If birthright, if American democratic ideas, confer the right to vote, or if capacity alone confers it,—either way, the claim of woman is irrefragable; and all there is left, is the debate among the voters, as to whether they will, or how soon they will, yield that mere exercise of forceful authority, which is the only tenure of their superiority in politics, and in government. “WARRINGTON.”

Political agitation on the Woman Suffrage question began in Massachusetts early in 1870, and a mass convention was held in Boston to discuss the feasibility of forming a Woman Suffrage political party. Julia Ward Howe presided and Rev. Augusta Chapin offered prayer. The subject was ably discussed by Lucy Stone, Rev. J. T. Sargent, A. Bronson Alcott, H. B. Blackwell, Dr. Mercy B. Jackson, S. S. Foster, Mary A. Livermore, Rev. B. F. Bowles, F. B. 07468Sanborn, W.S. Robinson (“Warrington”), Gilbert Haven and many others.

The question of a separate nomination for State officers was carefully considered. Delegates were present from the Labor Reform and the Prohibitory party, and strong efforts were made by them to induce the Convention to nominate Wendell Phillips, who had already accepted the nomination of these two parties, as candidate for Governor. The Convention at one time seemed strongly in favor of this action, the women in particular, thinking that in Wendell Phillips, they should find a staunch and well tried leader. But wiser or more politic counsels prevailed, and it was finally concluded to postpone a separate nomination until after the Republican and Democratic conventions had been held.

A Woman Suffrage State Central Committee was formed, and began at once active political work. a memorial was prepared to present to each of the last-named conventions, and the candidates on the State ticket of the four political 07569parties of Massachusetts, were question by letter concerning their opinions on the right of the women of the State to the ballot. In answer to this letter many of the candidates for State offices of the Republican, the Prohibitory, and the Labor Reform parties responded favorably.

When the Memorial prepared by the State Central Committee was presented to the Democratic State Convention, that body, in response, passed a resolution conceding the principle of women's right to suffrage, but at the same time declared itself against its being enforced , or put into practice. To finish the brief record of the dealings of the Democratic party, with the Suffragists of the State, and the question of women's rights according to Democratic principles, it may as well be said here, that until 1882 it had never responded to the appeals of the Suffragists, nor taken action of importance, in Convention, on this question. The Democratic party has broken no promises to the women, because it has made none. Though a party of the people, as its name implies (in the dictionary), it has hitherto been 07670inconsistently against equal suffrage—or a government “by the people.”

At the Republican State Convention held October 5, 1870, the question was fairly launched into politics, by the admission (for the first time) of two women, Lucy Stone and Mary A. Livermore, as regularly accredited delegates. Both ladies were invited to speak, and Mrs. Livermore at the close of her address presented the following memorial: To the Republican Convention of the State of Massachusetts:

The undersigned, having been appointed a State Central Committee by the friends of Woman Suffrage assembled in Convention at Tremont Temple in Boston, on the 29th day of September, 1870, are instructed by and on behalf of said Convention to lay before your Honorable Body the following

“The weapons of the whole world must leave me still unstained.”— Inscribed on the Hero Roland's Helmet.

The improvement in the social or general condition of woman has been even greater than that recorded in the chapter on Legal and Legislative History. A few brief statistics will show the changes which thirty years have wrought.

Woman as Teacher. —Previous to 1840, women were employed only as teachers of summer schools, to “spell the men” during the haying season; and this only occasionally. They held no responsible position in any public school in the State. To-day from seven to eight women to one man are employed in all grades of this profession, and there are numerous instances where women are head teachers of departments, or principals of high, normal, and grammar schools.

Woman as Student and Professor. —Previous to 1825, girls could attend only the primary schools of Boston. In that year, through the influence of Rev. John Pierpont, the first high school for girls was opened in that city. There was a great outcry against this innovation; and, because of the excitement in the community on the subject, and the great number of girls who applied for admission, the scheme was abandoned.

In the town of Plymouth, where the Pilgrim fathers and mothers first landed, when the question whether girls should receive any public instruction first came up in town meeting, there was great opposition to it. One gentleman objected, saying: “I am opposed to instructing girls. If we teach them—suppose I should be writing, a woman might come in and look over my shoulder and say, ‘that word is spelled wrong,’ and I should not like that! I am entirely opposed to instructing girls.” The town, however, showed a more liberal spirit, and voted to give the girls one hour's instruction daily. This was in 1793.

In 1855, the Girls’ High and Normal School 136130was established in Boston, and without let or hindrance has since continued in successful operation. (It was started in 1853.)

In 1867, the Lowell Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (both of Boston), advertised classes free to both sexes in French, mathematics, and in other advanced studies. Since that time Chauncy Hall School and Boston University have been opened to women, with the equal privileges of male students.

In 1878, the Girls’ Latin School in Boston was founded. The establishment of this successful institution was the result of discussions on the subject of the education of girls, first brought before the public by Mrs. Emily Talbot and other ladies of Boston. High schools in almost all the towns and cities of the State have long been established, and in them the boys and girls of this good old Commonwealth are co-educated, and learn to become useful citizens—and voters.

Colleges for women have also been founded. Vassar, in Poughkeepsie, New York, (chartered in 1860), leads the list, and Wellesley and Smith 137131have long been doing good university work. Thirty years ago, there was probably no college in the country, except Oberlin, to which women students were admitted. To-day 153 collegiate institutions in different parts of the United States invite their attendance. * Even conservative Harvard begins to melt a little under this regenerating influence, and invites women students through the doors of its “annex,” to come and enjoy some of the privileges found within its sacred halls of learning. This was a late act of grace from a college whose inception was in the

* Oberlin was the first college in this country in which the co-education of the sexes was attempted. This institution was founded as a school in 1832, but soon afterwards it became an anti-slavery college, and admitted colored men and women as students. Those who did the most to place it on a secure foundation were Arthur Tappan, President Finney, Theodore D. Weld, Henry B. Stanton, and Rev. Charles Avery. In 1868, there were twenty-seven colleges in the United States, of which Oberlin was the noble pioneer. In 1881, in the discussion of General Burnside's “Educational Bill” in Congress, the fact was brought out that there are now one hundred and fifty-three colleges in the United States which admit women to their courses of study.

Among the women students who have done honor to Oberlin as Alma Mater may be mentioned the names of Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, and Sally Holly.

It might be explained here that the “Harvard Annex,” or “Private Collegiate Instruction for Women,” is not an organic part of the University itself. Under a certain arrangement, a limited number of women students are allowed a few of the privileges of the men students of the University. They are also permitted to use all the books belonging to the College library, and attend many of the College lectures. No College building is appropriated for this purpose, but recitation rooms are provided in private houses. A witty Cambridge lady called this mythical college the “Harvard Annex;” the public adopted the name, and many people suppose that there is such a hall or College building. From the last annual report of the “Private Collegiate Instruction for Women” it appears that in 1881 forty-seven women availed themselves of the privilege of attending this course of instruction.

These students go alone and unattended to the lectures and to the library of the College. A great change indeed, since the time when women first began to attend the Lowell Institute lectures. Then it was thought almost disgraceful for women to go to a public meeting without male protection, and they went with veiled faces, as if-ashamed to be seen of men. It need not be written here how large a proportion of women go to make up the lecture and concert audiences of Massachusetts to-day; nor is it unusual that, either from choice or necessity, many of them go without male escort, and no one thinks the custom strange, or worthy of remarks.

Miss Maria Mitchell was the first woman in the country to hold the position of college professor. She became Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at Vassar, in 1866. Since that time women have become members of the faculty in several of the large colleges in the country. Professor Rachel Bodley, of Philadelphia, in a recent address, stated that the demand for women professors in schools and colleges exceeded the supply; and she urged upon the young women 140134students of special sciences, to fit themselves for this position and for work in the laboratory.

Women as Physicians. —In the early days of the Commonwealth, women practiced midwifery, and were very successful. Anne Hutchinson, Mrs. Fuller and Sarah Alcock were the first women physicians in the State. Mrs. Janet Alexander, a Scotchwoman, was a well trained midwife. She live in Boston and was always recognized as a good practitioner in her line by the leading doctors in that city.

Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, invited this lady to come to this country. His biography, recently published, contains a short record of the matter in which he says: “We determined to recommend Mrs. Alexander. She was a Scotchwoman, regularly educated, and having Dr. Hamilton's diploma.” Quite a storm was raised among the younger men physicians of Boston, by this attempted innovation, because they thought Dr. Warren was trying to deprive them of all profitable practice. But Mrs. Alexander, supported by Dr. Warren, and perhaps other physicians, continued successful practice, and educated her daughter in the same profession.

Nancy Clarke Binney was the first regular woman physician in Massachusetts. *

Dr. Harriot K. Hunt practised in Boston as early as 1835. She sought admission to the Harvard Medical School, and was many times refused. She was not what is called a “regular physician.” In her day there existed no schools or colleges for the medical education of women, but she studied by herself, and acquired some knowledge of diseases peculiar to women. Her success was so great in her line of practice that she proved the need existing for physicians of her own sex.

Dr. Hunt's tussle with the medical faculty will long be remembered. She was the first woman in the State who dared assert her right to recognition in this profession. For this, and for her persistent efforts to secure for them a higher education, she deserves the gratitude of every woman who has since followed her footsteps into a profession over which the men had long held undisputed control.

The first female medical college in New England was organized by Dr. Samuel Gregory, of Boston. This institution was chartered in 1856, under the name of the New England Female Medical College. * In 1868, it had graduated seventy-two women physicians, among whom were Dr. Lucy E. Sewall and Dr. Helen Morton, (who afterwards went to Paris, and studied obstetrics at Madame Aillot's Hospital of Maternity,) and Dr. Mercy B. Jackson. Dr. Jackson practised in Boston, and for five years before her death, filled the chair of Professor of Diseases of Children, at Boston University School of Medicine. She was a firm Suffragist, an able woman, and a good physician. She died December 18, 1877.

