“WANDER-YEARS”
_Michael Anagnos, His Romantic Yet Practical Career.—Death of My
Husband.—Return to New York.—My Daughter’s Exhibitions.—High Bridge,
a Quaint Old Jersey Town.—Leader Twelfth Assembly District of
Manhattan.—Suffrage-worker at Newport, Rhode Island.—The Delights of
Canvassing and Out-of-door Speaking._
ONE morning in the summer of 1906 I took up the newspaper and saw that
my brother-in-law, Michael Anagnos, had died in Rumania, after a brief
illness.
The news was sad indeed for us; we were attached to him not only for his
own sake, but for that of our sister Julia and of our father as well.
With his death the close connection which had existed between the Howe
family and the Institution for the Blind during nearly three-quarters of
a century came to an end. It was the beginning of a new era! The removal
of the Institution to Watertown, which shortly followed, emphasized the
loss.
South Boston had now become so closely built as to make this change
desirable. But my heart felt a dreadful pang at the abandonment of the
beloved old Institution, dear to us from a thousand associations—the
house where I was born!
The early story of Michael Anagnos was a romantic one. There was the
unkind stepmother of tradition and the devoted great-grandmother who
brought him up. When, in hunting for birds’ eggs, his thumb was bitten
by the serpent already in the nest, this valiant soul bound the wounded
member tightly with her gold chain, then sucked the poison from it. If
he indulged in some boyish mischief, she would shake her head and say,
“Aha! I told the ‘Papa’ he did not duck your head under thoroughly when
he baptized you!” (In the Greek Orthodox Church baptism is by
immersion.)
Like David of old, little Michael tended his father’s flocks, but the
passion of the boy, true to the instincts of his race, was for
education. He studied by the light of a pine torch, and copied out the
school-books he could not afford to buy. By dint of extreme frugality he
was able to complete his studies at the University of Athens.
For a time he was engaged in newspaper work and interested in politics.
Then he met my father and became his assistant in ministering to the
suffering Cretan exiles in Athens.
The story goes on like a true romance. Young Anagnos, accompanying
Doctor Howe to America, struggled valiantly with the difficulties
attending transplantation to a foreign soil, but finally overcame them
all.
“You say you have only five vowels in English. You really have
twenty-six,” he would plaintively remark.
How his faithfulness and tireless industry won one step after another,
how he married sister Julia and succeeded my father as director of the
Institution, has been already told.
It was indeed a triumph for a foreigner to win the appointment to such a
responsible position in the conservative town of Boston.
He abundantly justified the trust reposed in him, devoting his whole
soul and his considerable talents to the task. His signal success, like
that of his predecessor, has become a part of the proud record of the
state of Massachusetts.
The two men were very unlike. Doctor Howe was essentially a leader,
original in thought, quick and daring in action, yet possessing great
patience.
The work of the pioneer was eminently congenial to him. He laid the
foundations of the education for the blind in this country on such broad
lines, he so thoroughly thought out and left on record the principles
governing it, that his reports are considered educational classics.
Hence his successor took up a work already well established. The task of
Anagnos was to administer and to enlarge. For this he was admirably
fitted. He greatly augmented the work of the printing in embossed
letters, by raising a Howe Memorial Fund, largely increasing, also, the
financial assets of the Institution.
His most striking achievement was the foundation and maintenance of a
kindergarten for the blind, the first of its kind in the world. Both he
and sister Julia were extremely fond of children. She had been greatly
interested in the enterprise, but died while it was still in its
infancy. Her last words were, “Take care of the little blind children.”
Anagnos made very full reports of the work under his charge. After the
death of my sister it fell to my lot to go through these in order to
make sure that the English idioms, so difficult for a foreigner to
catch, were all correct. Thus for some twenty years it was my annual
task to criticize “Michael’s” reports.
The great, square, brown paper envelopes in which these were contained,
directed in my brother-in-law’s beautiful copper-plate hand, were
sometimes greeted with groans on their arrival. For they were due at a
season of the year when I was very busy.
Yet the work was very helpful to me, because it called for careful
consideration of the reasons for or against certain forms of speech.
