Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-08

happened that Miss Anthony and myself
were in a city in the state Of New York
which Is particularly noted for its religious
atmosphere. We were to speak there, and
we wanted to make good impression and
convince them that we really are not as bad
as We are painted. When 1t came my turn
to be introduced to the highly orthodox
very doors Miss Anthony took me by the arm
doors Miss Anthony took me by the arm
and led me to the front of the platform and
introduced me in her. best style. She is
an orthodox of the orthodox Miss An
thony assured them, and she is my right
bower That audience of truly orthodox
people fairly howled with laughter, and
Miss Anthony took her seat with a be-
wildered look on her face. I talked to the
audience, which was in a happy mood
When we got home Miss Anthony said to
me: Anna, what did 1 say tonight to make
those people laugh so?' I replied that she
mad introduced me to truly orthodox au-
dience, which she desired to impress with
our religious leanngs, as her right bower
Well, what of that?" Miss Anthony
asked, as innocently as possible. L meant
that you were an Indispensable aid to me,
and isn't that what fright bower" means?
Now, ladies'" said Miss Shaw, seriously,
what could l reply to the remark Of our
Quaker president? i know, however that
you understand the meaning of right bow
err quite as well as that other orthodox au-
dience from the way you are all laughing"
and the convention suspended business for
fully three minutes to laugh at the truly
orthodox little Methodist divine, who not
only knows what a fright bower is, but
can also tell good story.
Miss Shaw then got down to report of
her duties as vice president-at-large. She
said that she had been able to do but little
work under the head of suffrage for the
annual convention met in May last year. and
the 1St of June she sailed for England to
attend the International Council of Women.
She told some very funny stories of that
great meeting of representative women of
world. She a a
meeting held In London. where the subjects
to be discussed were impersonal and nom
political, the president of the International
Council, Countess Aberdeen, wishing to
have the United States represented by two
delegates who would be conservative in
their views, selected Miss Anthony and my
self! The effect of this announcement
again convulsed the convention with laugh
ter Imagine anybody calling Miss An
thony and myself 'non-radicals,' she
added, with twinkling eyes.
That was one of the greatest meetings
of women that l ever saw. They were the
representatives of the best examples of the
women of Ireland and England who are
working for suffrage. The great hall was
packed, and hundreds never got within
sight of the outer doors. But it is of Miss
Anthonys reception I wish to tell you.
When she was introduced the ovation was
something wonderful. For ten long min
audience cheered, and cheered. and cheered
again. 1t was noble tribute to a noble
American woman. and how I did glory in
her triumph
Miss Shaw said that she long ago learned
that people would not take doses of suf-
frage, undisguised. She said that she lee
tured all over the country Her subjects
were THE New Man, the American Home"
white Mans Burden and various allur-
ing titles and she had big audiences. Do
you suppose that l contne myself to my
subject?" she asked. mo indeed The
doses of suffrage that I give my audiences
SOmatiTneS awful thew
ALL and think 1t good. l know she said.
that rose by any other name smells
sweeter-sometfmeS"
Federal Suffrage.
One of the most important reports was
that on federal suffrage. prepared by Sarah
Clay Bennett of Kentucky. AS she was not
able to be present, the paper was read by
Mrs Martha "A. Root of Michigan
The report was as follows: The judges
of the Supreme Court of the United States
affirmed in their Yarbrough decision of 1884
that the fifteenth amendment of our ma
tienal Constitution conferred a new right
upon the male and female citizens of the
United States in 1870, when it said: The
right of citizens of the United States to
vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account Of
race, color or any previous condition of
Servitude.' And that this new right was
not right to vote but right of ex-
emptiOn from discrimination in the exercise
of the elective franchise on account of race,
color previous condition of servitude.
Your committee, therefore, in petition
which it sent to every member of the pres
ent Congress- asked these gentlemen to
recommend the legislatures of our several
states to adopt sixteenth amendment of
our national Constitution, which would con-
fer upon the male and female citizens of
the United States right of exemption from
discrimination in the exercise of the cleo
tive franchise on account of sex, by saying:
orf,rl 0fa at, &c IL TTr,t%r tata
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any state on ac-
count or sex
But in this petition your committee es-
pecially urged the honorable members of
the present Congress to protect white and
black women equally with black men
against the statutes of the states in the eX-
ercise of the right of citizens of the United
States to vote for members of Congress
and presidential electors in the several
states of this Union, which was exercised
in New Jersey by both women and black
men, upon equal terms with white men,
until 1907 when that state made and en-
forced a law which confined the right of
suffrage to white men. And We entreated
these gentlemen to do this justice to wo-
men by making federal law in pursuance
of that clause of the first section of the
fourteenth amendment of our national
Constitution, which says: No state shall
make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citi-
accordance with the combined Minor V.
Happersett and Yarbrough decisions of the
judges of the Supreme Court of the United
States. For the judges of the Supreme
Court who rendered the Minor " Happier
sett decision of 1879 affirmed in the first
part of that decision that women were citi-
zens of the United States equally with men
and entitled to all the privileges and i'm
munities of citizenship, and that the above
quoted clause of the fourteenth amend
ment had Ipade void the constitutions and
laws of the several states which confined
the right of suffrage to men, if suffrage
was one of the necessary privileges of
citizens of the United States. And the
members of the court who rendered the
Yarbrough decision of 1884 have now held
in that decision that the right of suffrage is
one of the necessary privileges of citizens
of the United States, and thereby indirectly
affirmed that the fourteenth amendment
has made void the constitutions and laws
of the United States which confined the
right of suffrage to men and left women
in possession of that important trust For
1t is easy to see that the fourteenth amend
ment, by forbidding the states to make or
enforce any law which would abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States, must have restored to wo-
men that right of citizens of the United
States to vote for members of Congress and
presidential electors In New Jersey, Of
which they were deprived by the making