the gaslight dancing on the golden sheaves that bespangled her royal drapery. Her costly fan was suspended from her waist by a heavy gold chain, and this, with the length of her long train, made her look anything else but “strong-minded.”
When her essay came to an end, Mr. May arose for an explanation, but the decorous, good humored audience had swallowed enough of Mr. May, and its stomach actually refused any more of the decoction. Stamp! Stamp! Stamp! Motherly Mrs. Stanton came forward and said, “Be a good child. Take it down; take it for the sake of free speech.” Mr. May began. Hissing, stamping. Again Mrs. Stanton’s sweet face beams on the audience and says, “Why will ye?”
Mr. May began and said: “I shall stand here until you hear me, if stay till to-morrow morning.” Determination was written on that face, with the broad lower jaw and mouth, which sprung together like the shutting of a steel trap. His arms were folded, and his whole person breathed the spirit of the Egyptian sphinx. The audience felt the presence of its master, and yielded as good naturedly as it began the battle. Mr. May told us something about a State’s prison, where there were nothing but female convicts and female officers, but whether this model prison is in his own State of New York or elsewhere escaped the ear of the writer, but it issafe to say if it is not in New York it certainly ought to be there.
Miss Anthony now came forward and told a good story, a noble one, about Olympia Brown. Four months Olympia traveled in Kansas in every way except by railroad. She spoke every day of the four months, and oftener twice than otherwise. Generally she had met the kindest treatment, but sometimes not, for in every audience there is generally a fringe of humanity where there is more boot-heel than brain. There was one district in Kansas where intelligent people lived, where for years they were unable to get a schoolhouse. They could get no majority to vote upon the question, because the claims in the town were owned by single men, who did not want to vote to be taxed, or else by non-residents who were never there to give a decision one way or another. The father worked on year after year, but all in vain. After the passage of the law giving woman the right to vote on the school question, the mothers arose at 11 o’clock at night, voted, and got a schoolhouse. Why the women should be obliged to arise at 11 o’clock at night to vote, instead of waiting until a respectable hour in the morning, Susan forgot to mention. Miss Anthony said once upon a time she was announced to speak in Brooklyn, at the same time with Miss Anna Dickinson. Just as she had changed her frock, and got ready for starting, the fickle Anna telegraphed that she could not be there. There was no time to prepare for this unforeseen catastrophe, so she put on her bonnet and went over to Brooklyn—went into the vast hall, crowded with humanity, who had come to see Anna, not her. Had the heavens opened and buckets of ice-water been showered down upon her head she could have felt no worse. She looked around and there sat Henry Ward Beecher, and Chapin, and a host of intellectual lights, which were enough to cook any woman’s marrow to the bones, and she was as bare of thought as New York is of honesty. She applieda forcing pump to her mind, but still the water of thought wouldn’t come; her brain was as dry as a squeezed orange. What should she do? She looked around on the hungry audience, and at last her eyes rested on Henry Ward Beecher, and she felt saved. Leaving her place on the platform, she advanced to the great preacher, and, laying her hand on his shoulder she said, “You must help me; I can’t do it.” Susan did not tell us whether it was owing to her command or the pressure which she brought to bear on his shoulder that conquered him. At any rate, he came gallantly to her side; and never was such a rousing speech made by the great parson in all the days of his life. Then she said, “What did I tell this story for? Something I am sure! Let me see. Oh, yes! I wanted to prove that men and women needed to work together side by side. When one fails, the other can come to the rescue.” At this moment Susan gave evidence of having touched the bottom of her remarkable strength and vitality. The unmitigated drain upon her vital forces for three days of convention seemed to have done its work. Any other woman would have fainted, but not Susan. She only said, “I think I’ll sit down.”