With the prepositions we had special difficulty. Anagnos, too, as a true
Oriental, possessed a very flowery style which it was necessary to prune
and restrain in order to adapt it to our cold New England climate. At
first he would pile metaphor upon metaphor and add simile to simile
until his sober Puritan sister-in-law stood aghast. We had special
difficulties with the obituaries of deceased benefactors of the
Institution, whose virtues his gratitude painted in the most glowing
colors. To have excellent but matter-of-fact Boston citizens compared to
spreading oak-trees of benevolence seemed to me a trifle incongruous. I
also demurred to “the Ark of the Institution keeping step in the march
of progress.”
Looking back on the matter now, I am inclined to think my brother-in-law
knew human nature better than I did. My work in cutting down the
adjectives of encomium was perhaps supererogatory.
Anagnos found it on the whole very satisfactory. My use of English was
the best in the family, he averred—but then he was a foreigner!
To his countrymen he was always ready to lend a helping hand. On the
wall of his sitting-room hung an immense piece of canvas showing a
ruined Greek temple, done in cross-stitch—“All there is to show, my
dear, for two thousand dollars!”
He had lent this sum to a compatriot desiring to engage in the
confectionery business. It is not probable that he often lost money in
this way, for the Greeks are a thrifty race.
He was deeply interested in the war between Turkey and Greece. I could
appreciate the eloquence of his address to his fellow-countrymen, even
though no word was intelligible to me. When he seized their national
flag and waved it they burst into applause.
It was wonderful to hear the ancient language spoken as a living tongue.
One could fancy how it must have sounded from the lips of Demosthenes.
When Anagnos at his desk added up a column of figures he would
occasionally murmur their Greek names. Thus the shades of the old
classic world seemed to brood above the prosaic office-table of our day!
A great meeting in Music Hall, held in honor of his memory, testified to
the affection and respect in which he was held. Here, also, the Old and
New Worlds mingled, a priest of the Greek Church, robed in mourning,
taking part in the ceremonies; at a memorial function held by his
fellow-countrymen funeral sweetmeats were given to those present.
Having devoted his life to the service of his adopted country, Anagnos
bequeathed his fortune to the cause of education in his native land. He
founded two schools for girls in Epiros, naming them for his mother.
Our trip to Europe had given my husband a much-needed rest from care,
and his health had improved correspondingly.
But from the time he was sixteen, when his brother entered the Union
army, his lifelong habit had been to take more than his share of
responsibility and, sparing those around him, to work to the limit of
his strength, often beyond it. We did induce him to relax his efforts
somewhat, but his unselfish nature and gallant spirit alike urged him to
go on with the work of his arduous profession, that of the law.
He returned from the office, one Saturday, apparently in his usual
health. But some over-exertion in working in the garden brought on an
attack which ended fatally in a few hours. Thus he died literally in
harness.
I said to myself, “I have let a most precious jewel slip through my
fingers.” How much I had been sheltered and shielded by my husband’s
devotion, what his affection had meant to me during thirty-six years of
married life, I now realized for the first time.
The suttee of the Indian widow, formerly incomprehensible, I began to
understand. Fortunately, there was much work for me to do. Our daughter
had returned from her art studies in Paris a year before, in order to
give her father, whose health we knew to be precarious, the pleasure of
her companionship.
She already had a studio in Plainfield, but New York afforded a much
better opening. The charge of the moving she assumed, since it would
have been simply impossible for me to empty the house of the
accumulations of fourteen years in the two weeks at our disposal.
She is a young woman of great resolution, and somehow we accomplished
the job. We took an apartment in Washington Square and a studio in the
old Stokes Building. The latter Caroline arranged charmingly, after the
fashion of artists. Here we received our friends. I enjoyed this glimpse
into the art world and managed to pick up a few gleanings of knowledge.
It was essential, however, that daughter’s painting should help with the
bread and butter, so “one-man shows” became a part of my education. She
had an exhibition at the rooms of the Civic League in New York, and two
in successive summers, at houses lent us for the purpose, in Newport.
Here we had more friends than in the great city, and we had the powerful
assistance of sister Maud, ever generous in helping others. Many
pictures were sold, to our joy, though I sometimes hated to part with
them. A little maternal partiality no doubt entered into this affection
for my daughter’s paintings. But they certainly had charm, especially
when a number were gathered together.
