The San Francisco call., 1898-03-06

Lest any m1SunCerStanQlnS arse, It
 is well to add that Mrs. Stevens is pres 1 ident of the union under the constitu-
 tion, which provides in article i that
 the officers shall be president, vice | president at large, etc; and in article of the bylaws, where, under the head
 ing of duties of president, it is enacted l that she may also nominate one of
 the vice presidents to be known as vice. president at-large, said nomination to
 be acted upon by the convention. In
 case of the presidents inability to act | the duties shall fall upon the vice pres | ident-at-large." At four consecutive
 conventions Mrs. Stevens was nominat | ed by Miss Willard and elected by the convention.
 | Mrs. Stevens of Maine has not the same wonderful magnetism which char acterized her predecessor. But she is | very gentle, womanly and withal firm. | She is apprcachable, courteous and we'll l bred, while the quiet dignity of her
 manner carries with it to the intuitive | the conviction of a strong will capable of holding it's own.
 She is rather small and slight, with
 black hair in which there is scarcely a line of gray. and deep hazel eyes, which have way of looking through an indf- vidual and probing him to pretty con- elusive and accurate definition.
 She is 54 years old, not a pretty wom- an, but vastly better looking than her
 pictures, which rather give the impress sion of a hard personality and fine disregard for appearances. Actually, this is misleading.
 Mrs. Stevens is a tremendously earn
 est suffragist, but so is Susan B. An thony, and neither deems it necessary
 to go roughly clad and looking like
 guy in order to body forth a proof Of strong -mindedness.
 AS far as in us lies we intend to car ry out the plans and wishes of Miss Willard" said Mrs. Stevens, those for
 mulated and adopted at the last gen
 eral convention at Buffalo, those of the post-executive committee of that con vention over which Miss Willard pre- sided, and also the plans made at the general officers meeting held here at the Temple after the post-executive. November II and F, 1897. They com
 prise our plans for the entire year, you know. The three principal things, how
 ever, are:
 "1. To work for constitutional prohl-
 bition in States not now under prohib-
 itory law, and in States which do have
 1t to make an effort for better enforce
 ment of the law.
 "2 To work for increased member
 ship. That explains itself. We need
 more added unto us
 ;.
 be our financial year.. Last year we
 worked for the Armenians; this year
 we shall work for retiring Temple trust bonds. This means the raising of $300,
 900. Do I think we will get so large
 sum? Yes. We hope for even more than that Our whole aim is to take
 up the work of the union on all sides as
 Miss Willard designed it. We mean to
 go forward.
 'I shall still keep my home In Port
 land, Me, but expect to be in Chicago
 good deal" said Mrs. Stevens. Tt
 seems better that Anna Gordon and should be in the East together. No;
 not as my private secretary Don't speak of her in that way. l shouldn't
 want her to be thought of as private secretary to anyone any more. Merely say that she will continue her connec-
 tion with the work. We are trying to
 keep everything as nearly as possible
 as 1t was. Miss Willard's faithful ste nographer will also stay with Miss Gordon and me. l remain in Chicago over Monday, then go East for a short time and return again.
 At first we were paralyzed with grief" she continued, in speaking of the association's late loss. We did not really expect the end. l thought she
 would get better all along. and I sent
 cheering cablegram to Lady Henry
 at o'clock of the night when she
 passed away at 12 I did not give her up until five hours before the end came. For twenty-three years Miss Will lard and I have been together part | of every year except those which she spent in England. Last spring | went to England as American delegate | to the British Women's Temperance | Association I was the guest of Miss l Agnes Slack there, and, yes, was also