Mrs. Stanton came forward and said she wanted to talk an hour to the young ladies about health and strength. Napoleon could not make a soldier of a sick man. If girls are left with white hands and poverty an inheritance, as it often is when they are orphaned, the sin of it lies at the parents’ door. Educate women for ministers, and there will be better theology preached. Let them study the law. Would it bring them more into notice than the public ball? There is no place where there are such temptations as in fashionable life, for nowhere are such sensuous men found. If marriage is contemplated, it is not thought whether a man has character but whether he has wealth. She said she had an interest in the perpetuity of the American Constitution. Women will never respect themselves, but will be ground downuntil they learn self-support. She had personal knowledge of many girls who wanted to do something for themselves, but the fathers stood by, saying, “Degrade women to go to the polls?” If a woman is so rash as to marry a man, should she be afraid to go by his side to the ballot-box? She had six men in her family, and, excepting the tobacco, she found them very endurable. She thought men and women ought to be together in every movement. A drunken man will try to act sober when women are around. Conversation is never so good when men are alone; nor is it so elevating among women as when a few philosophers or well-informed men are present.
Senator Wilson arrives and is lustily cheered. He ascends the platform and shakes hands with his personal friends. He said he did not come to address an argument to this meeting; he did not come to add his faith to the creed to be promulgated. Whenever he had a vote to give to any practical measure which should benefit this country it should be given to men and women alike. But he came there to redeem a promise to Miss Anthony, who really would not let him say “no.” “But I am with you. For the last thirty-four years I have tried, in private and in public, to emancipate a race. The work is done. Complete political equality is nearly accomplished; and what little time may be allotted me I shall still go on with the work which has given four and a half millions freedom. I am with you in sentiment, feeling, and all which relates to the work.”
Mrs. Stanton having perceived several Congressmen in the hall, invites them to the platform. They do not choose to come. Senator Tipton is called by name, and rises and begs to be excused, and Mrs. Stanton shows her weakness by excusing him.
Rachel Townsend, the Quakeress, takes the platform, and scores the factory girl for her effective speech of the evening before. She says she has a good word to sayfor Congress; a good word for President Grant, who has taken the colored man by the hand and raised him to a place he never occupied before. He had placed the despised Quakers over the Indians and the Quakers had done what powder and bullets had failed to do. Quaker women were amongst the Indians, Christianizing them as much as the other sex.
Mrs. Jocelyn Gage was then introduced by a handsome preamble, in Mrs. Stanton’s own style. She said Mrs. Gage was author of a pamphlet upon “Woman as an Inventor,” and that the pamphlet went to prove that women originated the cotton-gin. Mrs. Gage, however, did not tell the audience any new facts about woman suffrage.
The majestic, most queenly Pauline Davis criticised Senator Wilson because he had spoken of the black men and said nothing about the black women.
Miss Anthony then offered a resolution on the sixteenth amendment, and made just such a speech as only Susan can. She demanded that Congress submit the amendment. She commanded the Judiciary Committee of the District to present the bill before the House, and that it be done quickly. She wanted something practical to work on. She said there were black men so ignorant that when they went to the polls they expected to have a mule given them at the same time. “Do you suppose such women as Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Wright, and others—I’ll say myself; yes, I’ll say we—have suffered hooting, degradation, persecution, everything for all these years, and not accomplish what we have to do!” Vesuvius could be painted more easily than Susan at this supreme moment. What is this invisible force? Heads were bowed until the whirlwind swept by. Susan went up like a rocket but came down like a stick, but it did not hurt her. She said she was tired of harping on one string. She looked so weary. Oh! that Susan had a place softer than a pillow on which to lay that tired head.
There is no time to tell all the strong words this woman said, because it must be told that Mrs. Beecher Hooker tried to speak and failed. Alas! for the Beechers. She said that Christ had come to deliver woman. She had entered into this movement because undefiled, pure religion was to be found there, I assure you. Few of us know the burden which Christianity brings. Let us take hold and work together. At this moment she said so many earnest faces gazing at her made it impossible to go on, and she withdrew her beautiful face, suffused with the pure Beecher blood, the sweetest picture the family has had the honor to present for many days.
