Why, Susan wondered sadly, were woman's rights only a joke to most men--something to be laughed at even in the face of glaring proofs of the law's injustice. There was encouragement, however, in the letters which now came from Lucy Stone in Ohio: "Hurrah Susan! Last week this State Legislature passed a law giving wives equal property rights, and to mothers equal baby rights with fathers. So much is gained. The petitions which I set on foot in Wisconsin for suffrage have been presented, made a rousing discussion, and then were tabled with three men to defend them!... In Nebraska too, the bill for suffrage passed the House.... The world moves!"[68] The world was moving in Great Britain as well, for as Susan read in her newspaper, women there were petitioning Parliament for married women's property rights, and among the petitioners were her well-beloved Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Gaskell, and Charlotte Cushman. Better still, Harriet Taylor, inspired by the example of woman's rights conventions in America, had written for the _Westminster Review_ an article advocating the enfranchisement of women. All this reassured Susan, even if New York legislators laughed at her efforts. FOOTNOTES: [43] Judge William Hay of Saratoga Springs, New York. [44] Feb. 19, 1854, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library of Congress. [45] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 116. Among those who wore the bloomer costume were Angelina and Sarah Grimke, many women in sanitoriums and some of the Lowell, Mass. mill workers. In Ohio, the bloomer was so popular that 60 women in Akron wore it at a ball, and in Battle Creek, Michigan, 31 attended a Fourth of July celebration in the bloomer. Amelia Bloomer, moving to the West wore it for eight years. Garrison, Phillips, and William Henry Channing disapproved of the bloomer costume, but Gerrit Smith continued to champion it and his daughter wore it at fashionable receptions in Washington during his term in Congress. [46] _History of Woman Suffrage_, I, p. 608. [47] 1854 (copy), Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. [48] Harper, _Anthony_, I, pp. 111-112. [49] March 3, 1854 (copy), Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. [50] Ms., Diary, March 24, 28, 1854. [51] _Ibid._, March 29, 1854. [52] _Ibid._, March 30, 1854. [53] The New England Emigrant Aid Company, headed by Eli Thayer of Worcester, was formed to send free-soil settlers to Kansas, offering reduced fare and farm equipment. Their first settlers reached Kansas in August, 1854, founding the town of Lawrence in honor of one of their chief patrons, the wealthy Amos Lawrence of Massachusetts. [54] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 121. [55] Diary, April 28, 1854. [56] Leonard C. Ehrlich, _God's Angry Man_ (New York, 1941), p. 57. [57] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 122. [58] Caroline Cowles Richards, _Village Life in America_ (New York, 1913), p. 49. [59] 1858, Blackwell Papers, Edna M. Stantial Collection. [60] Harper, _Anthony_, I, p. 133.