My mother was still living and the summer studio was under her
hospitable roof at “Oak Glen.” Here it was a great pleasure to see the
work grow under Caroline’s hands and to recognize the familiar and
beloved island landscape, somewhat disguised by the requirements of art.
Here, too, she painted the portrait of her grandmother, studying closely
the ever-changing face and sparing her subject as much as possible the
tedium of sittings. A studio is the most delightful place in the world
to those in sympathy with the artist. Here we have beauty, life, growth,
creation, and, where a painter is concerned, the warmth and joy of
color!
Those were happy days, yet there were moments when I remembered that
canvases and paints are dead things, compared with living human
companionship. Therefore, when my daughter became engaged to be married
to the Rev. Hugh Birckhead I knew that she had chosen wisely. Doubtless
to all mothers the marriage of an only daughter, even under the very
brightest auspices, is an occasion of mingled joy and sorrow. We rejoice
at the new happiness; we regret the ending of the old home life and
intimate companionship. In the midst of the strange confusion of
feeling, on the great day, I did not fail to observe the gallant bearing
of the groom as he came down the chancel steps to meet the bride, who
looked her very best. Yet I was very near to tears. All that saved me
from them was the comic look of a chorister marching in the wedding
procession, a stout, short man with a round face and an open mouth that
looked like the letter O. Since that time I have never _quite_ liked
Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.”
Without my daughter’s companionship life proved lonely. After a year of
it the youngest son came to his mother’s rescue, proposing that we
should keep house together, at High Bridge, New Jersey, where his work
was.
“But, my dear, are you _sure_ you want me? Would not you rather continue
bachelor housekeeping with your young friends?”
He was very sure he _did_ want Mother, evidently sharing my opinion that
family life, even of two, is better than the existence of six or eight
young men without any womankind. We took up our residence in the late
Crucible Club—so named for the connection of its inmates with the steel
industry. With a sigh of relief Jack laid aside the cares of the
establishment, which had naturally fallen upon him. (He has his father’s
talent for taking responsibilities off the shoulders of others.) He
protested that he was willing to eat _anything_ for dinner, provided he
did not have to order it!
High Bridge is a picturesque New Jersey borough, some fifty-odd miles
from New York. It is situated among the hills of the northwestern part
of the state, four hundred feet above sea-level. To those knowing only
the flatlands of eastern Jersey, this region with its rolling country
and lovely views comes as a surprise.
The town, considered from an economic standpoint, consists principally
of the Taylor-Wharton Iron and Steel Company. This patriarchal
institution was established in the eighteenth century by the Taylor
family and still continues under their jurisdiction. It has grown from a
small iron-foundry into a plant with branches in other towns employing
three thousand men in all. Its one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary
has recently been celebrated.
Every one living in the village is either connected in some way with the
steel-plant or keeps a shop to supply the wants of the workers. The
latter are of a class not commonly employed in such industries at the
present day. There are some Hungarians and other foreigners, but the
great backbone of the establishment consists of American men and women.
Many of these have their own homes in the surrounding country, coming to
work in the Ford cars which have nearly driven out the primeval High
Bridge buggy. It is a proud boast of the company that there have been
practically no strikes in its history.
In little gate-houses and other odd places one sees the figures of
quaint old men, still employed for little services instead of being
flung into the discard. The Taylor Company has proved that kindness of
heart helps rather than hinders success in business. Old retainers, here
as elsewhere, sometimes take advantage of their position, but on the
whole the system works well.
The great distance from the metropolis and the small measure of railroad
communication tend to isolate the village. If you miss a train you may
be obliged to wait four hours for the next. All these conditions tend to
produce quaint characters and a unique use of English.
In High Bridge we are very careful never to say _seen_ under any
circumstances, substituting the elegant phrase, “I have saw.” Persons of
a weakly constitution are held to lack “stamania,” while “financially”
is considered more elegant than “finally.” If we wish to postpone a
trip, we “refer” it till to-morrow.
The combinations in shopkeeping are also out of the common. To have a
barber sell oysters and ice-cream, and a clothier act as optician,
surprises the city resident. High Bridge has an atmosphere all its own.
One becomes readily attached to the quaint little town.
