A new and gratifying feature of this campaign was the interest taken by the women of wealth and social position in New York and Brooklyn. Heretofore it had seemed impossible to arouse any enthusiasm on the question of woman's enfranchisement among this class. Surrounded by every luxury and carefully protected from contact with the hard side of life, they felt no special concern in the conditions which made the struggle for existence so difficult among the masses of women. All of a sudden they seemed to awake to the importance of the great issue which was agitating the State. This possibly may have been because it met the approval of many of the leading men of New York, for among those who signed the petition were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick Coudert, Rev. Heber Newton, Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Potter, Rabbi Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll, William Dean Howells and others of the representative men of the city. The wives of these gentlemen opened their elegant parlors for suffrage meetings, and in a short time the following card was sent to a large number of people: A committee of ladies invite you and all the adult members of your household, to call at Sherry's on any Saturday in March and April, between 9 and 6 o'clock, to sign a petition to strike out, in our State Constitution, the word "male" as a qualification for voters. Circulars explaining the reason for this request may be obtained at the same time and place.--Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Mrs. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren Goddard, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, Miss Adele M. Fielde. Sherry, the famous restaurateur, placed one of his handsomest rooms at the disposal of the ladies and, for many weeks, one or more of them might always be found there ready to receive signatures to the petitions. The New York World expressed the situation in a strong article, saying in part: Within the month there has been a sudden and altogether unexpected outbreak of the woman suffrage movement in New York.... Some one gave a signal and from all parts of the State rose the cry for the enfranchisement of women. It is not hard to discover the original cause which set on foot the insurrection--for in a certain sense it is an insurrection. It was an appeal which appeared in the latter part of February and was signed by many eminent men and women. Here were nearly twoscore of names, as widely known and honorable as any in this State--names of people of the highest social standing, not because of extravagant display or fashionable raiment, but because of distinction in intellect, in philanthropy and in the history of the State. The reason of the coming of the petition just at this time was, of course, plain. The meeting of the Constitutional Convention would be the one chance of the woman suffragists in twenty years....