In 1859, the New England Female Medical College invited Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska to the chair of Obstetrics, and at her suggestion, a hospital, or clinical department was added, in which students might receive practical education. Dr. Zakrzewska is a German by birth, and studied in 143137the hospital Charité of Berlin. She came to America with a Prussian diploma of midwifery, but desiring further knowledge, went as student to the Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio and graduated with a full diploma as Doctor of Medicine. She then went to New York, where, in conjunction with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell she established the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women.

After three years service in the New England Female Medical College, Dr. Zakrzewska resigned her position, and in co-operation with Miss Lucy Goddard and Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, established the New England Hospital for Women and Children. This institution was incorporated in 1868. Its avowed objects were: 1. To provide for women, medical aid of competent physicians of their own sex. 2. To assist educated women in the practical study of medicine. 3. To train nurses for the care of the sick.

The hospital opened in a dwelling house on Pleasant street, in Boston. It now occupies spacious buildings on Codman Avenue, Boston Highlands. The Maternity house is entirely separate from the main body of the hospital. Its fifteen 144138free beds have proved a beneficent charity to the poorer class of women. The sick and suffering are admitted to the privilege of the institution without distinction of color or nationality. Even error does not shut the poor woman from the comforts of the Maternity house. Its charity work, done through the free dispensary in Warrenton street, is also very great.

Its educational work is constantly on the increase. Six students are usually resident at the hospital, and several young women are kept in training as nurses for the sick.

In 1876, the New England Hospital had numbered among its students sixty-four women who were afterwards practising physicians. The Massachusetts names are Lucky E. Sewall, Helen Morton, C. Augusta Pope, Emily F. Pope, Emma L. Call, Adelaide A. Richardson, Julia Marchant, Seraph Frissel and Susan Dimock. From 1872 to 1875, the lamented Susan Dimock was resident physician at this “dear hospital,” as she had called it in a written prayer found among her paper after her untimely. *

Massachusetts has many other successful women physicians besides those who have been Internes at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, who have been educated in the medical schools in other states or countries. Among these may be mentioned Dr. Lucy M. Hall, resident physician at the Women's Prison at Sherborn—the only woman physician whose name is found in the New England Medical Register for 1881.

Boston University is open to both sexes, with equal studies, duties and privileges. This institution was incorporated in 1869, and includes among other schools and colleges, a School of Theology, a School of Law and a School of Medicine. William F. Warren, LL. D., is President of the University, and the corporation is made up of many distinguished men and women. Boston University School of Medicine (Homœopathic), was organized in 1873, I. Tisdale Talbot, M. D., Dean. Of the thirty-two lecturers and professors who constitute the Faculty, five are women. These are Mary J. Safford, M. D., Professor of Gynæcology; Caroline E. Hastings, M. D., Professor 146140of Anatomy; Annie E. Fisher, M. D., and Martha J. Flanders, M. D., Lecturers on Diseases of Children; Adeline B. Church, M. D., Assistant Demonstrator in Clinical Medicine.

Since 1874, seventy-four women have graduated from this School, and of these, forty-two are now practising in Massachusetts. A fair average have attained to quite as extensive a practice as male physicians aspire to, and have also made for themselves a good reputation. It is the verdict of Dr. Talbot, that, as a rule, the women have fully equaled the men graduates in thoroughness of medical attainments. Besides those mentioned as belonging to the Faculty of Boston University School of Medicine, the following are among the best known names of women Homœopathic physicians now practising in Massachusetts: Arvilla B. Haynes, Laura M. Foster, Emily Metcalf, Mary A. Payne, Harriet H. Hodges, and Harriet J. Clisby.

Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Homœopathic College occupy extensive and elegant buildings on East Concord street, opposite the City Hospital. The School 147141building contains three ample lecture rooms, including an amphitheatre capable of seating three hundred students; laboratories, a dissecting-room, museum, and an extensive medical library. The hospital contains forty beds devoted principally to acute diseases. During 1880, a large number of cases have been witnessed by the students, both men and women, and these and other hospital facilities have greatly increased the means of practical instruction. Of women in the dissecting-room it may be said, that they are quite as cool-headed and firm of nerve as are the men students. A Homœopathic Medical Dispensary has been established in connection with the Hospital, which has three separate branches in different parts of Boston. These are accessible to students, and from among the large number of patients who daily resort to them, there is excellent opportunity for the practical study of acute and chronic diseases. The medical colleges for men in many parts of the United States have long since been opened to women students, but “Fair Harvard,” whose advantages in this direction are the greatest and most to be desired of 148142any college in the country, has, up to this time, refused to admit women into its Medical School. The women students who still continue to apply to it for a medical education, have so far, been no more successful than was Harriot K. Hunt, who nearly forty years ago (in 1847), knocked at its unyielding doors.

The Massachusetts Medical Society does not admit women doctors to membership, though the regular practitioners are generally willing to consult with them. They also seem ready enough to take advantage of their experience, and of the woman's insight into the diagnosis of special and peculiar cases. But so far as recognition by their brethren goes, the women physicians of the regular school in Massachusetts are no better off than they were in the beginning. The need of women in this profession had so long been felt by the community at large, that, whether regular or irregular , they have slowly and surely, and in spite of the doctors, made headway in the profession. Where ten years ago, there was one woman physician, there are now scores, practising successfully in the different towns and cities in 149 150 144 chaplain of the Maine House of Representative Rev. Miss Brown was a noted speaker and worker during the late war of the Rebellion, and also during the Kansas struggle in 1867.

The Harvard Divinity School at Cambridge sometimes admits women students; but does not recognize them publicly or grant them degrees. There are, however, other theological schools in the State where a complete preparation for the ministerial profession can be obtained. There are now a score or two of women preachers in Massachusetts, and whether ordained after the manner of men preachers or not, they preach the word of God in sincerity and to good acceptance. The women ministers in the State who bear the title of Reverend are Ellen G. Gustin, Mary H. Graves, Ada C. Bowles, Clara M. Bisbee, and perhaps others. The census of 1880 reports thirty-two women as clergymen and church officers.

The attitude of the Church towards the woman question has greatly changed within thirty years. There is now hardly any denomination, except the Catholic and the Episcopalian, which requires 151145women to “keep silent in the churches,” or refuses to let them take part in the deliberations of church or parish meetings. As early as 1869, women began to serve on committees, and to be ordained deaconesses of churches; and thus they resumed the office first granted to them by the primitive apostolic church.

Women also hold important offices connected with the different church organizations. They serve on the boards of state and national religious associations, and on boards of directors of church institutions. There are also missionary associations, both home and foreign, centenaries, Christian unions, and auxiliary associations, all officered and managed entirely by women. Even the treasurers of these large bodies are women, and their husbands or trustees are no longer required to give bonds for them. *

In 1880, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association sent a memorial to the Monday 152146meetings of the Methodist, the Baptist, and the Unitarian ministers of Boston, in which they asked each one present to bring the question of suffrage for women in some way before his own congregation. No answer was received from the Baptist or the Unitarian ministers; but the Methodist ministers took the memorial up for discussion, Dr. Warren, president of Boston University, Rev. Dr. Cummings, and Rev. J. W. Bashford taking the affirmative. They reported the result substantially as follows: “We have carefully considered the subject, and we accord hearty and entire sympathy and co-operation favorable to the elevation of woman. ... For in Christ Jesus ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female.’ They are all parts of one body. The place of woman in the church is every day becoming more important and conspicuous. ... To the women of the Suffrage Association we extend our sincere and cordial congratulations, and shall be pleased to afford them such aid in their good work as we may from time to time be able.” At the late 153147general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the word “male” was stricken from the discipline, and the word “person” inserted in its place, in all cases save those that concerned the ordained clergy. Though there is this little “hitch” about ordaining women preachers, this denomination has indeed taken a long step in advance of its position in 1868, when Gilbert Haven entered the “procession.” About that time, at a Monday meeting of Methodist ministers he made a speech in which he warned his brethren that, whether they wanted it or not, woman suffrage was sure to come “as soon as a few more of you old fogies are out of the way.” *

Woman as Lawyer.— It is a notable fact, that in Massachusetts the “woman intruding element” has but just entered the so-called learned profession of the law. The State has had no Belva A. Lockwood, J. Ellen Foster, nor Myra Bradwell to plead for the legal rights of women before the Supreme Judicial Court. Before 1541481881 but one woman had ventured within the intricacies of the courts of law. This was Mary E. Stevens, the daughter and co-partner of Edward S. Stevens, conveyancer. Miss Stevens may have done a little outside law business, but she was not a member of the Bar, and therefore not a “regular” lawyer.

In Nebraska, Iowa, California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, and in the District of Columbia, women have been admitted to practice in the United States Courts, as well as in the courts of their respective states. Belva A. Lockwood and J. Ellen Foster are both admirable forensic lawyers.

It need hardly be said, that the law School at Harvard is not open to women. Boston University, however, has long ago offered the advantages of its Law School to women students on the same terms on which men students are admitted. Women do not seem to avail themselves to any extent of this chance to study law. In its catalogue and circular for 1880-81 only one, Lelia Josephine Robinson, is found among its long 155149lists of students. One other lady has been a member of Boston University School of Law. She, however, remained but a short time. Another has just entered the course for 1882-85.

Lelia J. Robinson graduated in the summer of 1881, and is the first woman lawyer who has ever graduated in Massachusetts. In March , 1881, she made her application for admission to the Bar, and Chief Justice Gray, desiring to hear an argument supporting her claims as a citizen, a hearing before the Court took place, April 23. She prepared, unaided, the brief from which Hon. Charles R. Train, her counsel, argued her case. In presenting her claim, Mr. Train admitted that it was a novel one: but in a very effective manner, he went on to state the cogent reasons why a woman who had carefully prepared herself for the profession of the Law, should be permitted to practice in the courts, At the close, Chief Justice Gray gave the opinion informally, that the laws, as they now exist, preclude woman from being attorney at law; but he reserved the matter for the consideration of the full bench. The Supreme Judicial Court rendered an adverse 156150decision. Petitions were then sent to the Legislature of 1881-82, and that body following, in substance, the precedent so wisely established in the two instances previously mentioned, passed an act declaring that, “The provisions of law relating to the qualification and admission to practice of attorneys-at-law shall apply to women.”

