The Washington times., 1902-02-17
.SUFFRAGISTS AT
DIVINE SERVICE
RE, UME OF PAST WEEK.
Miss Susan B. tnthOny's Birthday
Gift "a Feature.

| thonv. Carrie Chairman Gait Alice Stone
Blackwell and Henry Blackwell. and
others closely associated with the move,
ment in favor Of woman suffrage eX-
planned what that purpose was.
| The delegates and officers were gath
cring for the thirty-fourth annual con-
vention of the National Woman Suffrage
| Association. Among them were dozen
or more women from foreign countries
and their presence was due to the fact
that this year the first international wo-
| man suffrage conference of the world
was held. Its object is largely to discuss
plans for projected worlds conference
in the future, and one will be held in
| Berlin in 1902.
Tuesday nigh. the executive committee,
composed of the officers of the national
association and the president and one
member from each State organization, held
its first meeting at the Riggs. Wednesday
morning there was another meeting and
an international conference, and Wednes-
day afternoon the delegates opened at the
First Presbyterian Church, and the con-
vention was called to order by the presi-
dent beside whom sat Miss Anthony,
wearing that historic red shawl of hers.
Commissioner Macfarland welcomed the
convention to the Capital and the for
eign delegates, who occupied seats on the
platform. were welcomed in addresses by
Miss Clara Barton, Rev. Anna Shaw, and
Miss Anthony, to which response was
made by Madam Friedland, the Russian
delegate.
Ir some ways the foreign delegates were
| to the audience the most interesting fea-
! ture of the convention. The American
public is pretty well used to the Ameri-
! can woman in all her forms. especially
the business form, by this time. and most
of the suffragists We're the type of lady
| who is 10 be seen every day working in
the departments or running a typewriter,
or practicing medicine, or experimenting
q woman's club. or engaging in some other
| kind of task that needs executive ability.
But there are few, perhaps, who have
realized that suffrage movements exist in
some other countries, and the presence of
representatives from Norway, Chile,
Sweden, Russia. Germany, England Aus
tralia. and Turkey was an object lesson in
that line.
There are a good many people TO whom
a convention OF this kind would not seem
to be properly conducted without Susan
3. Anthony in the chair, and such people
felt more at home on pioneers night
when she was in the chair than at any
other time. The gray heads on the plat
form were those of people who had seen
the suffrage movement grow from it's
babyhood, who had believed in it at a
time when it was supposed to be synony-
nous with free love, atheism and an
archy, and when the arguments used
against it varied from prehistoric eggs
and mud and stones to language not much
| cleaner.
1t is quite possible that some converts
were made to the idea, or at any rate
some people dissuaded from opposing it.
by The very violence CT the attacks hurled
at it. Some of the language used by the
''antis' would not beN allowed to go
through the mails today. But that is all
over, and no doubt the pioneers. as they
sat upon the platform and looked over
the audience that crowded the building,
felt that the younger heads we're having
, a pretty easy time.
Miss Anthony, NJ. Blackwell, and old
John Hutchinson, last of the Hutchinson
family, who, at the age Of ninety years
led the singing, began their work fully
fifty years ago. Rev. Anna Shaw Olympia
Brown, and few other delegates to the
, convention came in on the wave which
carried many self-supporting women into
5 the movement in the seventies, and the
( rest have drifted in from time to time
| as they became interested in the idea OF
saw some reason affecting themselves
why they should demand suffrage But
that night the enthusiasm was about equal
: on the platform and in the audience, and
. it was an impressive occasion.
Thursday the convention settled down
= TO business and took up the reports OF the
: national and State officials. II there was
= anybody in Washington who did not be
T lieve that women could do business calm
ly and without emotion. he or she should
, have strayed into some of the business
? meetings OF this organization. It may be
1 that the suffragists have heard so much
ridicule on this point that they are little
afraid of doing the least thing to justify
it. but at any rate they steer clear o.
1 emotional performances.
: Mrs. Gait is a born parliamentariar
and determined that nobody shall stray
from the beaten track of Reeds Rules Of
Order or whatever other manual is en-
dorsed by the association. Any member
who incautiously puts a question or makes
a motion outside the proper form is
, sharply called to order. and this tends to
the observance of formality. The way in
! which the president blandly remarks "A
: voice from the wilderness" when some
+ body speaks without rising and being rec
; ognized, is generally enough to bring the
, delinquent TO her feet in blushing haste.
, This convention is not here for fun, but
: Il did permit itself two small bits of re
/ laxation-one the reception of Mrs. 4. l.
Barber on Thursday afternoon. the other
that of Mrs John B. Henderson on Satur-
day afternoon.
Thursday evening people were invited
, 10 spend an evening with the New Won
an" Nine. Sarah Grand was not there
nor ANYBODY who resembied her, but th'
new woman was Mrs. Helen Adelaide
Shaw spoke for the advanced state o.
women in general, Mrs. Elizabeth Gil
mer dorothy Dix for the woman jour
nalist. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton for the wom-
an physician, Miss Gail Laugblin for wom-
an in the legal profession, and Rev. Ida C
Hultin for the woman clergyman. Every
> person on the platform seemed to have
made up her mind to show the audience
| how pretty a new woman could look, and
the gowns were about as well worth see
ing as the speeches were worth hearing
After a day spent in the consideration
Of more business the convention put in
j an evening with The New Man" There
were a good many men in the audience
at one time or another, and they did moi
look much as they do in the comic pa
pers. The suffragists' husbands in carica-
1 ture are consumptivc, cadaverous-I looking
insignificant mortals trailing around il
the wake of rambunctious and over
whelming wives; but most OF the mer
who mixed themselves up with this con
yention looked as if they could not very
s. easily have been dragged there if they
, had not wanted TO come.
Some of them were six feet tall anC
broad in proportion and none of then
t looked as il they had been in the habi
of asking their wives for permission t
t think. They did not act like cats in {