Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/71

 this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender appreciation: 'The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they applauding for? She credits all attentions to herself as for the cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed, the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well enough to be sure this is what she would like best."

Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the champion money raiser, then made the appeal to the audience, who quickly responded with over $5,000 and she received an appreciative vote of thanks from the convention. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts of the preceding year as $13,581, with a carefully itemized and audited statement.

Among the most interesting and valuable features of all national conventions are the reports of the work in the various States and yet because of the large number it is impossible to give specific mention or quotations. They were varied on this occasion by the reports from foreign countries—Venezuela, Chili, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and France. These had been obtained at the request of Mrs. Catt from ambassadors, consuls or persons appointed by them and represented months of labor. Several evenings were largely devoted to addresses by delegates from other countries; one by Public School Inspector James L. Hughes, Toronto; the English Woman in Politics, Florence Fenwick Miller; the Australian Woman in Politics, Vida Goldstein; Women in South American Republics, Carolina Huidobro; Women in Porto Rico, Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau; Women in the Philippines, Harriet Potter Nourse; Deborah, Emmy Evald, Sweden; Women in Egypt and Jerusalem, Lydia von Finkelstein Mountford; Women in Turkey,