This act is almost as brief as a certain clause in one of the election laws of the state of Texas, which says, “The masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter.”

Boston University School of Law is the only law school in New England, or this side of Washington, D.C., that is open to both sexes. Many of the Western universities, however, admit women students to their schools of law. According to the census of 1880, there are in Massachusetts four women lawyers. It is to be hoped that these pioneers in the profession will prove to the sceptical world with what aptitude the female mind can deal with the “nice sharp quillets of the law.”

Woman in Art. The three best known women sculptors in this country were born and bred in 157151Massachusetts. They are Harriet Hosmer, Margaret Foley and Anne Whitney. Harriet Hosmer was the first to free herself from the traditions of her sex and follow her profession as a sculptor. When she desired to fit herself for her vocation there was no art school east of the Mississippi River where she could study anatomy, or find suitable models. Margaret Foley, who, amid the hum of the machinery in the Lowell cotton mills, first conceived the idea of chiseling her thought on the surface of a “smooth-lipped shell,” was obliged to go to Rome in order to get the necessary instruction in cameo cutting. There her genius developed so much that she began to model in clay and soon became a successful sculptor in marble. Lucy Larcom, in her “Idyl of Work,” says of Miss Foley: “That broad-browed delicate girl will carve at Rome, Faces in marble, classic as her own.”

“That rare genius died in the Austrian Tyrol in 1877. One of her finest groups is the Fountain, first exhibited in Horticultural Hall, at the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia, 1876.

A free art school in Boston was opened to women in 1867, and Anne Whitney was not obliged to go to Rome for instruction in the appliances of her art. Harriet Hosmer and Margaret Foley have both made statues which adorn the public buildings and parks of their native country; and Anne Whitney's statue of Samuel Adams which stands in Adams Square (formerly Dock Square), in Boston, speaks for itself,and is the crowning work of her genius.

No great work has yet been done by a Massachusetts woman in oil painting, but in water colors, and in decorative art, many women have excelled, first prizes in superiority of design having been taken by them over their men competitors. Lizzie B. Humphrey, Jessie Curtis, Sarah W. Whitman and Fidelia Bridges, take high rank as designers. Helen M. Knowlton, a pupil of William M. Hunt, is a skillful artist in charcoal and has produced some fine pictures in this medium. Women form a large proportion of the students in the school design recently opened in Boston.

A great deal of the ornamental painting now so fashionable on cards and all fancy article is 159153done by the deft fingers of women, and the women artist, either amateur or artisan, is almost as common as the woman writer.

Of woman as actress and public singer, it would be unnecessary to speak, since she has the right of way in both these professions. Here, fortunately, the supply does not exceed the demand; consequently she has her full share of rights, and what is better, an equal amount of pay for her labor.

Woman of Journalist and Author. —In 1841, when Lydia Maria Child edited the Anti-Slavery Standard , Margaret Fuller the Dial , and Harriot F. Curtis and Harriet Farley the Lowell Offering , there were perhaps in New England (if in the country), no other well known women journalist or editors. Cornelia Walter of the Evening Transcript was the first woman journalist in Boston. To-day, women are editors and publishers of newspapers all over the United States; and the woman's column is a part of the make-up of many a leading newspaper. The names are almost numberless of women who furnish articles for the daily and weekly press, 160154or are on the staff as correspondents or reporters. Sallie Joy White was the first regular woman reporter in Boston. She begun on the Boston Post, a democratic newspaper, in 1870. Her first work was to report the proceedings of a woman suffrage meeting. She is now on the staff of the Boston Daily Advertiser. There are so many women who now write for the papers, one might almost say that the woman of brains who does not dabble in printer's ink is a exception.

Some of the best magazine writing of the time is done by women; one needs but to look over the table of contents of the leading periodicals to see how large a proportion of the articles are written by them. Really, the sex seems to have entered into and taken possession of what Carlyle called the “fourth estate,”—the literary profession, and they journey into unexplored regions of thought as well as into hitherto undiscovered countries to give the omnivorous modern reader something new to feed upon.

Among the Massachusetts women whose literary reputations are almost cosmopolitan, may be 161155mentioned the names of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Adeline D. T. Whitney, Caroline H. Dall, Louisa M. Alcott, Ednah D. Cheney, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Abby Morton Diaz, and Gail Hamilton.

One hundred years ago Massachusetts could boast of only two women poets; and one of them, Phillis Wheatley, was black and had been a slave. The women poets of the State have not increased in so large a ratio as have the writers of prose. In the verses of Julia Ward Howe, Helen Fiske Jackson, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Lucy Larcom, Anne Whitney, Sarah H. Palfrey and Annie T. Fields can be found the expression of the womanly element in the poetic thought of the State.

Woman as Speaker and Lecturer. —It has been mentioned what great opposition existed to women as public speakers when Abby Kelley Foster and Angelina Grimké appeared upon the anti-slavery platform. Even twenty years ago the number of women who dared to be heard before a small audience could be counted upon one's fingers. To-day, in Massachusetts alone, 162156Lucy Stone, mary Ashton, Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Ednah Dow Cheney, Harriette R. Shattuck, Mary F. Eastman, Kate Gannett Wells, Anna Garlin Spencer and a host of others are before the public, either as professional lecturers or speakers at clubs and private meeting.

Here, in particular, must be claimed the credit due the Woman's Rights movement. It cannot be denied that, but for the opportunity given them to speak upon its platform, many of the women now so celebrated as orators and lecturers would have remained mute and inglorious—,perhaps even forever unknown to an admiring public. The unpopular reform once needing so much the help of women speakers, became in time a helper to them. Upon the suffrage platform many a novice has first learned to think upon her feet, and to express her thoughts before a loving and appreciative audience; and from this humble beginning of stepping-place more than one woman lecturer in the State has mounted to a higher rostrum

Woman a Office Holder. —The number of offices to which women are eligible, in this 163157State, has been enumerated in the chapter on Legal and Legislative History. As United States official, woman has not an extensive record. In 1862, Salmon P. Chase appointed the first woman postmaster. In 1881, of the 44,140 post offices in the United States, 4,000, or about one-tenth, are managed by women postmasters. Since the passage of the Act of Congress authorizing the appointment of married women to this office, their number has rapidly increased. The Postmaster General has always been favorable to women in the Department, and has appointed quite a number to clerkships which require that the incumbent shall have a superior education, and a knowledge of foreign languages. These superior women clerks in the Post Office Department at Washington now number in all between ninety and one hundred. Of woman's capacity as postmaster the opinion of the First Assistant Postmaster General is, that they “perform their duties with credit to themselves and honor to their country.” Women postmaster are particularly popular in the small offices in the farming districts. In some rural sections the “post office” is the bureau, or a table drawer in the 164158kitchen or fore-room, and it is much more convenient for a woman to have charge of its contents because she is always “at home” and ready to receive and disburse the mail. There are several women holding appointments at the larger offices who have proved entirely competent in the discharge of the duties incumbent upon them, and (to quote again from headquarters), they “are universally honest in money matters.”

Through the efforts of the Association for the Advancement of Women, * the Census Bureau

* The Association for the Advancement of Women, a national organization, was projected in 1873 by “Sorosis,” a woman's club in New York City. Its first congress was held in that city in the Union League Theatre. Its first president was Mary Ashton Livermore, and on the executive board were the names of representative women from all parts of the United States. Since its formation it has held an annual congress in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and lastly in Massachusetts. At these meetings a great variety of ethical subjects are presented in papers or lectures written by women, and they are ready discussed by the members present.

Since 1876, “A. A. W.” has gradually drifted from the control of its founders and Massachusetts women now “turn the crank” of the machinery of the association.

Since the State has lost its former prestige of leadership in national and political affairs, it may be that the women of our ambitious Commonwealth are destined to take the lead in discussing the ethical, social, and moral questions of the day.

It may be well to add, here, that organized bodies of women have latterly been recognized, and entertained officially, in Massachusetts as well as in other states. In 1880 Mayor Prince * Mr. Carroll D. Wright's opinion of women enumerators is, that “on the whole they performed their work as well as the men.” 166160of Boston received the Association for the Advancement of Women, and, in behalf of the city of Boston invited the members of that body to take an excursion to Deer Island. Here they were shown the reform school for boys and girls, one of the City institutions, and were provided with lunch at the expense of the city. Governor Long also received this Association at the State House, and in a graceful speech welcomed the members, coming as they did from all parts of the United States, to the hospitality of the Commonwealth.

Women are members and hold high positions in many of the state and national scientific and social science associations. * They are officers as well as members of the Granges, and also of many other secret societies originally established for men alone. A National Society for Political Education, formed in 1880, invites * The American Social Science Association was formed in 1865, and women were put on its board of officers. In 1865 the Boston Social Science Association was organized, and seven women were on its list of officers. These were the first large organizations in the country to admit women on an absolute equality with men. 167161women members, and has at least one woman on its board of officers. What would have bee thought thirty years ago, if women had studied finance, political economy, banks and banking, money, currency, sociology and political science?

To show that in the march of events, the woman element is carried into all new enterprises, it will not be out of place here to make some mention of the Summer School of Philosophy at Concord, Massachusetts. This new school of Philosophy was founded in 1879. Its projectors were A. Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Professor W. T. Harris, Frank B. Sanborn, Professor Benjamin Pierce, Dr. H. K. Jones, Elizabeth P. Peabody and Ednah D. Cheney. The women lecturers, besides the two last named, have been Julia Ward Howe and Amalia Johns Hathaway.

