, 1888-10-11
ANNA DICKINSON 50 MANLY.
The Plucky Woman Tells About
Her Singular Career.
She Has Always Been the "Littie white
Elephant" OF the republicans Her
Anti'slavery work.

wendell Phillips used to say OF Anna
Dickinson in the days of her slavery
speeches that she was the little white ee.
phant of the republican party. He meant
ject Of devotion to them, but that they
had decidedly utilitarian respect for her
..-even as big elephants when they come
TO an untried bridge send over first their
littlest elephant. They knew" said
Miss Dickinson only the other day, THAT
II the baby elephant could 20 over with.
out the bridge shaking. they could go over
without its breaking" In Anna Dickin.
son America has held q representative
woman. She has had the respect of all.
has antagonized many, and proved the ad.
miration of more. First, last and all the
time, Anna Dickinson has been and ever
will prove TO be "strong minded" In the
pretty slip OF Quaker girl Of 16 there
were signs OF future. In the girl who
chose TO be independent of even loving
mother, preferrinR to earn certain sum
Of money, even by scrubbing snow.white
Philadelphia door stones until they were
showter and whittier yet, we see still more
clearly the girl who was convinced that
boys methods were none too good for
girls.
This sterling independence of spirit.
shocking as 1t would have been in an ord.
nary girl, was enough to bring the white
haired Quaker mothers OF Philadelphia in
sorrow to their knees. But the girl who,
in short skirts and very long ears, had sat
upon a high stool In dark corners and
heard the Progressive Friends first discuss
and then solemnly decide upon and an
down by mere disapproval. For conduct
unbefitting Il Friend, \" in that it involved
speaking in public. urging war and other
breaches OF discipline Miss Dickinson was
no longer considered member of the So
ciety of friends, and from the time of that
dismissal until now, periods Of severe ill
| ness excepted, her name has been continu-
| ally before the public.
As an anti-s slavery speechmaker her first
| point was made
Were you frightened2" she was asked
the other day by representative OF the
World.
Enlightened? | had no chance.
knew that | believed what wanted to say =,
and believed that ought to say il, and
that was as fur as stopped to think. l
| Just talked"
"Tke mere fact then of its being diff
ference Of opinion between one side and
| the other WINS not enough TO discourage
| you from taking sidesp"
| "a difference of opinion? A difference
Of opinion you say? When one reads as
read then anti.slavery sermons instead
OF childish books; when one hears as
heard tale after tale of incredible suffer.
ing; and when one has seen as saw then
u human being taken unconscious from a
small square box in which he had travelled
with littlen food and less water, bent
double. set now upon the head and now
upon the side, breathing only through
Rimet holes for 1000 miles, for freedom S
| sakei when one hears and sees all this one
has little thought for the convictions of
others, be they majority or minority"
Then ii was this deep personal feeling
upon this subject that drew you upon the
platform, and not in any sense desire
for careerp"
THAT, and that only. felt what
said and was given power to say it, My
first public speech was in 1860. when I
spoke on women's rights and wrongs, but
after that spoke on both temperance and
for my living until 1861, when | was en-
gagged in the United States Mint but was
discharged six months later for declaring
in a speech at Westchester that the battle
of Balls Bluff was lost mot through liz.
horaocs ur iueor"Pstanos, but through
treason" Having thus burned bridge
behind me, l again began to speak on the
political aspects of the war. In 1852 !
spoke in Boston on the National Crisis,
afterwards in Concord, and later was in.
vited by the republican state committee OF
| New Hampshire to enter the canvass for
the March election. In the four weeks
before the election | spoke twenty times
ana both there and in Connecticut | was
given my share of credit. Wendell Phil
lips used to call me then the Girl Ora.
tor"
They gave you a reception in Hartford
on election night. did they not?"
| 80 A rpf,pptiO and a upl1 watch
"And after that?'
After that J was invited 10y the Union
League. of New York, to speak in Cooper
Union; afterwards again by the Union
League Of Philadelphia to speak at the
Academy of Music there. From then to
the end OF the war was indeed busy. In
1863 was asked by the republican state
committee to speak throughout the oil
region in the canvass to elect Governor
region Of draft riots"
| That Miss Dickinson succeeded In all
this 10 well remembered aud frankly ad-
mitted and her speech before congress in
January Of 1854 Is a matter Of history.
IL Is also remembered how she opposed
the reelection of President Lincoln, and
advocated the election of Horace Greeley
In 1872. So, too, are her lectures upon
the regular Lyceum platform, her famous
| eAposure VI the ot' lioub POLITICIANS at
the time when obnoxious bills were before
the legislatures of Missouri aud Pennsyl-
vania, and her ideas upon "reconstrnc-
tion." II was she who put first into
words the condition of "Woman's Work
and Wrges, and 1t was she who dared to
speak on "Demagogues and Working
men" In all this Miss Dickinson was
both financially and intellectually success
ful; for, as she herself says, the last few
years she made $4,000 and CAS-, 900 a
/ year.
But there comes time in all lives when
roads cross. Miss Dickinson's crossed in
| 1875 when she chose between the advice of
friends and the tlattery Of Bostonese cu-
ture and left the platform for the stage.
| From that time, despite womanliness,
honest endeavor and any amount of cev-
erness, her kismet aroused itself and be-
gan saying spiteful things. The ardor
| ceased, the admiration that her truly re-.
markable lecture of Joan Of Arc had cre-
ated was fogotten In her essay ut Hamlet
| and at Anne Boleyn. The charming.
bright, keen witted little woman, VINO
loved diamonds and pretty clothes, even
though she did wear her hair cut short
and talked of woman's rights before she
donned the trousers Of Hamlet. was for.
gotten, and the very allegiance that was
once hers became an unreasoninR, thought.
less ridicule that cut the proud spirit to
the quick, but left it none the less deter,
mined TO succeed. Illness did, though,
what advice and evil circumstance could
not, and for four years and more neither
stage nor platform has known Miss Dick.
inson until this past week, when Indiana,
Ia the name of the republican, party and
tho bloody shirt has claimed her for its
ewn. The party pays literally fol. her and