My son’s business calling him to New York, we spent some winters there,
settling this time in Stuyvesant Square near old St. George’s Church.
I was soon drawn into the maelstrom of the old, beloved work. The
Twelfth Assembly District, familiarly known as “Charlie Murphy’s,” was
clamoring for a leader of the Woman Suffrage party. Mrs. Frederick
Gillette, who had conducted its affairs with great ability and signal
devotion, absolutely refused to take office again, as her health would
not permit it. Her predecessor, the first leader, a lovely woman
idolized by her fellow-suffragists, had died in harness! I was on the
wrong side of sixty and had been advised by the doctor to take life
quietly.
Putting aside all misgivings as to possible fatal results, I accepted
the office. A new rôle was now before me, for modern suffrage activities
have opened a field of effort very different from that of our earlier
experience in New Jersey.
Instead of expecting the people to come to us, we now went to
them—opening “suffrage shops,” as the temporary headquarters are called;
speaking at street corners; visiting our neighbors in their own homes;
last but not least, watching at the polls, both inside and out. The
canvassing was the most interesting of all, when we had once gathered
the courage to do it ourselves. It was by no means so difficult as we
had feared.
We had full directions from the finely organized parent association, the
Woman Suffrage party, and the neighboring twenty-fifth district launched
us on our task. Then we used our own mother wits. Team-work and a
supplementary supper were found to be essential to the task. This was
not only on account of the good-fellowship and the good cheer involved,
but also because we ourselves had omitted our own evening meal in order
to catch the voters while partaking of theirs!
The good nature and patience of the men, thus interrupted, was pleasant
to see. We announced ourselves as representatives of the Woman Suffrage
party. A quiet and assured manner, with the absence of all airs and
graces, gained us ready admittance. The men fully understanding that we
came to talk with them as one fellow-citizen with another, received us
in a frank and friendly spirit. It is wonderful to see how well we all
get on together in these United States, when we meet on this common
ground!
Our visits were usually brief. We did not stop to argue long, leaving
behind us literature and postal cards where the voters were absent. The
replies sent on these were, with one or two exceptions, brief and
formal. One man of an illogical turn of mind wrote that we were a lot of
old maids and should stay at home to mend our husbands’ stockings!
The climbing the stairs of many tenement-houses (voters seemed always to
live on the top floor), with halls half-lighted in the early summer
evenings, was rather fatiguing. There was, too, quite a little dirt and
occasional evil smells. But the work was extremely interesting. We set
out to educate the voters, and in the process educated ourselves,
learning a great deal about human nature in general and our neighbors of
the district in particular. The dwellings, poor as they were, were much
better than I had anticipated—probably “voters” do not live in the worst
class of tenement-houses, leaving these to aliens. We went, however, to
localities where, politicians told us afterward, they were afraid to go
themselves.
We were almost always received with courtesy and listened to with
respect. We had some amusing experiences. One friend, a middle-aged man
slightly the worse for drink, tried to explain to us the residence of
his sons, the family arrangements being rather complicated. Every now
and then he would turn to his good wife and ask _her_ to explain. She
stood there, quiet and dignified, yet evidently mortified at her
husband’s condition!
Some ladies living in our own apartment-house were amused by our visit.
We could hear them afterward describing over the telephone, amid peals
of laughter, the call of the suffragettes!
The working-people, both men and women, understood the matter. Those
whose wives and daughters are as much in the struggle for life as
themselves do not take the “pedestal” view of the sex. The fathers,
especially, were quick to see the benefit the possession of a vote would
bring their girls.
One of my pleasantest visits was to a young Hebrew physician and her
family. They were of the intellectual type of their race, while Doctor
—— herself was of noble spirit.
When we remember how the glad tidings of the Christian religion were
first spread by sermons in the open air, when we call to mind Peter the
Hermit and John Wesley, we see that the soap-box is only a modern
representative of a very ancient institution.
“Soap-box” is only a generic name nowadays. During our 1915 campaign in
New York City, we used automobiles, or, failing these, borrowed a chair
from a neighboring shop.
Perched on this, with our banner of the Twelfth Assembly District waving
near by, and with one or two members on hand to distribute literature,
collect signatures, and pass the hat, we addressed the public.
