The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Those who know Miss Anthony intimately will readily testify to the
accuracy of this analysis. It seems remarkable in view of the fact that
the examiner was in utter ignorance of the subject, and that, even if
he had known her name, she had not, at the age of thirty-three,
developed the characteristics which are now so familiar to the general
public.
[Illustration:
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
AT THE AGE OF 32, FROM A DAGUERREOTYPE.]
On this trip Miss Anthony was invited to spend an evening with Mr. and
Mrs. Greeley and met for the first time Charles A. Dana, Alice and
Phoebe Gary, Elizabeth F. Ellet, with a number of other literary men
and women of New York. Mr. Greeley himself opened the door for them and
sent them hunting through the house for a place to lay their wraps.
After awhile Mrs. Greeley came down stairs with a baby in her arms. She
had put her apron over its face and would not let the visitors look at
it "because their magnetism might affect it unfavorably." During the
evening she rang a bell and a man-servant came in. After a few words
with her he retired and presently brought in a big dish of cake, one of
cheese and a pile of plates, set them on the table and went out. There
was a long pause and Mr. Greeley said, "Well, mother, shall I serve the
cake?" "Yes, if you want to." So he went over to the table, took a
piece of cake and one of cheese in his fingers, putting them on a plate
and carrying to each, until all were served. The guests nibbled at them
as best they could and after a long time the man brought in a pitcher
of lemonade and some glasses and left the room. Mr. Greeley again
asked, "Well, mother, shall I serve the lemonade?" "Yes, if you want
to," she replied, so he filled the glasses, carried to each separately,
and then gathered them up one at a time, instead of all together on a
waiter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Greeley were thoroughly cordial and
hospitable, both intellectually great, but utterly without social
graces. Yet the conversation at their receptions was so brilliant that
the most elegantly served refreshments would have been an unwelcome
interruption.
At another time, when Miss Anthony was visiting them, she asked Mrs.
Greeley if she would marry the same man again if she were single.
"Yes," said she, "if I wanted a worthy father for my children, but for
personal comfort I should prefer one who did not put his feet where I
fell over them every time I went into the room, who knew how to eat,
when to go to bed and how to wear his clothes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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