Unlike the elder Schools of Philosophy, here the women students are in the majority, and they come from near and far, to spend a few weeks of their summer vacation in the enjoyment of this haleyon season of rest. Day after day they sit patiently on the æsthetic benches of the Hillside 168162Chapel and bask “in the calm light of mild philosophy.”

The Concord School is a school of Christian philosophy and morals, and its teachings are destined to be planted deep with roots far spreading in all the community of thought. Its seed was sown forty years ago, in what was called the Transcendental movement in New England. That could not become a permanent power, because it savored too much of Pantheism, and there was no executive force among its members. The Concord School finds in Mr. Sanborn its executive spirit, without which it could no more have come into existence at this time than its first seed could have been planted forty years ago without Mr. Emerson's and Mr. Alcott's ideal and conceptive thought.

Women in the Useful Occupations. —There has never been, from time immemorial, much difference of opinion concerning woman's right to do a good share in the drudgery of the labor of the world. But in the remunerative employments, before 1850, she was but sparsely represented. In 1840, when Harriet Martineau visited this 169163country, she found to her surprise (in a free country) that there were only seven vocations, outside the home, into which the women of the United States had entered. * In the contrast it is only necessary to mention that in Massachusetts alone, woman's ingenuity is now employed in over two hundred different branches of industry, many of which were once thought to be man's work alone. It cannot be added that for doing the same kind and amount of work women are paid men's wages.

Among the many girls woman has appropriated to herself must be included the “patent right.” The charge has often been made that women never invent anything—but statistics on the subject declare that in 1880 patents for their own inventions were issued to eighty-seven different women in the United States. ‡

According to the census of 1880, there are in Massachusetts 66,205 more women than men. In view of this fact it is fortunate that this great opening has been made, by which some at least of the “anxious and aimless” women of the State can earn honest livelihood. To show what a large proportion of these surplus citizens of the Commonwealth are doing, it may be said, that 33,678 are sewing women, 11,330 are in government and professional employments, and 26,204 are book-keepers or clerks in stores.

The reform in public sentiment which made possible woman's great advance in the various departments of life, was not brought about without vast deal of opposition on the part of certain public teachers and writers. Though the “rib” doctrine had long been ruled out of the pulpit, and the “hen” argument abandoned by 171165the newspapers, prominent men were still found who were eager to speak and write against this new development of the race,—this feminine “birth of the time.”

Dr. Bushnell's “Reform Against Nature,” the first book of note written against woman's rights; Dr. Todd's pamphlet on “Woman's Right's”; Dr. Fulton's talk, both in and out of the pulpit, served to show the weakness of that side of the question. Later, Francis Parkman, Dr. J. G. Holland, Carlos White, and even some women writers, have added their so-called arguments, in the vain attempt to keep woman as they think “God made her.” Such writings can be called nothing better than rubbish, since in them there is no logical reasoning against Woman Suffrage as a right. Indeed, to the arguments in favor of this reform, there has yet been no valid reply by anybody.

Much the stronger writers and speakers have been found on the right side of this question. The names of leading speakers have already been mentioned. Perhaps the most suggestive articles in favor were Mr. T. W. Higginson's 172166“Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet,” published in the atlantic Monthly of February, 1859, and Mr. Samuel Bowles's “The Woman Question and Sex in Politics,” published at a later date in the Springfield Republican. “Warrington,” in his letters to the same newspaper from 1868 to 1876, never failed to present a good and favorable argument on some phase of the woman question. Caroline Healey Dall's lectures before 1860, and her book “The College, the Market and the Court,” published in 1868, were seed-grain sown in the field of this reform. Samuel E. Sewall's able digest of the laws relating to the legal condition of married women, and William I. Bowditch's admirable pamphlets, have done incalculable service. *

The newspaper itself, that great engine “who has her ambassadors in every quarter of the globe, her couriers upon every road,” has slowly swung round, and is at last headed in the right direction. Quietly and surely the press has indoctrinated the people into a recognition of the importance of the Woman's Rights question. 173167Reporters for the daily press in Massachusetts no longer write in a spirit of flippancy or contempt concerning the proceedings of Woman Suffrage meetings; and where is there an editor in the State of any account who would permit a member of the staff on his newspaper to report a woman's meeting in any other spirit than that of courtesy?

Public teachers occupying high position and presidents of colleges (not Harvard) have given pronounced opinions in favor of the reform. When such leading minds as those of Dr. Storrs, President Bascom and President Hopkins, proclaim is as their opinion that the time has come for women to take part in public affairs, it shows that both college and church are no longer in opposition to the advancement of women.

Said President Hopkins of Williams College, in 1875: “I would at this point correct my teaching in The Law of Love, to the effect that home is peculiarly the sphere of woman, and civil government that of man. I now regard the home as the joint sphere of man and woman, and the sphere of civil government more of an open question between the two.”

Dr. Storrs, in 1879, in speaking of the position of women in the time to come said: “It is in the midst of this movement that we stand, have been standing in these past years, and are to stand in the years to come. It cannot be arrested. The push of centuries is behind it. The strong instincts of human society are working for it, and with it, all the time. *** No man can stop this, any more than he can set his foot against yonder tent pole, and say, ‘ I will arrest the revolution of the globe. ‘”

The New England Women's Club, parent * of the modern women's clubs, and associations for the advancement of women, has been one of the greatest factors in the woman's rights movement. Though this club is not a suffrage (any more than it is a temperance, or a literary) club, its members have, in their work and in their lives illustrated the doctrine of woman's equality with man.

The New England Women's Club was found in February, 1868. A few ladies met at the house of Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, to consider a plan for organizing a club for women. Its avowed object was “to supply the daily increasing need of a great central resting place, for the comfort and convenience of those who may wish to unite with us, and ultimately become a centre for united and organized social thought and action.”

Its first president was Caroline M. Severance. On the executive board were the names of Julia Ward Howe, Ednah D. Cheney, Lucy Goddard, Harriet M. Pitman, Jane Alexander, Abby W. May, and many others who have since become well known. This club held its first meeting in private houses, but it has for several years occupied spacious club rooms on Park streets, in Boston. Julia Ward Howe is its president. The club has its own historian, and when this official gives the result of her researches to the public, there will be seen how many projects for the elevation of women and the improvement of social life, have had their inception in the brains 176170of those who assemble in the parlors of the New England Women's Club. *

A thousand little streams have helped to swell the tide which has uplifted the sphere of woman's life. The modern novel has added its “winning wave.” Its heroine is no longer an Amanda, a Malvina, or a Melissa, whose dove-like eyes are ever pleading for male protection. She is more often a woman doctor, as in Charles Reade's novel, who saves the life of the hero, or, as in W. D. Howells’ story she is a brave New England girl, who travels from continent to continent, unprotected save by her own honor and her own pride.

The drama speaks too feebly on the right side of the woman question. No modern successful dramatist has made this “humour” of the times the subject of his play. An effort was made in 1879, by the executive committee of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, to secure 177171a woman suffrage play; but was not successful and there is yet to be written a counteractive to that popular burlesque, “The Spirit of ‘76.” It is to be regretted that the stage still continues to ridicule the woman's rights movement and its leaders; for, as Hamlet says: “The play's the thing, Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.”

In summing up this brief history of the part taken by Massachusetts in the woman's rights movement, it would be needless to add that the cause is steadily advancing. Never, in the history of civilization, has woman held the political, legal or social position that she does in Massachusetts to-day! New avenues of employment for her capacity are constantly opening, and in every department of public trust to which she has been promoted, she has shown her ability. In this first hour of woman's triumph, it only remains for her to keep what she has gained, and use faithfully the new privileges which have come into her life.

Being a woman, or because she is a woman, is no longer any reason why she cannot do the thing for 178172which she is best fitted. There should be no shrinking, from timidity or love of ease, when she is called upon to fill a public position, or to express her opinions by ballot at the polls. Home duties, ever sacred and nearest the true woman's heart, will be better and more wisely performed, if assisted by the knowledge and experience which contact with life and public affairs cannot fail to give. The fact is already patent that it is not so much “more life and fuller” that we want, for women, but that more women are needed for the wider life and the responsible positions waiting for them.

Trained leaders are needed—women strong of purpose, who are willing to confront the public as presiding officers, or as public speakers, and to guide wisely the large masses of their sex who have not yet learned to think for themselves. They have too long been led in flocks, like sheep; the time has come for better leadership.

More educated women doctors are needed; more lawyers, preachers, professors and teachers in the higher grades of schools and in laboratories. More women are called for who will be 179173willing to sacrifice their time and their domestic ease and serve without compensation on School Committee boards. It is a noted fact that, especially in the towns of the State, there cannot be found enough educated women who are willing to have their names used as candidates for this office.

More plucky women who understand the law and know how to use the newly-acquired “inalienable right of all American citizens,” are needed to go to the assessor's office, to the caucus, and to the polls. More women are needed in the “fourth estate,”—not only as novelists, story-tellers, or journalists, but also as writers on ethical, moral and social questions, as dramatists, and as the biographers of their own sex. Historians are needed, who shall give the record of nations and events from the woman's standpoint, and include in the story of a people that which is often ignored,—the part taken by their sex in the occurrences of the times. Historians also are needed who will expose to public execration the woman side in the horrors of war, and who will give to future generations a fairer estimate 180174of the character of the sex of which God has made one-half the human race, than has come down to us through the Hindoo, the Greek, the Roman, and sometimes the Christian literature.

To sum up the progress of the woman movement in all parts of the civilized world, it is well to begin with the record of its advance in our own country. Massachusetts is by no means ahead in the march of this great reform. Other states in the Union have more than kept pace with her, and many of them have made laws to improve the legal and social condition of woman. School Suffrage laws have been enacted in New Hampshire, Vermont, * Indiana, New York, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Michigan, and in Washington and Dakota Territories.

