The interest did not diminish during the eight evening sessions. In his invocation Monday night the Rev. Wallace T. Palmer said: "O Lord, we account it a high honor and privilege to take part in this grand work.... May those who are to speak tonight speak for Thy glory and honor."[26] Dr. Shaw presided Monday and thus introduced the first speaker: "Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago is an attorney and the wife of an attorney. The sign on the door is 'McCulloch and McCulloch.' My interest in the firm dates from the time when I performed the ceremony that united them for life." Mrs. McCulloch began her address on Woman's Privileges by saying: "One of the principal reasons why women do not obtain the ballot is because there is rooted in the popular mind the notion that now the laws in all respects are so favorable to women and grant them such great privileges that they would gain nothing more by a vote but instead might lose these privileges. A careful investigation of laws relating to women's property, earnings, rights of action, eligibility to paying positions, selection of family home, guardianship of children and many others where women's interests are involved shows that these so-called privileges usually give women less than men enjoy in the same States and that the vote in their own hands is the only assurance of equal privilege." After referring to the laws in other States Mrs. McCulloch made a thorough analysis of those relating to women in Louisiana, showing them to be archaic and unjust and wholly without special privileges.