Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-15
CROWN OF TRIUMPH
Ovation Given Miss Anthony by
Friends and Associates.
ENTHUSIASM OF A VAST COMPANY
Sketch of the Career of Noted
Woman Suffragist.
FIFTY YEARS A LEADER

To grow old gracefully is an art and few
achieve It. The psalmist has limited the
average Of life to three score years and
ten, generously adding another decade for
good measure the exception, but he
spoils the pleasure of anticipating thus long
to live by saying, yet is their strength la
Dor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and
We fly away" Many American women
have learned the difficult art of GROWING
old age with good works and sweet memo
ries of a past nobiy lived of making the
winter of life lovely and lovable, even in
the decline of natural forces, and with
drawal from old associations and wonted
avocations; but today American wo-
man-Susan B. Anthony-stands pre-emi-
nent among her sisters as the embodiment
of all that is high in mental development
and fine in moral fiber.
1t is eighty years since Miss Anthony first
saw the light of day among the Berkshire
hills of Massachusetts. 1t was February
10. 1920, that the girl child came to the
little home in Adams. to which her beauti-
full mother had been taken by her Quaker
father, his love for the playmate of his
youth, stronger than his allegiance to his
church, almost causing him to be cast out
by the strict sectarians. In this quiet home
Susan Brownell Anthony, very much like
other children, only a little more preco-
cious perhaps. shade more set in her
ways and decidedly self-willed, if her own
word be proof. grew to womanhood. Her
very first struggle was for an education.
The master of the district school could
not understand why a girl should want to
learn and understand long division" He
could not teach it, either.
Miss Anthony's Accomplishments.
Miss Anthony, the little Susan. was
taught to sew, and she is skilled with the
needle. When she is too hard on women
who spend time over embroidery that might
better, in her opinion. be spent in reading
study. and who reviled tides with green
dogs and purple roses. some one will rise
and place before her eyes the sampler
that she did" at the age of eleven
wreath of beautiful Strawberries surround
ing the family record. and all eXquisitely
done in crewels! They soemnly refer to
the bed quilt, the pieces sewn together in
the over and over" stitch, and ruffies
hemmed with infinitesmal stitches. Miss
Anthony making worsted Strawberries and
cutting bits of cloth just for the sake of
sewing them together in geometrical de-
sign, seems an Impossible creature when
one remembers the last half century of her
career. Yet she is cook, a seamstress a
housekeeper, and best of ALL a home
keeper.
At seventeen years of age Miss Anthony
began teaching school. Failing fortunes of
the family made it necessary. 1t was an
innovation, for women kept silence every
where except in the kitchen, in her youth
Teaching was the only occupation open to
them, and for this they got 81 a week, and
boarded round
Miss Anthony taught school for nearly
ten years, and with her soul worn to
fragile with the ceaseless routine. she quit
and went home to her fathers farm, which
she superintended. seeing after the planting
of the crops, the harvesting and the SELL
ing. She also did the homework. Her
father was away from home and her
mothers health was delicate
First Public Appearance.
1t was in 1S49 that Miss Anthony made
her first public appearance. She delivered
an address on temperance. She and all her
family were rigid prohibitionists. By the
time she was thirty she began to look for
ward to a public career. She came of
strong family mentally. family of natural
in that day. Temperance ethics were at
low ebb. Slavery was splitting the whole
social fabric in twain. The line of demar-
cation between men and women was too
tightly drawn. In fact, it appeared to this
wide-eyed. wholesome woman, whose father
believed In her strength of character and
purity of purpose. that things were gencr-
ally aWry, and some apostle of reform was
needed. Her father had given his boys and
girls the same education, and the daughters
were taught the same business principles
and invested with the same responsibilities
as the sons at an early age. He saw in the
daughter. Susan. ability of a high order
courage and persistence, such as he himself
possessed in large degree. and he encour-
aged her desire to go into the reforms de-
manding attention, gave her financial back
ing when necessary, moral support upon all
occasions. and was always her faithful
friend and ally. 1t was at the home of the
Motifs. in, Conajoharie, that she got into all
the reforms of the day, and Lucretia Mott
loved her
To follow Miss Anthony through the fifty
years which have interviewed would be an
awesome task. The achievements of her
wonderful life have been monumental. and
the word 'reformer'' is her epithet. When
she began to speak on temperance she was
greeted with coarse denunciation from the
pulpit and derided by her male co-workers.
She was associated with Mrs. Stanton, Lucy
Stone and Mrs. Foster, as well as the Mott
sisters. and from that day to this her his
tory and theirs has been blended. They j
sometimes wavered and grew faint-hearted,
but like one clear star in a night of gloom,
Miss Anthony has stood out from all the
others her course marked by an unswerv-
ing ddellty to purpose, q Gteadfastuess to