New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-20

ELrzABDTH CADY STANTON; Az Re-
yeaied In Her s.e,tera. Diary and Ksm mil.
and Harriet stanton Batch Harper &
Bros
~ T NEED not detract from the
achievements Of the great to re-
mark upon an often overlooked
phase Of their lives - that is,
that they had good time withal.
Garibaldi, for instance, while he un-
doubtedly endured discomforts and
perils such as would blanch the check
IL not the hair Of the average hearth
hugging and respectable citizen, never
theless got more fun out Of his life
than said citizen. Reversing the case
Of little Rover, while he was alive
he lived all over. When q man is busy
saving Italy and freedom, or the like,
he hasn't much time to notice IL the
steak he gets for dinner Is tough, or,
hardly, If there Is any steak, or any
dinner. Look at St. Paul, who made
one passing reference to having fought
with wild beasts at Ephesus. He prob
ably couldn't remember whether they
were lions or tigers; he had more i'm
portant things to think Of.
Or take the case of the pioneers Of
woman suffrage and feminism IN gem
eral. In their day women suffered
crushing restrictions and injustices
from law and custom. If a modern
woman were to wake some fine morn
ing and find the old conditions sud-
denly reimposed she would feel That
life was no longer worth living. Moth
ing would remain but to seize the
kitchen cleaver and die in the last
ditch behind barricadc Of corpses Of
the foe, the tyrant man. But to those
1,a,- ,tx.sN ..,Ho -, all
won the battle the enormity of the
difficulties added somewhat to the zest
Of the fight. There were giants In
those days.
A MONG these, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
IN was a superwoman. Only Susan B.
Anthony ranks with her for service to
the cause; and luckily there is no need
to dispute which contributed more to
its ultimate success. The two were
bosom friends as we'll as co-workers;
therefore Mrs. Stanton's own estimate
of their respective qualities may be &C.
cepted: "In thought and sympathy we
were one, and in the division of labor
we exactly complemented each other.
am the better writer, she the better
critic. She supplied the facts and sta
tistics, | the philosophy and rhetoric.
=. 1t has been said that she has been
my good angel, always pushing and
goading me to work. On the other
hand it has been said that l forged the
thunderbolts and she in the early days
fired them"
The account of these Jovian activi-
ties given in the two thick volumes
on elizabeth Cady Stanton; AS Re
vealed in Her Letters, Diary and Rem
iniscenses," ably edited by her son and
her daughter, should interest any one
who cares for biography, or for the
study Of character, quite aside from
their historical and sentimental value
judiciously let Mrs. Stanton speak for
herself entirely; and as she had moth
ing in her life which would not bear
the worlds scrutiny, slngularly COM
plete revelation of personality is the
result.
Mrs. Stanton fought for principle
rather than from any personal motive.
She was not spurred to action by any
such misfortunes as Mary Wollstone-
craft or Caroline Norton; her life was
on the whole a sirgularly happy one,
and she had every advantage Of birth,
education and financial security. Most
that these things would do as they
were. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a
distinguished lawyer of New York
State; her mother belonged to nota-
Bile Revolutionary family. Elizabeth
was q born rebel. Even the Ten Com
mandments irked her by their form
"Thou shalt motif not their SUBJ
stance. And to the end she felt her
early instructions we're justified, by
the rigidity and monotonous rule i'm
posed upon children in those days. Not
even having children Of her own, and
finding them rare handful, caused
her to revise that opinion.
AT eleven years of age she had her
first glimpse Of her destiny. Her only
brother, youth of great promise, died.
Her father, in his grief, said to the
sensitive and proud little girl: ooh,
my daughter, would that you were a
boy" Then and there the child de-
cided she would take the place of a
son to him. She never quite sue