Permission was obtained beforehand from the police, and an officer was
sent to look out for us in case of possible trouble.
Valiant little Corporal Klatschkin did receive a douche of cold water
from a neighboring window, but the rest of us had no trouble. The fact
of her Hebrew blood, and some incautious criticisms, were responsible
for the amenities extended to her.
The literally pressing interest of the children on the East Side was
flattering, but inconvenient. They would pack themselves so closely
around the speaker, many of them little tots who could hardly understand
anything of the address, that we were often obliged to ask for more
room. But we, the suffragists, were the show of the hour, and those
babies were determined to lose no moment of it. Indeed, they were
sometimes extended in such a wide circle around us as to place the
grown-ups at an inconvenient distance for our voices to reach. From
Tompkins Square the boys escorted us and our banner in such a solid
phalanx, one evening, as to make it difficult to get on the trolley. We
were sometimes applauded, the majority of the crowd being “with us.” The
obligations of hospitality were not so personal as during our
domiciliary visits, but we were well received. In the foreign
neighborhoods where we spoke our audiences were especially quiet, though
it is doubtful whether they understood much of the speeches.
In the course of our campaign work people related their woes to us or
asked us to help them get a job. We were recognized as friends of the
people. One man had much to say about the iniquity of the women who
watched the street workers and reported absences, thereby causing a
person to lose his job, “when very likely he was somewhere else.” I
thought it probable that he was.
We spoke indoors as well as out, notably at the Memorial Building of St.
George’s Episcopal Church, where we held a debate with the “antis.” Even
the Tammany chieftains consented to listen to us in the room of the
Anawanda Club. Here we were so fortunate as to secure the help of Mrs.
Margaret Chanler Aldrich, a favorite great-niece of my mother’s. They
had worked together in the Association for the Advancement of Women.
Mrs. Aldrich, the treasurer of the New York City Woman Suffrage party,
is an ardent suffragist. She is also strong in the Democratic faith, as
becomes the daughter of Mr. Winthrop Chanler. She produced an excellent
effect by reminding her hearers that her father had represented this
very district in Congress! I prudently refrained from mentioning my own
political faith.
To hunt the elusive politician to his lair, ascertain his views, and, if
possible, enlist him to our side, was a part of our duties. It was so
difficult to do this that we sometimes interviewed him over the
telephone. Wherever possible, we arrived as a delegation at his office.
The appointment once made, we found it well to have plenty of time at
our disposal, for the politician may desire to do the talking himself.
Then you listen patiently while he tells you his views, or what he wants
you to think are his views. I, a black Republican born and bred, have
harkened, with outward resignation, to a panegyric on the benevolence of
Tammany Hall. One man talked to us for half an hour or more, explaining
his chivalrous feelings toward women. Incidentally he told us of one of
our sex who received a salary of three thousand dollars. Whenever he saw
her he thought of some man who might have had the job. The chivalry of
this point of view was not clear to us.
Our reception was always courteous, sometimes encouraging and sometimes
not. We were glad to know the real opinions of the men, even if these
were unfavorable. The ignorance in high places about woman suffrage is
surprising. People will talk to you about the dangers of the ignorant
vote, and in the same breath will make statements showing great
ignorance not only of what the ballot in the hands of women has
accomplished, but of human nature itself. I suspect this ignorance among
politicians is wilful.
Our activities increased as November drew nearer, coming to a climax on
Election Day. The Legislature had granted us permission to have a
watcher at each polling-place then and on the preceding registration
days. The same leave was given to the “antis,” at their request, but
they failed to attend. If they had not demanded the place, we should
perhaps have been allowed to fill it. To be the only woman at a
polling-booth was a little trying. But we knew that we were fulfilling
our duty as citizens, and we felt great confidence in American men.
Since the law had given us a right to be at the polls, we were sure we
should be protected.
It was part of my duty as leader to make the round of the election
precincts. The streets grew very dark and lonely before we reached the
outermost edge of the “gas-house” district on our tour of inspection.
Evidently this locality, with rare altruism, gives all its light to
others and keeps none for itself!
Driving through the deserted streets, we remembered grim stories of this
part of the city and rejoiced in the protection of the taxicab. The
bright colors of our national flag cheerfully illuminated the window of
the polling-place, reminding us of our citizenship in the greatest
country of the world!