Miss Olympia Brown came to the rescue. It was like shifting a panorama; Olympia is beyond criticism in some respects. Her face glows with enthusiasm; she talks because she is in earnest, and not for effect. She was followed by Miss Couzins, who could not be compared with Olympia, and yet the former won the applause. But men’s boots were heard in the uproar. Phœbe is pretty, and the rest followed. The hall was crowded with the best and strongest audience that ever greeted the woman suffrage movement in Washington.
Olivia.
The Ladies Plead Their Cause at the Capitol.
Washington,January 22, 1870.
At a proper fashionable hour this morning the women delegates began slowly to gather in the moderately sized room occupied by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. Last of all came the most prominent delegates. Mrs. Stanton went to a side table and laid down her dainty little bonnet and shook out her curls. Then she took her seat at the head of the table. Susan B. stood next, then Mrs. Beecher Hooker, Pauline Davis, Josephine Griffing, Phœbe Couzins and Mrs. Wright. The usual buzz of conversation was carried on whisperingly, for the dignity of the Senate chamber extended to that floor. The small audience was of the most exclusive and aristocratic kind. The factory girl had been sent off North early in the morning, lest her roar should alarm the Congressional doves. In the awful stillness might have been seen wall flowers, to whose fragrance a whole nation can testify. Grace Greenwood was there, in a lovely winter costume; but there is no time to describe the attractive beauties of the scene.
After a little Senators Hamlin, Patterson, Pratt, and other gentlemen connected with the committee came in, and a general introduction and handshaking took place. The committee of the Senate were arranged on one side of the long table, and the House committee on the other, whilst the head of it was left for each woman who should make her speech. The solemn occasion was opened, as usual, by Mrs. Stanton.
Senator Hamlin, who sat at the head of the Senate committee, and consequently at the speaker’s right hand,turned his ear in a calm and patient attitude, with a suppressed merry twinkling of the eye altogether incompatible with the hour. Senator Pratt, of Indiana, laid his head on the back of his chair, rolled his eyes heavenward, and looked as if he felt his genuine modesty more than ever. Mr. Rice, of Arkansas, sat holding his chin, apparently fearful that unless taken just the right kind of care of it might drop down, leaving the floor open with all sorts of consequences. Judge Cook, of Illinois, folded his hands over his breast, seemingly as resigned as if for the last time, whilst Judge Welker, of Ohio, looked just as if he wanted to say “boo to a goose.” Just before Mrs. Stanton began Senator Hamlin read two petitions—the first signed by some of the women of the District, praying that suffrage be extended to them, and another from Massachusetts, of the same purport. After he had finished he calmly sat down, and told the women he was prepared, with the other gentlemen, to hear what they had to say. Mrs. Stanton came to time as usual, and began the story which all thoughtful persons have by heart who have heard her three times. She read it, however, and one sitting by her side could see slips of paper cut from newspapers pasted between portions of the manuscript, and it was said these slips were taken from the time of the Revolution. The essay began about eternal principles. That it was best to do right, and leave the rest to God. That Congress should legislate for equality. The Republican party had put the word “male” into the Federal Constitution. The States had the right to regulate, but not to prohibit suffrage. It is despotism of the most odious kind to prevent woman from the exercise of those powers which God has given her. She said there was a proposition before Congress to change the whole code of laws which govern the District of Columbia; and when this was done the only way to regenerate and purify the spot was to remove disabilities, and let all vote—male and female, black and white. Shewanted this mooted question of suffrage ended. She went over the ground of the late war, and said that woman had not been a disinterested observer for the last hundred years; that she came over in the Mayflower, side by side with man in the old Revolution; and can woman now stand silent and see the selling of her birthright of liberty? The emancipated serfs of Russia were clamoring for more liberty, and they would get it, too. Do you intend to stand by these old landmarks, instead of advancing with a newer civilization? Mrs. Stanton then proposed for the committee to ask any questions which they might think proper to do. An ominous silence followed. Mrs. Stanton then said she did not choose to be represented by John Morrissey and two men in the New York legislature who could neither read nor write. Laws have been changing at woman’s instigation for the last thirty years, which proves that woman knows what is good for her. We are obliged to build sidewalks and other improvementsand have we nota right to say how our money shall be expended? You have seen dogs in the street quarreling over a bone; if you throw them two bones the quarrel is over. The “drunken scene” was left out, like everything else which in a way could have a personal application.