Constitutional amendments giving women the right of suffrage, have just been passed by the Legislatures of Oregon, Nebraska and Indiana. 181175These proposed amendments cannot become a part of the constitution until they are submitted to the men voters of the State for their ratification. In Nebraska the Suffragists are very active, and in order to enlighten the men who will be called upon to vote upon the matter in 1882, they have started a Western Woman's Journal, whose motto is, “An aristocracy of sex is repugnant to a republic.” * From a statement in the columns of this paper, it appears that seventy-four out of the eighty-eight established newspapers in Nebraska are in favor of the proposed amendment

In Indiana, a bill securing presidential suffrage to women came within a few votes of passing the House of Representatives. In the same progressive and wide-awake State women hold many prominent positions. Mrs. Emma A. Winsom has just been elected State librarian. In Iowa a woman has held this office since 1870. The present incumbent is Mrs. S. B. Maxwell. In other states where the suffrage question is not 182176so largely agitated, women hold State offices. In the Legislature of Nevada Miss Kittrell is copying clerk, and like a man, she took the oath of allegiance to support the constitution, and not bear arms against the State. In Tennessee, Mary Grizzard is clerk of the State House of Representatives.

Maine and Minnesota have each made efforts to amend their constitutions, so that the women can exercise the full right of suffrage. California and Pennsylvania are asking for presidential suffrage. Rhode Island and Connecticut are both working for school suffrage. Michigan and Iowa are working steadily for woman's rights as a citizen of their own go-ahead states. In the Wisconsin Legislature, a Woman Suffrage amendment to the State constitution was, by a very close vote, recently defeated. Missouri has just begun to deliberate on the Woman Suffrage question. Bright little Kansas, a State rooted in principle and always on the right side, is asking for full suffrage for its women citizens. In this State husband and wife have the same property rights, and the same rights in 183177their children. There the women teachers receive the same pay as the men for equal service. Illinois allows its women to vote in municipal elections. The women of New Jersey are struggling to regain their lost right of suffrage. A bill to prohibit the disfranchisement of the women of the state, was defeated in the New York Assembly in May, 1881, by just six votes. If this bill had passed, the women of New York would have become voters on the same terms with men at all elections.

In Wyoming Territory women have enjoyed all the political rights, privileges and responsibilities of men for the past eleven years, and they vote as regularly at the elections. The verdict of the leading newspaper in the State, on woman's voting, is this: “Not a solitary instance has ever occurred in which the exercise of their rights has been productive of any evil results. ** There can't be found a man in Wyoming to-day who is opposed to, or dissatisfied with the result of Woman Suffrage.” In Utah Territory women vote under certain conditions. In far distant Omaha, the voices of the women send this message 184178to their representatives: “Tell the members of the Legislature that we want to vote.” When the Constitution of Texas was revised, in 1876 the word “male,” either by accident or design, was left out and the women of that state have the right to vote on all questions relating to municipal or state government.

Even the American Indian, as early as 1870, began to scent the trail of the woman's rights movements, and in one tribe—the Otoe—many of the squaws refused to do all the work, declaring that they would not cook for the men unless they helped them do some of the work around the wigwams. In 1880, Bright Eyes, an Indian maiden, was sent to Washington by one of the most powerful tribes on the continent—the Poncas—to represent to the Government the rights and the wrongs of her people. Does not the world move?

The echoes of the 1850 convention, held in Massachusetts and in Ohio, travelled across the ocean, and the answer came back from England. Woman Suffrage or Woman's Rights under the law had never been heard of there until that time, 185179though the ruler of the kingdom was a woman. To-day, the suffragists of England are busy, and large meetings are frequently held in the interest of the cause. At Bristol, in 1880, over 3000 women assembled to hear arguments presented, and devise means to further the reform. A memorial was prepared which stated that there were over 500,000 rate payers in the United Kingdom, who were deprived of the power of voting in the election for Members of Parliament because they were women, and they prayed “that a measure might be introduced by her Majesty's ministers to extend parliamentary franchise to women rate payers and a land owners in boroughs and counties.”

A great Suffrage meeting was held in Birmingham in February, 1881, which was attended by over 4,000 persons. A women presided, and women speakers alone addressed the vast audience. The chief subject of discussion was the recognition by government of woman's claims to the parliamentary franchise. In England, women rate payers have the right to vote in all local elections of poor-law guardians, church-wardens, 186180overseers, auditors and other local officials. In 1881, ten women were elected poor-law guardians. Among them were the Dowager Marchioness of Lothian and Miss Florence Davenport Hill.

On the London school board, nine women serve as members and two as salaried officers; and by a vote of the Board, in 1881, women are eligible to the office of school inspector. In many parts of England, property-holding women can vote under certain restrictions. The Married Woman's Property Bill, presented to Parliament in March 1881, provides for a thorough change in the condition of the women of England as regards property rights. Under its provisions woman is treated as reasonable being, and not as an infant incapable of making a bargain, or fulfilling a contract save through her husband's sanction. When this bill becomes a law, the legal subjection of English women will be at an end, so far as money matters go.

The London Athenæum, in a recent number, stated that a memorial was being prepared by an influential committee of the non-resident members of the Senate of the Cambridge University, 187181in favor of granting the degree of A. B. to women. Among the signers were Earl Spencer, Canon Barry and J. E. Gorst, M. P. What will the American Cambridge University (known as Harvard) say, if this great conservative English College gets the start of it, and is the first to confer upon woman the degree of Bachelor of Arts?

Since the first chapters of this book went to press, the great news has come from England that Cambridge University has opened her gates, broadly, freely and without barriers of any kind, to all women who desire to become co-students with men. In March 1881, the senate of Cambridge University by a large vote (398 to 32) decided to admit women students of Girton and Newnham to be formally examined and classified among the candidates for honors. Residence is allowed to such students in two of the college buildings, or within the precincts of the University. This is a great event in the history of the struggle for equal educational privileges for women and men.

Scotland is active in the Woman Suffrage 188182movement. It has a National Society, and its annual meeting held recently at Edinburgh was presided over by Mrs. Duncan M'Laren.

In the Isle of Man a bill with certain property qualifications, giving Suffrage to women, passed the House of Keys; and January 5, 1881, Queen Victoria in council gave her royal assent, thus establishing the principle of Woman Suffrage in parliamentary government within the British Islands. The act at once came into force and was formally promulgated on Tynwald Hill, * Isle of Man. The House of Commons is more than likely to follow the good example of the House of Keys, since the Queen has declared her recognition of the rights of her women subjects. †

The echoes of the American Conventions travelled far beyond the mother country, and have since reverberated from all parts of the civilized world. In France the Suffrage Movement 189183is steadily advancing, and the cry of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” begins to have a real meaning to the women citizens of that fair country. The first International Woman's Rights Congress was held in Paris, in August, 1878, during the Great Exposition. It lasted more than two weeks, and closed with an elegant banquet, in which distinguished men and women from all parts of the world participated. There were two Presidents of the Congress: M. Henri Martin, and Julia Ward Howe,—“Meeses Ouardow,” as the French president called that lady when he introduced her to the vast audience. Delegates to this Congress were present from many different countries, and several Italian ladies took active part in the deliberations. America was represented by Julia Ward Howe, T. Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Stanton, (son of Elizabeth Cady Stanton), and perhaps others.

The subjects discussed at the different sessions were:

1st. Historical, or woman's condition as presented by history.

In the 16th century, when Francoise De Saintonges made an attempt to found schools for the girls of France, she was hooted in the streets; and her father thought she must be possessed of demons, to think of such a thing as educating women. To-day, France has established intermediate schools, and Henri Martin, the historian, is projecting a series of colleges all over the country, for the higher education of French girls.

The Sorbonne long ago opened its lecture rooms to classes composed entirely of young girls under twenty years of age. The Sorbonne, or university of Paris, is the greatest literary institution in France. As early as 1878, it conferred the degree of A. B. upon women students. A French lady, Hubertine Auclert, an advocate of woman suffrage, lately refused to pay taxes, urging that as women are not allowed to vote, it was unjust that they should be taxed. Her furniture was seized, and the majesty of the law was 191185sustained against her vain protests. Her story is admirably told in Alexander Dumas’ “Les Femmes qui Tuent, et Les Femmes qui Votent.” (The Women who Kill, and The Women who Vote.) M. Dumas strongly favors suffrage for the women of France. He says: “At first it will make a sensation, then it will become fashionable, after that a habit, then an experience, then a duty, and at last a blessing.”

In February 1881, a great Convention was held at the Sala Dante in Rome, to agitate the question of Universal Suffrage. At this convention the claims of women were earnestly presented. Two women only—Elena Burelli and Signora Anna Maria Mozzoni—had seats as delegates. After some opposition on the part of the convention, resolutions were passed asserting the right of all Italian men and women to become voters. The passage of the resolution in which women were included, was due in great part to the persistent eloquence of Signora Mozzoni.

In Sweden, the old university town of Upsala, in 1859, granted the right of Suffrage to fifty women owning real estate, and to thirty-one doing 192186business on their own account. This was secured through the influence of Frederika Bremer, who was not ashamed to shed happy tears when the news reached her. Through her influence, women students had already been admitted to the Musical Academy and the Academy of Fine Arts, at Stockholm. *

In St. Petersburg, Russia, at the first election for a municipal council, in 1881, all property-owning women were allowed to vote.

Spain, almost the last country from which one might expect to hear good news on the woman question, has just admitted women to lectures and degrees in her colleges. This was accomplished in spite of vigorous opposition on the part of members of the Superior Council of Education. Many women students won prizes and honors during 1880 in some of the Spanish universities.

Municipal suffrage is exercised by the women of Cape Colony, in Africa. New Zealand and Australia, have each made efforts to secure political rights and a higher education for women.

