New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-20
"A Pioneer Feminist
BY Isabel Paterson

ceeded, In his estimation, though she
studied Greek and learned TO ride
horseback IS the first steps toward
throwing off the handicap Of sex.
That one failure was the germ Of all
her subsequent successes.
She did not, like some women, feel 1t
was necessary to abandon the tradi-
tional field OF woman's activities to ex-
press herself. She only broadened It,.
She married at twenty-five Henry b.
Stanton, an able and upright man and
noted orator for the Abolitionist
cause, who sympathized with her femj-
nistic tendencies. AS his wife she met
all the prominent reformers and advo-
Gates Of liberty of that day. On their
honeymoon they attended the Worlds
Anti-Slavery Convention in London,
where her indignation was reused by
the exclusion Of women from the body
OK delegates With Lucretia Mott she
then and there resolved to hold con-
vention us soon as they returned to
America and form society to advo-
cate the rights Of women.
That was the genesis of the first
Woman's Suffrage Society in America,
though eight years were to eiapse be-
fore the projected convention was
called, at Seneca Falls, N. Y. The
pied with household cares and the
birth of several chlren; but, charac-
teristically, Mrs. Stanton investigated
the rights Of infants when her own
came. Her uncommon common sense
was never better exhibited than in
the rules she laid down for the care
Of her babies, most of which have
since gained the authority of medical
Endorsement. But her amazing vitality
might make her poor guide for
mothers in their care of themselves.
She relates how she rose from her bed
on the day after one of her children
was born, took a cold bath and went
to her desk to work! 1t takes super
woman to do that.
Throughout the rest of her incredibly
busy life she never neglected her
home or family. When a new cook
"made housekeeping rather onerous,"
she declared the exercise was just
what she needed. She lived to be
eighty-seven and the last act of her
life was to write letter to President
Roosevelt urging the claims of wom:n
suffrage.
OUCH a record may bring up pic
~ ture of an Anlazonian physique and
a domineering manner. On the con-
trary, she was little woman with a
round, merry face, winning ways and
g feminine liking for daintiness of at
tire. She loved dancing and all manner
Of games, and she played to win. Her
sense of humor was not acute; it sell
dom is in reformers. Your humorist
is a looker-on. She advised young
man "ncver to joke or use badinage
with your wife," which is surely taking
matrimony seriously. But she could
tell an entertaining anecdote we'll and
laugh at herself with good grace on oc-
casion. Her literal is ex-
emplified by her taste in literature;
gard ant on meeting him asked him to
explain "King solomon's Mines"
George Eliot and Mrs. Humphrey Ward
were more to her mind. Yet she slyly
suggested to Susan B. Anthony, when
writing of her: II do think in this
earlier part of your life there should
be some mysterious underlined refer
ence to some faint suffering love af-
fair! How all the daily papers would
jump at that" And her zeal for re-
form never became fanatcism; not
added restrictions, but tho enlarge
ment OF life, was her aim. Blue laws
she regarded with distrust, as infringe
ments of natural right, forerunners of
petty tyranny.
She granted the benefit of logic even
to the enemy, man; remarking sensi-
bly, on the Parnell affair that it was
absurd to take Parnell from public life,
where he was admittedly success, and
relegate him to private life, in, which
he had failed. Moreover, men were not
trained to be virtuous; and until they
are why expect it of them? There is a
Victorian touch in her acid dismissal
of Mrs. O'Shea, as cold enough to take
care of herself" But she refused to
listen to slanderous insinuations con-
corning another noted woman of her
time, and held that men and women
alike had right to privacy.
To do this remarkable woman Justice
within the limits of review or an
article would require the pen of a
Gamaliel Bradford. Here is task
ready to his hand.