After some more talk Mrs. Stanton sat down, and Susan B.—bless her heart!—faced the Congressional guns. The great pumping power which this woman carries in her brain had lifted the blood into her cheeks, and her eyes blazed with the fire of early day. Lilac kid gloves covered her kind, strong hands and it was astonishing to us all to see how much she looked like a woman. She put her hands behind her as if it was best to have them in a safe place, and commenced by telling the gentlemen that they had it in their power to strike the word “male” out of the Constitution. (Susan has a way of saying the word “male” so that it sounds like the snapping of small arms.) In the District the experiment was triedof giving colored men their rights, and it seems as if this is a fitting place for the inauguration of a grander experiment—that of doing for the woman what you did for the negro. It is only a long custom which you hate to break.
Mrs. Stanton now prompted Susan to speak of Kansas. She then told the story of the schoolhouse, and it was ascertained that the reason why the women had to rise at 11 o’clock at night to vote was because the men had determined to settle the question that day. The men wrangled and could not come to a conclusion, so the women were called as the last feather to break the camel’s back.
A little time before Senator Sumner had come in and taken a seat at the foot of the table. Susan now asked the Senator a question, and forgot and called him “Mr. Sumner,” just as if he was like other men. But she was called to order by Mrs. Stanton, and made haste to repair the wrong by begging his pardon and saying “Senator” with a snap to it. She asked the Senator how it worked in Massachusetts by having women vote on the school question. The Senator said it worked well. As there seemed no chance for an argument, she paused for fresh inspiration, but she was interrupted by Phœbe Couzins, and prompted to say something she had already said.
Whilst they were parleying, Mrs. Pauline Davis took the floor and said a few words in a voice too low to be heard except by those at the table. Before Miss Anthony sat down, Mrs. Beecher Hooker touched her by the arm and begged her not to be too severe. Susan said she did not mean to be severe.
Mrs. Hooker then took her seat at the head of the table, as her modesty would not let her stand up before this august tribunal. Mrs. Hooker leaned over the table and made the daintiest kind of a picture. Senator Hamlin straightened himself up and pulled down his vest. Senator Pratt opened his sleepy eyes to the widest extent, and Senator Sumner gave his undivided attention. Mrs.Hooker said that woman looked to the Government for her rights. “I assure you, Christ uses the word thou shalt do this, and thou shalt do that, which means to apply to women quite as much as to men. The Bible says, ‘Honor thy father and mother, and thy days shall be long in the land.’ How can a son honor his mother when he chooses to use his young thoughts to legislate for her whilst he is so much younger than she is. It cannot be right.” She did not believe so much in woman’s rights as woman’s duty. At this moment her voice stole away from her like the dying notes of a swan, and she removed to another seat, her white forehead bedewed with perspiration.
Madame Anneke was now introduced, and commenced by saying: “Honorary Sirs: Perhaps you will be kind enough to listen to my poor talk. I come delegate from Wisconsin; from oder places too. You have lifted up the slaves, shentlemen, you hear t’ousand and t’ousand voices. In Europe you hear the cry, help us, gentlemens, and den we help ourselves.” After some more such logic, Madame Anneke ponderously withdrew.
Senator Patterson now modestly proposed a question: Suppose a difference of opinion should arise in the family, what will prevent the mischief of discord?
Mrs. Stanton, who had the cunning answer already to spring upon him, said there is already discord there. “I do not think this can make any more. There is always the superior mind in every family. If it belongs to the man, he decides it; if to the woman, she does the same. The smallest men are most tenacious of their rights.” Senator Patterson, seemingly afraid to be classed in this category, closed his lips.
Judge Cook now asked, “What evidence have you that the great body of women in the country want to vote?”