With a bearing intended to show great confidence I passed through the
little knot of men gathered at the door and entered the barber’s shop.
Was not one of my lambs clothed with due authority from the Empire State
there as watcher? It was “up to the leader” to see that all was going
well with her. At the end of the long table farthest from the door sat
Mrs. V——. (To prevent hysterics on the part of the “antis” it should be
said that she was a grandmother and that the duties of her home were
attended to by her grown daughter.)
“Everything going all right?”
“Yes, indeed. I’ve been treated with every courtesy. Let me introduce
you to the chairman of the board, Mr. ——.”
I looked about for the filthy pool of politics, but could not discover
any. Several men were busily writing in enormous books, in regular
_Alice in Wonderland style_. A policeman clothed with all the majesty of
the law sat at the other end of the long table. Several candidates for
registration stood in line, awaiting their turn, while the man at the
head of it struggled through the third degree. The floating population
of New York sometimes finds difficulty in recalling where it lived and
voted from a year ago!
Everything in and about the place was as quiet and orderly as possible.
Gentlemen seemed to find it more convenient to smoke outside! Yet our
women have made no objection to tobacco.
At another election district I found that the watcher in charge was on
such good terms with her election board that they had regaled her with
the strains of the victrola and a cup of tea!
On the great day itself we were “on the job” before the opening of the
polls at six o’clock. I started on my round of the twenty-one districts
in the cold dusk of the winter morning, finding all the watchers in
their places. We visited them a second and a third time in the course of
the day. At only one polling-place had the men in charge made any
trouble for us. There they did not want the watcher to go behind the
bar, but as this was her undoubted right they eventually yielded. The
day was clear, but raw and windy. The political atmosphere was also less
balmy on this day of the struggle. The Tammany leaders were less cordial
than earlier in the campaign, and on some faces a suspicion of a frown
lurked. We were treated with all courtesy, however, and some of the
gentlemen were so gallant as to help me in and out of the automobile.
This was the first Election Day when women were given the authority to
visit the polls and watch the count in the metropolis. We had not yet
won the vote, but we were the advance-guard of victory! It was a most
interesting experience and I greatly enjoyed it. Our Twelfth Assembly
District had been thoroughly canvassed. Every registered voter had been
called upon and duplicate lists of those in our favor had been compiled.
One copy was given each watcher, that she might check off the names as
the men came into the polls. The other copy was reserved for those who
were later in the day, to “get out the vote.” It would seem that there
are always indolent or tardy freemen who have to be reminded of their
privilege of casting a ballot, before the day draws to a close.
This duty is assigned by politicians to youths, and here as elsewhere we
took advantage of their experience. Election Day being a holiday, we
found it difficult to procure boys. Some made promises—then failed to
appear. My son Henry came to the rescue with two squads of bright,
active lads, his pupils from the High School of Commerce. Armed with the
lists and led by two adult women workers, the boys started off in
excellent spirits. The neighborhoods visited were much impressed.
Beholding the boys and the decorated automobiles, they exclaimed,
“Tammany has nothing on the Woman Suffrage party.” Tammany Hall and the
home of “Charlie” Murphy are both in the Twelfth Assembly District.
Our watchers stuck faithfully to their posts until the count was
completed—their long day’s work having extended from six in the morning
till nine, ten, and eleven o’clock at night.
As they came one after another into our temporary headquarters and
announced the result, district by district, it was evident that we had
lost. But the American women had been invited to enter the sacred
precincts of the polling-place and given authority to watch the returns.
November 6, 1915, was a historic day in the Empire State, marking the
beginning of a new era.
Among the many faithful workers in the Twelfth Assembly District, one
who overcame difficulties insuperable to most women deserves special
mention. This was Mrs. Clara Deutsch. As the wife of a young physician
beginning practice and the mother of a little girl of four she had many
domestic cares. She did her own housework, helped her husband administer
anesthetics, and yet found time to do excellent service in the suffrage
cause.
“Yes, I can help on Thursday, since you need me badly. Mrs. ——, the wife
of the Methodist minister, will take care of Mary for me. She has five
children of her own and is expecting a sixth, so one more makes little
difference. _She_ is a good suffragist, too, so by keeping Mary she also
will be helping the cause that day.”
