The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-03-12
MSS ANrHoNxs BUSY LIFE.
Has Been Before gne Public in Various
capacities for Many Years.

IN EOuLn ADAMS. MASS EEDTHaTX 10,
1920. Born in Massachusetts. brought
up in New York, OF Quaker father
and Baptist mother, she had by heri-
tage a strongly marked individuality
and native strength. In girlish years
Susan belonged to Quaker meeting,
with aspirations toward 'hfgh-seat''
dignity, but this was modified by the
severe treatment awarded TO her
father, who, having been publicly
reprimanded twice, the first time for
marrying q Baptist, the second for
wearing a comfortable cloak with
large cape, was finally expelled from
IN Getting because he allowed the
use of one of his rooms for the in
struction of a class in dancing, in
order that the youth might not be
subject TO the temptation of a liquor
/ selling public house. Though Mr.. An
thony was a cotton manufacturer and
one of the Wealthiest men in Wash
/ lngtOn county, New York, he desired
/ that his daughters, as his sons, should
I be trained for some profession. Ac-
coTdingly they were fitted in the best
/ of private schools for teachers, the
4 only vocation then thought of for girls
/ and at 5 Susan found herself teaching
4 a Quaker family school at s a week
and board.
When the financial crash of 1897
/ caused his failure, they were not only
teaching and supporting themselves,
Z DUL were dDlG 10 nGtD their IaInGE IN
his efforts to retrieve his fortunes.
With natural aptitude for the work.
/ conscientious and prompt in all her
/ duties, Susan was soon pronounced a
successful teacher, and to that pro-
| fession she devoted fifteen years of her
/ life
She was an active member of the
| New York Teachers association, and in
/ their conventions made many effective
/ pleas for higher wages and for the
{ FTrar7 Of -F--T-
! rights for women in all the honors and
responsibilities Of the association.
Teachers Owe Her Debt.
The women teachers from Maine to
/ Oregon owe Miss Anthony a debt of
! gratitude for the improved position
/ they hold today. Miss Anthony has
/ been from childhood deeply interested
in the subject Of temperance. In 1847
+ she Joined the Daughters Of Temper
| ance, and. in 1852 organized the New
| York State Woman's Temperance asSo-
/ citation, the first open temperance or
! ganizauon of women.
AS secretary she gave her earnest
| efforts to the temperance cause for
/ many years, but she soon saw that wO-
4 man was utterly pOWerleSs to change
/ conditions without the ballot. Since
she Identified herself with the suffrage
i movement in 1852 she has left others
1 to remedy individual wrongs, while she
4 has been working for the weapon by
/ which, as she believed, women will be
able to do away with the producing
/ causes.
She said that she had mo time to
/ dip out vice with q teaspoon while the
| wrongly adjusted forces of society
/ were pouring it in by the bucketful."
/ With all her family Miss Anthony was
| a pronounced and active abolitionist.
During the war, with her lifelong
/ friend and cowOrker. Elizabe Cady
/ Stanton, and other coadjutors. she
rolled up nearly 100000 petitions to.
congress for the abolition of slavery.
+ Those petitions circulated in every
northern and Western state, serving
the double purpose of rousing the peo-
/ pie to thought and furnishing the
4 friends of the slaves in congress oppOr-
tunitieS for speech.
! In Charles safnfferss letters to Miss
Anthony can be found the frequent ap-
7 peals, Send on the petitions: they fur
nish the only background for my de-
mands. The most harassing though
most satisfactory, enterprise Miss An
thcny ever undertook was the pubIica-
ton for three years Of a weekly paper,
the Revolution.
$4,000 in Debt.
After three years of toll and worry a
/ debt of $40, 900 had accumulated. Miss
Anthony set bravely about the task Of
I earning the money to pay the debt,
every cent of which was duly paid from
/ the earnings of her lectures. Miss An
/ thony has always been in great demand
! upon the platform, and has lectured in
aImest every city and hamlet in the
north.
/ She has made Constitutional arguments
/ she asnaadas constitutional arguments
spoken impromptu to assemblies in all
/ sorts Of places.
The most dramatic event of her life
was her arrest and trial for voting at
the presidential election in 1872 When
asked by the judge. You voted as a
woman, did you not2' she replied. mo.
sir; I voted as citizen of the United
4 States"
She was fined 500 and costs. She
said to the judge: Resistance to tyran-
ny IS obedience to God, and I shall
never pay a penny of this unjust
claim and she always glOried in never
having done so.
The change in public sentiment to-
wards woman suffrage is well indicated
4 by the change in the popular estimate
Of Miss Anthony. She was woman
of vigor and activity, and having in a
most renarka BILE degree the power to
rally around her for united action the
ever increasing hosts of the woman suf-
! frage Organiza ton, of which she has
been the head. she has been a powerful
factor in moulding public opinion in the
direction of equal rights ana opportuhl-
ties eor women
What she Did for Women.
When Miss Anthony began her
work. woman was a chattel in the eye
of the law; shut out from all ad-
vantaees of higher education and OPP
portunities in the industrial world; an
/ utter dependent on man; occupying a
Subordinate position in the church;
restrained to the narrowest limits
along social lines; an absolute Moment
] fty in politics. Today American wo-
men are envied by those of other ma
lions. and stand comparatively free in
dividuals, with the exception Of politi-
cal disabilities.
During the SO years which have
wrought this revolution Miss Anthony
is the one woman In the whole world
who has given every day of her time,
every dollar of her money, every pow
err of her being, to secure these results.
She was impelled to the work from no
personal grievance, but solely through
q deem sense of the injustice which on