Mrs. Stanton replied that in New York, where she had scattered tracts and otherwise labored, she had been rewarded with petitions signed by 20,000 women.
Judge Welker then asked, “How large a number want to vote in the District of Columbia?”
Mrs. Stanton said they had just closed a convention attended by fifteen hundred persons who were enthusiastic on the subject.
Mrs. Davis then said: “People are tired of asking for this thing and that thing. It is time that legislators knew their business without being petitioned.”
Miss Anthony then reiterated the glories of the late convention, and went off into one of those spasmodic efforts practically impossible to any one but Susan.
Mrs. Beecher again cautioned her, and told her not to forget the place where she was. This brought Susan to terra firma.
Mrs. Gage then said she held a petition in her hand, signed by 3,000 people, but no one seemed inclined to take it away from her, and she quietly sat down.
The Honorable Hannibal Hamlin then arose to correct Mrs. Stanton in what she had said about changing the laws for the District of Columbia; that no such bill was before the committee to which Mrs. Stanton had alluded. There was a bill, but it was unlike the one reported in the newspapers. The District of Columbia was governed by laws made a hundred years ago, and the age had outgrown them. He believed they should be modified, and he advocated the change to be made by the citizens, subject to the will of Congress. He only spoke for himself and not for his associates.
Judge Cook, of Illinois, chairman of the committee of the House, said that Congress was no place to bring up such a great question. There is too much to do here already. We have no time—absolutely no time—for the consideration of the subject. At the same time he seemed to be looking about for a hole to escape.
Mrs. Hooker said that time should be made for such a subject.
Mrs. Stanton said, “Present the sixteenth amendment.”
Honorable Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, chairman of the Senate Committee, said, “We will take this question into consideration. When Saul went up into Damascus he said unto Paul, ‘I am almost persuaded to become a Christian.’” The reporters’ table was illuminated by smiles, and one man was malicious enough to say a little Scripture reading would do the Senator good, for he meant Agrippa instead of Saul. Another answered that the Senator was figuratively speaking, and he might as well use one name as another.
The council was broken by the Congressional lions going stealthily away, but before they all had a chance to get out,Susan buttonholedtwo or three. “Sixteenth amendment” was distilled from her lips like honey from flowers. Senator Sumner came around genial as a summer’s sun, yet it was noticed that during the whole ordeal he never opened his lips, but endured all with the resignation of martyrdom. And thus the meeting of the Amazon warriors passed away.
Olivia.
Reception to the Visiting Scion of Royalty.
Washington,January 26, 1870.
In the very heart of the fashionable quarter of the capital may be seen a most unpretending two-story-and-a-half house, in the usual American imitation of brown stone. A modest bay window keeps steady company with a classic little porch at the front entrance of the mansion. As you enter the building you find yourself in a moderately sized hall, and if you turn to the left you are ushered into a drawing-room, octagonal in shape, and you perceive the vista opening to another of the same shape and size, leading to the third, which completes the suite of apartments thrown open at the entertainment of guests. These parlors are not extravagantly furnished. The walls are not covered with costly pictures; yet this establishment at present is the cynosure of all eyes, because a prince of the royal blood of England finds shelter under its hospitable roof. The ugly truth must be told. Great Britain does not consider the United States a first-class mission, and she does not furnish her minister resident with a palace and et ceteras to match, as in Paris and other continental cities. But England does honor our Republic by sending Mr. Thornton to represent her, one of nature’s noblemen, and plain Mrs. Thornton, without a drop of blue blood in her veins. So Victoria has sent her good-natured boy amongst us, and the wife of England’s minister is doing the handsome part by her guest.
For reasons already mentioned no very large entertainment can be given at the English embassy. A dinner party was given on Monday evening, at which were present the Cabinet and a portion of the diplomatic corps, aswell as General Sherman and Senator Sumner. Different sets of invitations were issued; or in other words, each woman’s card was a separate affair from her husband’s. Only gentlemen were entertained at dinner—the ladies came afterwards to the reception, which began at half past nine in the evening. Each woman invited to the residence of the English minister to honor the Prince received a special card from Mrs. Thornton.