In India an attempt has been made to abolish the Zenana system, and in both these countries the women themselves are struggling to be released from their degrading condition of servitude. Round the world from far Bombay comes a letter, in March, 1881, in which the writers says: “Bombay allows its women to vote on the same terms with its men, in the regulation and control of its municipal affairs.” As early as 1870, said Lydia Maria Child, the suffrage movement was felt in Asia, some action being taken there to free the women from the iron rule of their Mussulman husbands. From far-away Japan, not long ago came the news that window Kusanoe Kita had refused to pay her taxes, because she considered it “an injustice to be required to pay equal taxes with other heads of families when equal rights were not granted.”

Even in the harems of Turkey the women are beginning to assemble to listen to speakers from another country, who have brought to them a doctrine not found in the religion of Mahomet,—the doctrine that they have souls, the same as their masters, and that the time has come for their deliverance from moral and intellectual slavery.

The most hopeful sign of the continued success of this great reform, is found in the fact that the women themselves, of all nations, are getting ready to work for their own emancipation from the bondage of centuries. The women are “up in America, and they are already past their first sleep in Peria.” For them the hour has indeed struck, the morning light has dawned, and they are forever awakened to freedom and to independence.

When the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, in 1833, some of the women present at the meeting made speeches, and the convention passed a vote of thanks to women for their zeal and interest in the cause. This society always encouraged women to speak against slavery, and it did not disapprove of their serving as officers of town or county societies.

In 1835, the society wished to delegate Mrs. Lydia Maria Child to visit England in the interests of the Anti-Slavery cause, and in 1837 it endeavored to secure her services as travelling lecture agent. The same year it offered the Misses Grimké a commission to enter the field as lecturers upon the evils of slavery. Previous to 1838, Abby Kelley had been speaking on the platform of women's Anti-Slavery meetings, but in that year as agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, she came before public audiences composed of both men and women.

At the sixth annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in May, 1839, an attempt was made for the first time to exclude women from active membership. 197191A motion was made by a clergyman that none but men should have their names placed upon the roll; but this motion was rejected by an overwhelming majority. The same year it chanced * that a woman was put on a committee to “examine and report” on the publication of the annual report. This caused a great commotion among the men members; but there was no open revolt until 1840, when, for the first time, a woman was elected on the business committee of the society. In consequence of this action a majority of the members withdrew and formed another anti-slavery society. This division afterwards extended through many of the State and local Anti-Slavery organizations.

The World's Anti-Slavery Convention was first projected by the English abolitionists. When the American Anti-Slavery Society was invited to send delegates, it responded by adopting the following resolutions, offered by David Lee Child; at its annual meeting held in New York, May 12th, 1840:

“Resolved: That the American Anti-Slavery Society regards with heartfelt interest the design of the ‘World's Convention’ about to assemble in London, and anticipates from its labors a powerful and blessed influence upon the condition and prospects of the victims of Slavery and prejudice, wherever they are found.

“Resolved: That our beloved friends, William Lloyd Garrison, Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, Charles Lenox Remond, and Lucretia Mott, be and they hereby are appointed delegates, to represent this Society in the said Convention, and we heartily commend them to the confidence and love of the universal abolition fraternity.

“Resolved: That the Anti-Slavery enterprise is the cause of universal humanity, and as such, legitimately calls together the world's convention, —and that this Society 198192trusts that that Convention will fully and practically recognize, in its organization and movements, the equal, brotherhood of the entire human family, without distinction of color, sex, or clime.”

The delegates from other anti-slavery societies in the United States, were George Bradburn, Wendell Phillips, Ann Greene Phillips, Henry B. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Professor William Adam, Rev. Henry Colver, Rev. Nathaniel Greene. Rev. Eben Galusha, James Mott, James G. Birney, C. Edwards Lester, Sarah Pugh, Mary Grew, Elizabeth T. Neale, (now Mrs. Sidney Howard Gay), Emily Winslow Taylor, Col. J. P. Miller, Isaac Winslow, Abby Kimber, Abby Southwick, Rev. Henry Grew, and perhaps others.

Seven of these delegates had arrived early, and on finding that the women of their number were not to be admitted to their seats in the Convention, they framed a protest against such exclusion. These were Professor William Adam, James Mott, C. E. Lester, Isaac Winslow, Wendell Phillips, Jonathan P. Miller, and George Bradburn. Mr. Garrison, in his report read at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, in January, 1841, gave a brief account of this “conference,” as he called it; for, true to his principles on the question of the equality of human rights, he would not call a meeting in which women had no recognized part, a “World's Convention.” He said:

“Though such a Convention was called, no such Convention was held. The Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society declared the meeting to be a mere ‘Conference’ with themselves, and in fact prescribed its rules and regulations, etc., etc. * * * The American, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Societies chose as their representatives, among others, certain women of great moral worth, intelligence and philanthropy; but these were 199193scornfully shut out from the Convention on account of their sex! * * * Their right was eloquently sustained by Wendell Phillips, Prof. Adam, George Bradburn, Dr. Bowring, Col. Miller, Mr. Ashurst, and others. * * *

“Messrs. Garrison, Rogers, Remond and Adam, delegates to the convention, did not arrive in season to participate in the discussion. On ascertaining, however, what that body had done, they very properly refused to become members of it, and accordingly took their seats in the gallery.”

Dr. John Bowring and William H. Ashurst were English abolitionists. Some of the English abolitionists did not take Mr. Garrison's view of the equality of human rights, and one of them gave to the world his private opinion of this “woman intruding delusion,” of which the following is an extract:

CAPTAIN CHARLES STUART'S PRIVATE CIRCULAR.

“In December, 1833, an Anti-Slavery Society was formed in the United States of North America. The demand for it was extreme, for the Slave system of the United States was the most desperately corrupt and ferocious which existed. The principles and objects of the Anti-Slavery Society thus formed were eminently excellent, and the means which it adopted for the attainment of its glorious object were perfectly in keeping, for the first four years, with its noble principles.

“But, in the course of 1837, new opinion began to be broached, and one of these gradually assumed the position that ‘whatever is morally right for a man to do, is morally right for a woman to do,’ and, therefore, women ought to be intruded as delegates, debaters and managers, into mixed societies of men and women. This insane innovation, at first, had so dubious a form, that its real character scarcely appeared; but as soon as this became evident, it was vigorously resisted. Resistance, however, only 200194aggravated the zeal of its advocates, and the new truth, as they call it, quickly assumed such importance in their eyes and was so offensively intruded by them into all the proceedings of the Society, that they who conscientiously resisted it had no alternative but to submit to it or to separate themselves. I was one of the many who preferred the latter alternative without hesitation. The separation took place early in 1840; that of the leading Society in New York in May, 1840. At the division on the question, the Innovators were found the most numerous, and of course, the original name of ‘The American Anti-Slavery Society’ remained with them. But they who rejected the innovation, having fewer votes present, took a new name,—‘The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.’

“Under these circumstances, the American—or woman-intruding —Anti-Slavery Society sends Agents to this country, Messrs Collins and Remond, to beg our money. But let us remember that, whatever countenance we give to these gentlemen, or this agency, will go more directly to strengthen a pernicious party in the United States than to aid the general cause of Abolition. The errors of the advocates of justice are often more ruinous to righteousness than all the hostility of open enemies. By such aid Britain would be identified, as far as it goes, with the rhapsodists of the United States; and the sacred and powerful influence exercised so nobly and so beneficially by the late London Convention, is decidedly and at once rejecting the woman-intruding delusion, would be paralyzed or lost,—liberty would be wounded anew by the blunders of her friends,—while they who love her more sanely, and who plead her cause unentangled with the snare, would be enfeebled by the encouragement given to the dogmatism and delusions of their adversaries.”

The “rhapsodists of the United States,” came after this 201195to be called Garrison. The issue between the Foreign and the American Anti-Slavery Society was substantially the same as that between the Garrison and the anti-Garrisonians,—it was the ‘woman-intruding element.” In the beginning it was like a cloud, no bigger than a man's hand; but it soon began to grow, and in a few years it had spread so that even the most short-sighted of weather prophets could see that a great change was about to take place in the political and social atmosphere of the time.

The Lowell Offering was first published in 1840, by Abel C. Thomas, pastor of a Universities Church in Lowell Massachusetts. In the second number of the magazine is an account of a social meeting of the young people of his parish, called the Improvement Circle. The members of this Circle, most of them operatives in the Lowell mills, were required to furnish original contributions to be read at the meetings. These were in prose and in verse, and were so well written and accumulated so fast, that Mr. Thomas, into whose hands they were entrusted, conceived the idea of publishing them. To this gentleman must be given the credit of bringing before these productions; and too much honor cannot be awarded to him for believing in the capabilities of the young people under his charge, and for utilizing the talent which he found. Mr. Thomas, who has recently died, little thought, perhaps, what would be the result of his efforts to encourage the young people of his church and community to express their thoughts on paper. But for his Improvement Circle, the Lowell Offering might never have been heard of, and 202196its writers, if this impetus had not been given to their talents, would never have thought themselves capable of any success in this direction. To improve and cultivate the mind was the great injunction urged by this good man, upon the young men and women of his time.

Mr. Thomas conducted the Offering for two years. Then he left Lowell for another parish, and it passed into the hands of Miss Harriet Farley and Miss Harriot F. Curtis, both operatives in the Lowell mills. Under their joint editorship the magazine, which never paid expenses, lasted till 1849, when it was discontinued, for want of means, and perhaps “new contributors.” The Offering was a small, thin magazine, with one column to the page. On the outside cover, in 1845, it had for a vignette a young girl, simply dressed, with feet visible and sleeves rolled up. She had a book in one hand her shawl and bonnet were thrown over her arm. She was represented as standing in a very sentimental attitude, contemplating a bee-hive on her right hand. In the background, as if to shut them from her thoughts, was a row of factories. The motto was: “The worm on the earth May look up to the star.”

