The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-05-16
MISS ANTHONY's PROPHECY
Ehe Recites the Advance Made by Women
and Predicts Greater Achievements.

ghe Recites the Advance Made by Women
and Predicts Greater Achievements.
Miss Susan B. Anthony sat in the
sunny library of S. E. Gross home on
the Lake Shore drive. She was daintily,
almost coquettishly, gowned in a dress
Of black satin, with a misty collar of
lace caught about her neck with jew
eled pin of quaint and elaborate work
manship. Her white hair was parted
smoothly over her high forehead and
came down over her ears in fashion so
very old that it has suddenly become
new again. Looking at Miss Anthony
as she sat in the quiet library, observing
her handsome dress, her air of elegance
and her gentle voice it was hard to think
of her as the type Of all that is aggress-
i've in the nineteenth century woman
hood In fact, she looked like only
very quiet, well dressed little gentle
woman who would like nothing so we'll
as to spend the day in the big chair Of
Mr.. Gross library.
And when she talked about the so
called new woman and the twentieth
century woman it was harder still For
Miss Anthony doesn't much admire
either of these in the accepted sense Of
the terms.
When a timorous inquiry was made
as to who the new woman is, when she
will come; or if she had come already,
Miss Anthony said: ''It all depends on
what you mean by the term new wom-
an The term has become cant phrase,
carrying almost as much opprobrium as
the term 'woman's rights woman used
to imply. The new woman as the
| phrase goes, may mean loud, mann1sh
woman affecting the boisterous conduct
of men, with none of the saving graces
of her own sex If that be the new
woman, do not welcome her coming.
| IF by the new woman is meant woman
earnest, thoughtful, lofty of purpose,
self reliant and equally well educated
with man, why, then she has come. We
have got her in our homes, where she
stands side by side with her husband,
! welcoming his friends on the common
ground of intellectual equality, joining
in their discussions-a college bred
| woman, who can do something more
/ than pour tea when her husband enter
tains his friends. We have got the new
woman in everything except the count
| ing of her vote at the ballot box. And
that's coming. It's coming sooner than
most people think. The new woman
made her appearance 45 years ago, when
Antoinette Brown entered Oberlin col
1ege. Next November we are going to
have in New York an exhibit of new
! woman.
s'Nov. 10 Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stan
ton will be so years old The anniver-
sary will be made the occasion for
grand gathering of women who were the
first to enter those fields of intellectual
and business endeavor which half cen
fury ago were occupied solely by men.
At that time no trades, no institutions
of higher learning were open to women
A woman who was driven to self sup
| port could do little sewing, could en-
ter domestic service or perhaps teach in
a primary school From not being able
to earn a livelihood as she chose, from
not being able to reap the results of her
labor after she married, from not being
able to control her property after she
married, from, in brief, a position of
civic nullity she has advanced to her
present position. Forty thousand women
have been graduated from American col
1eges, every calling has its followers
among women, and they are today as
well educated as men, if not better.
Gin the state of New York one-elev-
enth of the property tax is paid by woIn-
en- In my own city Of Rochester wom-
en- pay taxes on a property valuation of
S29, OO0, 900. These are some of the re-
suits of the battle for equal rights,
which women have been waging for 40
years, and they have fought alone. The
blacks had nation S aid in the struggle