The dinner passed away like other dinners when gentlemen have it all their own way; but the reception was as brilliant as the presence of beautiful and accomplished women could make it. The guests were first introduced to Mrs. and Mr. Thornton, and they in turn presented them to their prince. Mrs. Thornton’s eyes sparkled as only an English woman’s can with the son of her sovereign beside her.
Prince Arthur is a medium sized youth, who has just reached the door-sill of adolescence. A soft yellowish down occupies the place where whiskers are intended to grow, and his thoroughly English face has the peachy bloom which distinguishes the gentry of that famous island. He bears a strong resemblance to the Prince of Wales, but with indications of more force of character. His hands are as pink as a sea shell, and anything else but aristocratic. At the reception he was dressed in a suit of black cloth, high standing collar, handsome cravat, and polished patent leathers. Three emerald studs adorned his faultless shirt front, and a sprig of violets dangled from a button-hole. He wore no gloves, but gave his bare, pink palms for an instant to the keeping of American citizens. He was so kind, plain, and straightforward, that everybody forgave him for being a prince.
After all had been introduced to the young lion, and many little pleasant wisps of conversation had floated away, the company proceeded to the dining-room, where ices, fruits, and wines regaled the guests. Mrs. Thorntonand Baron Gerolt, the Prussian minister, led the way, followed by the Prince and Mrs. Fish, Minister Thornton and the Baroness Gerolt, Secretary Fish and Mrs. Belknap, Secretary Belknap and Mrs. Creswell, Chief Justice Chase and Madame Catacazy, the wife of the Russian minister, and the most beautiful woman belonging to the foreign legations; Mr. Robeson, the bachelor Secretary, and Philadelphia’s handsome Madame Potestael, and a host of other lights distinguished in the political and fashionable world. The tables were elegantly decorated with flowers, while the vintage at the English minister’s is celebrated above all others in Washington. Conversation was varied by excellent music, contributed by the voice of Madame Garcia, of the Argentine Republic, assisted by Blacque Bey, the Turkish minister, who also took a prominent part in the evening’s entertainment.
Among the guests were noticed General and Mrs. Tete, the new minister from Hayti. These members of the diplomatic corps are of mixed blood, the African largely predominant. Mrs. Tete was dressed in a claret colored silk, high in the neck, long sleeves, and without ornaments. She has unassuming manners, though exceedingly courteous and high bred. She remarked to one of the company that she did not know how she would be received in society in Washington, but so far she had met with nothing but kindness. This evening in particular, she was made to feel at home.
Though the newspapers sparkle with descriptions of a dinner given at the White House in honor of Prince Arthur, there was no such entertainment. The state dinner which takes place every Wednesday at the Executive Mansion occurred as usual, and Prince Arthur happening to be sojourning temporarily in Washington, whilst on his youthful travels, our plain President simply laid an extra plate for his unexpected guest—unexpected, because all the other guests were invited before the Prince reached the city, and these guests received no notice thatVictoria’s son would be among them, and consequently could not feel that they had been selected to meet royalty. Only thirty-six persons can be seated in the dining-room of the White House, therefore a “royal” entertainment is reserved for a future folly.
When the subject of entertaining the Prince was mentioned before our President, he simply said: “I think if Ulysses was in London he would be lucky if he got any dinner at Windsor Castle at all.” Whether it was owing to that sly strategy which put down the rebellion, or other causes equally potent, it did happen that some of the most sensible women in the nation were invited guests at this particular state dinner. These women, these wives of members of Congress, are not known to the fashionable world; they dare to live within their husband’s means, and have been known to appear at a full dress reception in plain black silk dress, and without the usual quantity of false hair. In the veins of such women runs the blue blood of the Republic, and their presence is as sweet as violets.
The arrival of Prince Arthur in Washington has created very little excitement, probably for the reason that every boy knows that he has a far better chance of being President than the royal scion has of being king.
Olivia.