The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 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 2 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
July 5, drove to Mrs. Mellen's to a 10 o'clock breakfast, and
worked on Rachel's report of my Prince's Hall speech--you'll find
it in full in the Englishwoman's Review. In the evening Mrs.
Thomasson gave a splendid dinner-party, and afterwards took us all
in carriages to the St. James' Hall suffrage demonstration, where
there was a fine audience of about 2,000.... Next morning I went to
a meeting of the suffrage friends from various towns who had come
up for the demonstration. At 8 P. M. Mrs. McLaren took me to the
House of Commons, to witness Mr. Hugh Mason present the Women's
Suffrage Bill; so I heard all the speeches pro and con, up to 1:30
A. M., and how tired I was! Mr. Jacob Bright's was the strongest
and most earnest.
The morning of July 7, at the suffrage rooms, I heard strong
protests against the way Mr. Mason disclaimed all intention of
enfranchising married women. He carried the matter too far even for
the most timid. In the afternoon, we went to the Somerville Club,
and Rachel spoke beautifully on the need of union and co-operation
among women. I followed her, and Mrs. McLaren moved a vote of
thanks.... Rachel left for Antwerp this evening, to meet her mother
and sister, and I returned to my room, lonesome enough. Sunday I
lunched with Mrs. Lucas and Mrs. McLaren. I had calls from three
factory-women, who told a sad story of the impossibility of getting
even a dollar ahead by the most frugal and temperate habits.
Have I told you that I have a new dark garnet velvet? I wore it
with my point lace at Mrs. Mellen's reception on the Fourth, and
the India shawl I have worn today for the first time.... Tuesday I
went with Mrs. Lucas to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham to a great
national temperance demonstration. More than 50,000 people passed
the gates at a shilling apiece, and we saw a solid mass of 5,000
boys and girls from all parts of the kingdom seated in a huge
amphitheater, singing temperance songs--a beautiful sight. Then in
another part of the palace was an audience of 2,000 listening to
speeches. Among the speakers was Canon Wilberforce, a grandson of
the great Abolitionist but a degenerate one. He said the reason the
temperance movement was now progressing so rapidly was because the
persons who led it were praying people, and that the Lord had
willed it, and all depended on whether it was kept in the Lord's
hands--if not, then it would fall back like the old Washingtonian
movement in America. Mrs. Lucas was very wroth, and so was I. He
never spoke of woman except as "maiden aunt" or "old grandmother,"
and advised the boys to take a little wine for the stomach's sake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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