Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-03


ing week, and much of the time will be
given uD to the celebration of the birthday
of Miss Anthony. which anniversary will
occur February II. The incidents of Miss
Anthony's life would furnish material for
romances like those of medieval days, and
to the younger women of the suffrage
cause seem almost incredible They do not
have to take these incidents Ion trust
however. for the files of the newspapers
of New York city, where Miss Anthony be-
gan her fight for her principles. as well as
the press of nearly every. city she lectured
in for years, are filled with jeering refer
ences to her personality. scandalous re-
ports of the suffrage women and their
how Miss Anthony was howied down by
mobs "of respectable men who did not
choose that women so infamous as to APP
pear on the platform in a contest with
men should be permitted to speak and dis
grace their sex. Often her life was placed
in jeopardy by these same respectable
men, and not infreouently. when as a
teacher she tried to speak in state and
district teachers meetings" she had to
flee from the hall amidst Kisses of the
male teachers and threats of bodily harm
But nothing frightened her from her self
set task of blazing the path SO that women
coming after her might not stumble. And
now in the evening of life, for eighty win
tiers have left their SHOWS in her once dark
and yet abundant locks. Miss Anthony, who
has given every day of her time every
dollar of her money, every power of her
being to secure equality of women before
the law, well take the rest she has
earned for the cause of women is rolling
with a momentum that nothing short of a
terrestrial cataclism can stop.
The First Move.
The first organized demand by women for
political recognition was an accident The
convention of women who made the de-
m&nd met to discuss the social. civil and re-
iigfous conditions and rights of women
and not one of them, up to the time of con-
vening had gone far in the revolutionary
thoughts that had taken possession of them
to suggest the idea of political equal
ity'' al the ballot box. This convention was
called to meet at Wesleyan Chapel Seneca
Falls. N. Y, on Wednesday and Thursday
the 18th and 10th of July, 1913. The call
issued July IA. 1t had no signature. but
the women who drafted it were Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott. Martha c.
Wright Mary Ann McClintock and Jane c.
Hunt. Mrs. Stanton was the moving spirit
in drafting the resolution THAT it is the
duty of the women of this country to secure
to themselves their sacred right to the elect
i've franchise 1t came Ike bombshell
upon the unprepared convention and was
discussed long and exhaustively, by the
convention, before its adoption, and acri-
moniously by the public after being given
out. Lucretia Mott deemed it an unwise
declaration, and would not support it, al
though she was one Of the advanced think
ers of the day. The jibes and jeers east
upon the faithful few as recorded in the
press of that day are something awful If
some capital crime they could not have
been more execrated. Yet those declara-
lions made today would not create a ripple
on the surface, so common have ''women's
conventions become.
Just at that stime there were many issues
| in which women became vitality Interested
About that time Miss Anthony took up the
temperance work. She had not yet had the
political equality spirit aroused. March
| l, 1S49 she made an address on temper
ance which was her first appearance as a
public speaker. For many years she worked
| with all her ardor for that cause. Then the
anti-slavery question began to challenge
attention, and she ehampioned that with
| all the energyrof her great heart. One of
the sorest crosses that Miss Anthony ever
bore was when, after her long and arduous
| efforts for freedom of the slaves when she
| worked with men like. Phillips. Garrison, TIL
] ton, Fred Douglas and half a dozen other
! famous men of that day. they turned away
| from her AMI refused to support her
| theories on the woman question. Despite
| all the drawbacks, Miss Anthony presented
| to Congress. February 8, 1864, monster
petition, containing the names Of 400 900
| men and women over eighteen years of age,
| asking the Acknowledgement of women
/ Nothing came of 1t, however.
Kansas and Wyoming.
In 1867 the suffragists turned their atten-
ton to Kansas. hoping to get that state to
vote for the enfranchisement of women,
Miss Anthony tackled the sunfower state
alone and single handed. She rode over
most of it in a blackboard and had expert-
ences that would have sent the average
woman to the insane asylum. Out of total
| Of $4,000 votes the suffrage amendment got
| 5000 and was defeated. Kansas has ALWAYS
been the proving ground of isms sometimes
! of coed ones, but often of very bad ones,
1t seems odd now to be reminded that Sem
ator Ingalls, likened Miss Anthony's advent
| irto Kansas at that time to border ruff
| fan invasion.
The fight In Kansas. though 1t ended in
entered Wyoming. then a territory The
] territorial legislature enfranchised women