Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, HumanitarianLutz, Alma
History
Susan B. Anthony: Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian
Lutz, Alma
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Carrie Chapman Catt gave every indication of developing into an
outstanding executive. Not another one of Susan's "girls" could so
quickly or so intelligently size up a situation as Carrie, nor could
they so effectively put into action well-thought-out plans. Not as
popular a speaker as the more emotional Anna Howard Shaw, she held her
audiences by her appeal to their intelligence. Tall, handsome, and
well dressed, she never failed to leave a favorable impression. Only
her name irked Susan, and as Susan wrote Clara Colby, "If Catt it must
be then I insist, she should keep her own father's name--Lane--and
not her first husband's name--Chapman,"[404] but the three Cs
intrigued Carrie and she continued to be known as Carrie Chapman Catt.
Now living in the East because her husband's expanding business had
brought him to New York, she was easily accessible, and from her
beautiful new home at Bensonhurst, a suburb of Brooklyn, she carried
on the rapidly growing work of the organization committee until a New
York City office became imperative. In Carrie, Susan recognized
qualities demanded of a leader at this stage of the campaign when
suffragists must learn to be as keen as politicians and as well
organized.
* * * * *
"Spring is not heralded in Washington by the arrival of the robin,"
commented a Washington newspaper, "but by the appearance of Miss
Anthony's red shawl." Susan was still the dominating figure at the
annual woman suffrage conventions. Everyone looked eagerly for the
tall lithe gray-haired woman with a red shawl on her arm or around her
shoulders. Once when Susan appeared on the platform with a new white
crepe shawl, the reporters immediately registered their displeasure by
putting down their pencils. This did not escape her, and always on
good terms with the newsmen and informal with her audiences, she
called out, "Boys, what is the matter?"[405]
"Where is the red shawl?" one of them asked. "No red shawl, no
report."
Enjoying this little by-play, she sent her niece Lucy back to the
hotel for the red shawl, and when Lucy brought it up to the platform
and put it about her shoulders, the audience burst into applause, for
the red shawl, like Susan herself, had become the well-loved symbol of
woman suffrage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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