Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/428

404 and flowers, but of Suffrage ammunition, speeches, resolutions, petitions, tracts, John Stuart Mill's last work, and folios of The Revolution had been slowly carried up the winding stairs of the Atlantic—the brave men and fair women, who had tripped the light fantastic toe until the midnight hours, slept heedlessly on, wholly unaware that twelve apartments were already filled with invaders of the strong-minded editors, reporters, and the Hutchinson family to the third and fourth generation.

Suffice it to say the Convention continued through two days with the usual amount of good and bad speaking and debating, strong and feeble resolutions, fair and unfair reporting—but, with all its faults, an improvement on the general run of conventions called by the stronger sex. We say this not in a spirit of boasting, but with a heart overflowing with pity for the "men of the period." The chief speakers were Paulina Wright Davis, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Theodore Tilton, Francis D. Moulton, Rev. Phebe Hanaford, Lillie Devereux Blake, Elizabeth R. Churchill, the Hon. Mr. Stillman, of Rhode Island; and the editor and proprietor of The Revolution. The occasion was enlivened with the stirring songs of the Hutchinsons, and a reading by Mrs. Sarah Fisher Ames, the distinguished artist who moulded the bust of Abraham Lincoln which now adorns the rooms of the Union League.

The audience throughout the sittings of the Convention was large, fashionable, and as enthusiastic as the state of the weather would permit. From the numbers of The Revolution and John Stuart Mill's new work sold at the door, it is evident that much interest was roused on the question. We can say truly that we never received a more quiet and respectful hearing; and, from many private conversations with ladies and gentlemen of influence, we feel assured that we have done much by our gatherings in Saratoga and Newport to awaken thought among a new class of people. The ennui and utter vacuity of a life of mere pleasure is fast urging fashionable women to something better, and, when they do awake to the magnitude and far-reaching consequences of woman's enfranchisement, they will be the most enthusiastic workers for its accomplishment.

The Fourth of July this year was celebrated for the first time by members of the Woman Suffrage Association, in a beautiful grove in Westchester County. Edwin A. Studwell of Brooklyn made all the necessary arrangements. Speeches were made by Judge E. D. Culver, Mrs. Stanton, and Miss Anthony. The Woman Suffrage meetings at the Bureau were crowded every week. October 7th there was an unusually large attendance, to discuss the coming Industrial Congress at Berlin. The following letter to the Berlin Congress was read and adopted:

To the Woman's Industrial Congress at Berlin:

At a meeting of our Executive Committee the call for your Convention was duly considered, and a committee appointed to address you a