The times., 1898-02-15
THE WOMEN sUFFRAG|sTS
The First Day Of Their National
Convention.
INTERESTING PAPERS READ
The Three Sessions Devoted to the
Discuss of Various Topics and
the Receiving of Reports-Two
Humid red Delegates in Attend
ance- Miss Anthony PresideS.

! Florida. Arizona, Vermont and Texas.
The executive committee held a pre-
! liminary meeting at o'clock and the
| convention proper was called to order at
| 10 o'clock by Miss Susan B. Anthony.
Alice Stone Blackwell, the recording
secretary, read the roll-call of officers.
vice presidents. and State members of
| the executive committee. Miss Lucy
Anthony, niece of the presiding officer,
| was appointed time-keeper. Rev. Anna
Howard Shaw, vice observation-disclosures
and Rachel Foster Avery, correspond
ing secretary, read reports.
The afternoon session began at 2
o'clock. Short addresses of the follow
ing State presidents were made: Ark
ansas, Kate Cunningham; California,
Mary A. Swift; Connecticut, Isabella
Beecher Hooker; Delaware, Margaret
w. Houston; Georgia. DR.. l.. d. Morse;
Illinois, Elmira Springer; Iowa, Julia
Clark Hallam; Kansas, Laura NJ. Johns;
Kentucky. Eugenia B. Farmer.
special meeting of the executive
committee was held in the reception
room Of the Hotel Regent at 4 o'clock.
The evening session was held in Co
lumbia Theater. a large audience was
present, many eXponents of the womans
suffrage cause in addition to delegates
to the convention being scattered
throughout the theater The opening
address was made by Miss Susan b. An
thony, who said that though she was
not pioneer woman suffragist that she
was one of the early workers for the
cause. Miss Anthony said it was al
most impossible to conceive the great
change of sentiment that has tran
spired since the first womanS suffrage
meeting fifty years ago. An address on
the defeats and triumphs of the woman
suffragists, prepared by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, of New York. was read by
Clara Bewick Colby. of this city.
Mrs Virginia ID. Young spoke as "A
voice from South Carolina" She re-
ferred humorously to -the length of
time" allotted her TO speak, and com
pared the thought behind the words to
electricity. She had some funny things
TO say about the dog law in her State.
and also deplored the extremely early
marriages made by girls in the South,
especially in South Carolina where il
Is common for girls to marry at the ages
of fifteen. sixteen and seventeen years.
She said that political disability so OPP
Grated in lowering the value of women
as individuals that often husbands
signed their wives names to contracts
and agreements without even consulting
them
New Jersey. the first American woman
10 enter the ministry. spoke of the
Changing Phases Of Opposition. She
said in part:
The first woman's rights convention
was called organized scolding. Lucretia
Mott was thought regular ultra-barn-
burning kind of a woman, and Eliza
beth Blackwell, who had graduated as
a physician, "a furious type of socialist,
trying TO attack society Women had
no supposed duties, outside OF the fam
lily: their security and modeSty depended
on their ignorance. The purity Depart
ment of the Worlds Christian Temper
ance Union had no existence, nor had
women doctors, lawyers. ministers and
clubs.
1T was believed that women were
weak-minded. and not fitted to have
higher education, especially in mathe-
MATES and metaphysics because they
had no originality. They were too emo
tional and hysterical for public duties;
they lacked logic, system and organizing
faculties; hard work or study would
break down their health and destroy
their wOmanliness; they had not enough
perseverance or concentration TO carry
on any movement successfully, all of
which has been disproved by the women
themselves"
MIR. Joseph H Douglass. the colored
violinist, rendered the "Fantasie Ca
price and Gypsy Melodies
The next speaker was Frances Stew
art Mosher. A NJ of Michigan. who re-
spon6ied with an address entitled '-Wom-
en- in Church Philanthropcs. She is an
Eastern woman by birth, and was edu-
Gated at Mount Holyoke College. She
is member of the faculty OF Hillsdaie
College, where she is teacher of French
and history She is an extensive trav-
Gan irS-e6 a Vplrg rpGi-
dence in France and Germany, while her
husband was United States consul at
Nice and Sonneburg. She travelled ex-
tensively in Europe from Ireland to
Russia. and from the north cape TO the
top of NesuviuS, and was elected record
ing secretary of the National Council of
Women at the recent session in Nash
vile. Tenn.
Mary Seymour Howell, OF New York,
spoke on the subject. Women in Philan-
lhropy" She said that women had al
ways been engaged in philanthropy. but
that fifty years ago the greatest dis
coyery of the world was made when
woman discovered herself. Since then
this phase of wom8n's work had been
greatly enlarged. and today she is in
every kind Of philantilropic work. The
lowliest woes are not too lowly for her,
no road so full of mire that but there
her footsteps may be traced In the
sluns. in the prisons. in hospitals. the
unfortunates are the recipients of her
gentle ministrations. The recognition Of
the divine motherhood in the godhead
had blessed the earth. Wherever there
is trouble there are women to comfort
with this eternal mother love. She men
toned Clara Barton, with her Red Cross
work and Frances Z. Willard, with her
White Ribbon army, as great lights on
the highway for the coming centuries.
Other eminent examples were Mrs. Bal
lington Booth and Mrs. Shaw Lowell In
their prison work, and the nurses in the
wars; Lady Henry Somerset, with her
industrial schools and her labor for the
Armenians; Countess Castellane's chart
table gift to Paris, and Mrs Hawthorne
Lathrop's work with poor women suf-
fering from cancer in New York city
Congressional hearing will be given
delegates to the convention at 10 o'clock
today
The program for the afternoon and
evening session is as follows: 2:30
o'clock, work conference; Juvenile work.
J. Mary Pierson. superintendent juvenile
work. New York: press work, Jessie J.
Cassidy, national press chairman; plate
work, Elnora NJ. Babcock, press superin-
tendent. New York; ''How to Utilize the
Press of Large Cities" Ida Fl. Harper;
Improvements Over Present Methods -
Ida Porter Boyer chairman Pennsyl-
vania press committee; discussion. At
s o'clock: Women in Education May
Wright Sewall, Indiana; ''The New Edu-
cation" Grace Espy Patton, Colorado
THERE Is 4 CLASS OF PEOPLE
Who are injured by the use of coffee. Re-
Gently there has been placed in all the