If more contributions were called for than she could well afford, Mrs.
Deutsch would say, cheerfully: “That is all right. We’ll go without
dessert for a time.” Mrs. Deutsch had been a trained nurse and thus had
learned how to do and to plan. No matter at what hour I called to see
her she always appeared at the door looking as neat as a pin. She was a
handsome young woman, tall and powerfully built; strong, yet tender to
the sick and weak. No one was more eminently fitted than she to carry
our banner in a suffrage parade.
We had college graduates and women of wealth among our members. Ours is
a truly democratic cause in which riches and social position are held to
be of secondary importance.
Four days after the election the youngest son who had been my housemate
for five years took unto himself a bride, thus giving me a third
daughter-in-law who was to become, like the others, very dear to me.
It was evidently wise to allow the young couple to start housekeeping
for themselves, hence, while they were still on their honeymoon, I set
out on a long-deferred trip to California. As I closed the door of our
house behind me, again it seemed that a new page in life had been
turned!
The visit to the Pacific coast was indeed a delightful experience. I
enjoyed every moment of the journey in both directions, and of my stay
under the hospitable roof of our dear cousins, Joseph and Louisa
Mailliard. Time fails me in which to tell of the beauties of the
International Exposition (the “P.-P. I. E.”), the marvels of the Grand
Cañon of the Colorado, or the wonderful glimpse of the Pacific shore.
The glory of that matchless surf, as the long line of distant waves
tossed their splendid crests beneath the opaline light of an afternoon
sun covered with soft gray clouds, was a thing never to be forgotten.
In 1916 I was invited to come to Newport to assist my sister, Mrs. Maud
Howe Elliott, president of the Newport County Woman Suffrage League,
during the summer. She had greatly increased its membership and
broadened its activities, but was, at the moment, heavily burdened with
other matters of importance. Hence I was appointed executive secretary
and put in charge of the work of the society.
My recent experience in New York enabled me to organize this along the
lines so admirably laid out by the Woman Suffrage party of that city.
Especial emphasis was laid on canvassing, which politicians consider of
great importance. In preaching a new cause like ours, it is
indispensable, for we are obliged not only to round up the members of a
party as the Republicans and Democrats do, but to explain its doctrines
and increase its membership.
The women at Newport were more timid about canvassing than their New
York sisters. The summer capital is a very conservative place, and the
question, “What will my friends and acquaintances say?” is more vital
than in a big city where no one knows and few care what their neighbors
do.
A corps of good workers was finally enlisted. Our canvassing luncheons
proved a decided success, especially where the hostess possessed an
attractive villa and garden. Our calls were made, for the most part, on
persons of moderate means. Few of the rich people have their permanent
residence in Newport, hence do not vote there. It is also easier to
canvass among the former, because no supercilious flunky, anxious to
guard his mistress from unwelcome visitors, comes to the door. It is
opened, instead, by the voter’s wife, with whom one can at once
establish pleasant relations, unless the baby is crying. In that case it
is kinder not to detain her.
Friends often lent us their automobiles, the distances being much
greater than in our densely inhabited district in New York. Instead of
high tenement-buildings we found two-story wooden houses where our chats
took place at the open doorway. Altogether it was pleasant work, chiefly
among women, the men being usually absent from home. We assured them
that the possession of the franchise did not necessitate deserting the
home, and explained its advantages. It is strange that, after nearly
seventy years of agitation, the question of woman suffrage should still
be considered so mysterious! We found most of our hearers open to
conviction where their opinions were not already favorable to us. Many
names were secured for our yellow (favorable) slips, and only a few for
the white (undecided); still fewer for the blue (opposed).
Our labor was repaid a hundredfold by the victory of our cause a few
months later. For our formidable list of persons favorable to suffrage
was copied on a catalogue of imposing proportions and presented to the
Rhode Island Legislature. It was one of the arguments which persuaded
them to grant the presidential franchise to the women of the state in
1917. In New York, while our stirring campaign of 1915 met temporary
defeat, it paved the way for the great victory of November, 1917, when
the women of the Empire State won full citizenship.
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