In the following letter, we see my mother making her annual pilgrimage
to the State House to attend the suffrage hearing. Neither the bitter
winter weather nor the infirmities of age could restrain her dauntless
spirit.
_March 7th, 1905._
MY DEAR DAVID,— ... Tell Flossy that I have passed the morning
at a State House hearing in behalf of a bill to have the school
committee here appointed by the Mayor, instead of being elected
by the people. I spoke against the bill, and hope you would have
done so in my place.
My husband was greatly delighted with my mother’s _Reminiscences_ and
wrote her as follows:
31 PINE STREET, NEW YORK,
_February 15th, 1901_.
DEAR MRS. HOWE,—Though I was a long time getting to it, when
once I started in to read your _Reminiscences_ I was obliged to
finish them at as nearly _one sitting_ as the exigencies of the
“wrastle for hash” would permit.
I have not been so fascinated with any book since the old days
when as a boy I used to sit up half the night to finish one of
the Waverly Novels.
I had but two regrets when late last evening I read the
beautiful lines with which the book concludes:—the first that
there was not another volume, and the second that, charming as
it all is, it is after all such an inadequate presentation of
the life which is of such inexpressible value to us all. May I
add that I hope you will take better care of it than you have
recently been taking?