This was rather an attempt motto and one not suited to the independent spirit of most of the contributors. A better one was son adopted, from Gary—the verse beginning: “Full many a gem of purest ray serene.” It finally died under the motto: “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

When Dickens visited this country, in 1842, he went into the Lowell factories, and a copy of the Offering was presented to him. He speaks of it as follows:

“They have got up among themselves a periodical, called the Lowell Offering, whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have real from 203197beginning to end. Of the merits of the Lowell Offering, as a literary production, I will only observe—putting out of sight the fact of the articles having been written by these girls after the arduous hours of the day—that it will compare advantageously with a greatly many English annuals.” Selections from the Offering were printed in England, under the auspices of Harriet Martineau, who was very much interested in the publication. The volume was called “Mind among the Spindles.”

The magazine was favorably received by the press generally. Even the North American Review, whose literary dictum was more autocratic than it is to-day, expressed a fair opinion of its literary merit. It said:—

“Many of the articles are such as to satisfy the reader at once, that if he has only taken up the Offering as a phenomenon, and not as what may bear criticism and reward perusal, he has to own his error, and dismiss his condescension as soon as may be.” This good opinion of the literary merits of the articles was, perhaps, due to the fact, that at this era of American magazine literature, what a writer had to say was of much importance to the critic than the position of the predicate in his sentences, or the peculiar style of English in which they might happen to be written. The fact was often disputed that a “factory girl” could write for or edit a magazine,—since she had hitherto been considered little better than the loom or frame she tended. Enquiries on the subject came to the editors from different parts of the country, and questions like the following were often put to them: “Do the factory girl really write the articles published in the Offering?” or, “Do you print them just as they are sent:” or “Do you revise or re-write them?” In the preface to the first volume, the editor answered these questions. He says:—” The articles are all written by factory girls, and we do not revise or re-write them. We have taken less liberty with them than editors usually take—with other than the most experienced writers.” In spite of this assertion 204198the charge continued to be made, that it could not be possible that females occupied in labor so low as factory life could be capable of such a literary undertaking. One gentleman went so far as to offer to give one of the editors (Miss Farley) twelve dollars, if she could point out to the public twelve original articles in the three last issues of the magazine. She pointed out twelve such articles in one of the numbers so designated.

As an excuse for any of the literary demerits of the magazine, the editor said to the critics,—“In estimating the talent of the writers of the Offering, the fact should be remembered that they are actively employed in the mills for more than twelve hours a day; and critics must be sensible that a day of constant manual labor though not excessive, must in some measure unfit the individual for full mental development. The productions in this volume will show how much of thought and aspiration is to be found among a class of people of whom little has been known.” William Schouler of the Lowell Journal published the Offering in 1845, and his young sub-editor William S. Robinson wrote favorable notices of the magazine, and when he could do so, without letting “the editor step aside to make way for the friend,” sometimes admitted its writers into the columns of that leading Whig newspaper. It may be added here, that this gentleman, in his zeal for the writers of the Lowell Offering went so far as to take one of the least known among them as his companion for life.

The contributions to the Offering were upon a great variety of subjects. Allegories, conversations on Physiology, Astronomy, and other scientific subjects; dissertations on poetry; the beauties of nature, flowers, etc,; didactic pieces on highly moral and “pious” subjects; translations from French and Latin; poems; stories of factory and other life; sketches of local New England history,—and sometimes the chapters of a novel, ran through its pages. The criticism was often made, that the operatives wrote too much on the “Beauties of Nature.” To this, one of 205199the contributors “Ella”(probably Harriet Farley) answered, and gave as excuse:—“We are so long and constantly shut out from the sweet voices of the natural world; yet its influences are still upon our captive souls, like the impress of an engraver upon the rocks which support a ruined fountain. The moss of years, and the lichens fed by an impure atmosphere, may veil the tracery; but it is still there, and has given its impress to the outward conformation of the over-spreading mould.” The author might have said with Emerson, if his “World-soul” had then been printed, “And be sure the all-loving Nature Will smile in a factory.”

The same author (in 1840) wrote an article on “Woman's Rights,” in which were so many familiar arguments in favor of the equality of the sexes, that it might have been the production of the pen of Lucy Stone or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but for this difference, that, though the writer felt sure of her ground, she was too timid to maintain it against the world-,—and towards the end throws out the query, “whether public life is, after all, woman's most appropriate and congenial sphere?” It is a curious coincidence, that at this date the Anti-Slavery party, the great party of freedom and equality, was at the point of division on this very question.

There is a certain flavor in all the Lowell Offering writings, both in prose and verse, which reminds one of the books read by the authors and the models they followed in their compositions. The poetry savors of Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, Mrs. Barbauld, Milton, Pope, Cowper, and Hannah More. Byron's sardonic vein is copied by one or two of the most independent minds among them. It must be remembered that this was before the age of American poetry, and that the laurels of Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, and Holmes had yet only budded. When the poems of Longfellow and Whittier came out, 206200they were a new revelation to the girl of the factory period. The book as soon as received was lent from one to another all over the neighborhood, and the eager reader staid all day in her room on Sunday, or sat up all night to read the coveted-volume. Many of them learned favorite poems, and repeated them to others less fortunate in being able to borrow the book. Some of these, now pretty old girls, still repeat to their children the well-remembered lines.

The prose models of writing were “The Spectator,” “Miss Sedgwick's Letters,” “The Vicar of Wakefield,” “The Lady of the Manor,” Lydia Maria Child's writings, “Stephens's Travels in Yucatan, Mexico, etc,” and Sunday School books. Novels and dramatic writings were tabooed, by the puritanical spirit which controlled the daily walk of the average New England girl; even Walter Scott and Shakespeare were under the ban of the evangelical churches at this time. But the more free-thinking of them, who had wandered a little from the fold, towards the Unitarian or Universalist churches, took from the circulating library and read with delight such novels as “Evelina,” “Alonzo and Melissa,” “The Three Spaniards,” “Charlotte Temple,” “Eliza Wharton,” “Maria Monk,” “The Children of the Abbey,” “The Arabian Nights,” and “Abellino, the Bravo of Venice.” They also read the novels of Walter Scott, Captain Marryatt, Bulwer, William and Mary Howitt, Miss Bremer, and (as soon as he appeared) Dickens. Harriet Beecher Stowe was at that time busy taking care of her children, and the Great American novel was not yet born.

The factory girls were also omnivorous readers of the daily and weekly newspapers. From an article on this phase of subject in the Offering —“Our Household,” I am able to quote a sketch of one factory boarding-house “interior.” The author said,—“In our house there are eleven boarders, and thirteen in all the members of the family. I will class them according to their religious tenets as follows: Calvinist, Baptist, Unitarian, Congregational, 207201Catholic, Episcopalian, and Mormonite, one each; Universalist and Methodist, two each; Christian Baptist, three. Their reading is from the following sources:—They receive regularly fifteen newspapers and periodicals. These are, the Boston Daily Times, the Herald of Freedom, the Signs of the Times and the Christian Herald, two copies each; the Christian Register, Vox Populi, Literary Souvenir, Boston Pilot, Young Catholic's Friend, Star of Bethlehem and the Lowell Offering, three copies each. A magazine [perhaps the Dial ] one copy. We also borrow regularly the Non Resistant, the Liberator, the Ladies’ Book, the Ladies’ Pearl and the Ladies’ Companion . We have also in the house what perhaps cannot be found anywhere else in the city of Lowell,_mdash;a Mormon Bible.”

The names of the Lowell Offering writers, so far as I have been able to recall them are, as follows: Harriot F. Curtis and Harriet Farley, (the editors from 1842 to 1849), Harriet Lees, Lucy Larcom and Emeline Larcom, (sisters) Lura, Louisa and Maria Currier, (sisters), Margaret Foley, Lydia S. Hall, Sarah E. Martin, J. L. Baker, Abba Goddard, Harriet Jane Hanson, M. Bryant, Laura Tay, Jane S. Welch, Sarah Shedd, M. R. Green, Mary A. Leonard, Ellen M. Smith, M. A. Dodge, Caroline Whitney, E. W. Jennings, Betsey Chamberlain, Eliza J. Cate, A. H. Winship, Hannah Johnson, Mrs. Kimball, Adeline Bradley, L. A. Choate, A. E. Wilson, Sarah Bagley, Ann Carter, J. B. Hamilton, E. E. Turner, Hannah Johnson, A. D. Turner and Kate Clapp. Many of the writers signed fictitious names,—such as Ella, Adelaide, Dorcas, Aramantha, Stella, Kate, Oriana, Ione, Annaline, and Ruth Rover. Lucy Larcom, M. Bryant, Harriet Farley, Margaret Foley and Lydia S. Hall were the poets of the magazine. Lucy Larcom published her first poem in the Offering, in 1842. It was called “The River.” It is almost superfluous to say that Miss Larcom and Miss Foley long since became celebrated: one as a poet, and the other as a sculptor of rare merit.

In her poem, “An Idyl of Work,” Miss Larcom, in her most graceful and popular style tells the story of her life as a Lowell factory girl. Harriot F. Curtis was a prolific writer for newspapers and magazines under the pseudonyme of “Minnie Myrtle” (a non de plume afterwards appropriated by a Mrs. Anna C. Johnson, for which see Wheeler's “Dictionary of Noted Names of Fiction.” Miss Curtis published a book called “S. S. Philosophy,” and two popular novels,—“Kate in Search of a Husband,” and “Jessie's Flirtations.” This last still holds its original place in the advertising list of Harper's Select Library of Novels. Harriet Farley wrote and published several books. Harriet J. Hanson Robinson published a book in 1877,—“Warrington Pen Portraits.” It is rumored that there are others of the Offering writers who have published books, but I have been made unable so far to gather any reliable information on the subject.

Not many of the lesser lights continued to write after their contribution were no longer in demand for the Offering . Many of the writers graduated from the Lowell factories into other positions. A few went as missionaries to foreign countries. Some became teachers in Massachusetts and in other states. Here and there one became a minister, a physician or an artist. Lydia S. Hall, one of the most self-reliant among them, went out as a missionary to the Choctaws, and in “Border-Ruffian” days lived in Kansas. She afterwards went to Washington as clerk in the Treasury Department, and studied law at the same time.

Many of the Lowell factory girls made good “matches;” almost as good as if they had not worked for a living. They married men of all trades and professions, some of whom afterwards became Major Generals, Doctors of Divinity, and even members of Congress. These women as a rule made good wives and mothers, and they were not above doing their own housework and taking care of their children. Some of these children have added greatly to the business and mental stamina of their day and generation. A few of 209203them, in education and true culture, have attained such excellence that they are worthy to be ranked with the children of the so-called Brahmin class in New England Society. The self-reliance taught in the hard school of factory life developed the characters of the mothers, and like good blood, told in the children, and helped to equip them to fight well the battle of life.

In 1849, the time foretold by one of the early writers of the Lowell Offering had come. She had,—“Should the time arrive when the great congregation of operatives will cause a reduction of wages, the inducement to come here will be withdrawn.” The great influx of the foreign element had caused this reduction, and changed entirely the tone of Lowell factory society. The class from which the Offering writers had been drawn, came no more to the “city of spindles,” and the magazine became a thing of the past. No effort was ever made to repeat the experiment, and it would not have been successful if it had been made: since the class of operatives now employed in manufacturing towns and cities is so largely made up of the foreign element, whose traditions and tendencies are not quite in a literary direction,—to say the least. It was not so much individual as collective thought and aspiration, that made the Lowell Offering possible. The whole Lowell factory community in 1840 was filled with the idea of self-culture and a better education.

In order that the reader may understand the sort of people who composed this Arcadian settlement, it will be well to give a little sketch of it and its surroundings:—

Lowell, in 1835, was little more than a factory village. Help was in great demand, and fabulous stories were told of the new town (formerly Chelmsford) and the high wages offered to all classes of work-people; stories that reached the ears of mechanics and machinists in all parts of New England, gave new life to lonely and dependent women in distant towns and farm houses. Into this Yankee El Dorado the needy people began to pour by the various 210204modes of travel known to those old days. They came by the slow toiling canal, which then “tracked its sinuous way” from Boston to Lowell. This canal is no longer used, and there is nothing left of it but a little spot where it began in Charlestown. There, any one going by the Boston and Maine Railroad can see, just before reaching the Somerville station, a few decayed willows nodding sleepily over its grass-grown channel and ridgy paths,—a reminder of those slow times when it took a long summer's day to travel the twenty-eight miles from Boston to Lowell. The canal boat came every day, always filled with new recruits to the army of useful people. The mechanic and machinist came, each with his home-made tool chest, his household stuff, and his wife and little ones. The widow came with her little flock, and her scanty housekeeping goods, to open a boarding house or variety store, and so provide a home for her fatherless children. People with past histories came, to hide their griefs and their identity, and to earn an honest living by the “sweat of their brow.” Single young men came, full of hope and life, to get money for an education, or to lift the mortgage from the home farm. Troops of young girls came by stages and baggage wagons, and men were employed to go into other states and Canada and collect them at so much a head and deliver them at the factories.

A very curious sight these country girls presented to young eyes accustomed to a more modern style of things. When the large covered baggage wagon arrived in front of a “block on the corporation” they would descend from it, dressed in various and outlandish fashions (some of the dresses, perhaps, having served for best during two generations) and with their arms brimfull of bandboxes containing all their worldly goods. These country girls, as they were called, had queer names, some of which added to the singularity of their appearance. Samantha, Triphena, Plumy, Elgardy, Leafy, Ruhamah, Lovey, and Florilla were among them. They soon learned the ways of the new 211205place to which they had come, and after paying for their transportation they used their earnings to re-dress themselves, and in a little while were as stylish as the rest; for they had good New England blood in them, and blood tells even in factory people.

The Lowell factory girls were a simple folk. Many of them were young girls growing up in Arcadian simplicity; earning their bread and often that of others; working twelve hours a day, with three months schooling in a year, and eking out this scanty education with a little help from evening schools; reading such books as were found in the circulating libraries of the day; meeting for mutual improvement and help; striving to be good and to improve the mind; with minds wholly untroubled by conventionalities, or thoughts of class distinction; dressing simply, since they had no time to waste on ruffles or the entanglements of dress. Such were their lives. Undoubtedly there must have been another side of this picture, but the writer speaks of the side she knew best,—the bright side.

The Lowell Offering writers were of a little different class from those who came “down from the country.” Some of them were daughters of professional men or teachers, whose mothers, left widows, were struggling to maintain the younger children. Some of them were the daughters of people in reduced circumstances, and had left home “on a visit” to send their wages surreptitiously in aid of the family purse. Some of them were the grand-daughters of patriots who had fought at Bunker Hill, and had lost the family means in the war for independence. There were a few who seemed to have mysterious antecedents, and to be hiding from something; and strange and distinguished looking men and women sometimes came to call upon them. Many farmer's daughters came from the neighboring towns to earn money to complete their wedding outfit, or buy the bride's share of housekeeping articles. But the most prevailing incentive to labor was to secure the means of education for some male member of the family. To 212206make a gentleman of a brother or a son, to give him a college education, was the dominant thought in the minds of a great many of the better class of operatives. I have known more than one young girl to give every cent of her wages, month after month, to a brother, that he might get the education necessary to enter some profession. I have known women to educate young men by their earnings, who were not sons or relatives. I have known a mother to work years in this way for her boy.

These men, educated by the labor and self-sacrifice of others, sometimes acquired just enough learning to make them look down upon the social position in which their women friends and relatives were still forced to remain. The result to the recipient was often of doubtful value, so far as the development of the affections was concerned. Sometimes the great obligation was forgotten, and Lucy Downing's pitiful story was again repeated in the experience of some lonely and neglected woman. Only in rare instances, to either party did the life-long result of such sacrifice on the part of the women of the family become of permanent and spiritual value!

The average woman of forty years ago was very humble in her notions of the sphere of woman. What if she did hunger and thirst after knowledge? She could do nothing with it even if she could get it. So she made a fetich of some male relative, and gave him the mental food for which she herself was starving; and devoted all her energies towards helping him to become what she felt, under better conditions, she herself might have been. It was enough in those early days to be the mother or sister of somebody. Women were almost as abject in this particular as the Thracian woman of old, who said: “I am not of the noble Grecian race, I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace; Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please, I was the mother of Themistocles.”

There were women still left who believe their husbands, 213207sons, or male friends can study, read, and vote for them. They are like some frugal house-mothers, who think there is no need of a dinner if the goodman of the family is not coming home to share it. Just as if the man half of the human family can eat, “learn and inwardly digest,” to make either physical or mental strength for the other half

One word about the foreign element that crept in and destroyed the idyllic life of the Lowell factory operatives. The Englishman came first; the Irishman followed; but not until within a few years has the Frenchman, Italian and German come to take possession of the cotton mills. I remember very well the first foreigner who came to work on a certain Corporation. He brought with him his wife and a large family of boys and girls. The word poverty does not express the condition in which they first appeared before the eyes of the young Lowellians. Not one of the family wore shoes and stockings, or a covering for the head. The children did not look as if they had ever been introduced to a fine comb, or had made the acquaintance of soap and water. They were not clothed in a surplus of finery, and their brogue—who shall describe it? It was a mixture of the Patois of the Cockney and the County Cork dialect. At first the whole family lived in a cellar, and people gave them food enough to keep souls and bodies together. The father was a blue-dyer, and soon got work. The mother took in washing, and one after another the children went into the factory. In ten years they owned a small house; and the girls in the family, in the enforced pauses of factory life, * had gone to school and learned to read and write a little. They dressed as well as other young persons of their age, and were fast making marriages suitable to their improved condition. The sons had been better educated: one had turned out to be an inventor, and another, the youngest, had been sent to college. I will not *The authorities had made a law that all operatives under fourteen years of age should go to school three months in the year. 214208say what he became—only, that he now occupies a certain professional position. I often hear of him in public life. The other day he made a speech in which he expressed his opinion on the great question of equal rights. It was an opinion so common and so trite with a large class of our opposers, that I almost hesitate to repeat it. It was this:

“When the women show that they want to vote, I am willing to give them all the rights they want.”

Give 1 I thought. Where did you get the right to give the Massachusetts women the right to vote? You did not inherit it. In what consists your prerogative over the women whose ancestors fought to secure the very right of suffrage of which you so glibly talk, and which neither you, nor your father before you, did anght to establish or maintain? Ah, old friend If you had staid in your own country, you would have followed you father's trade, and would have had no more opportunity for education, or right to the ballot, than you are willing to give to the women. And your delicate hands, that in your eloquent perorations wave away so gracefully the rights of the daughters of your adopted State, would now and forever be indelibly stained with the ancestral tint of the blue-dye pot!

In 1875 three important woman suffrage conventions were held by the Middlesex County Woman Suffrage Association in the towns of Maiden, Melrose and Concord. These meetings were conducted something after the style of local church conferences. They were well advertised, and many people came to them. A collation was provided by the ladies of each town, and the feast of reason was so judiciously mingled with the triumphs of cookery, that converting to the cause was never done so easily and so harmoniously. Many women present at one or the other of these conventions, said to the president: “I never before 226220heard a woman's rights speech. If these are the reasons why women should vote, I believe in voting. I never thought of the subject in that light before.”

At the Malden convention speeches were made by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Miss Mary F. Eastman, Miss Huldah R. Loud, Henry B. Blackwell, Rev. George H. Vibbert, Rev. S. W. Bush, Rev. D. M. Wilson, and the president of the association, Mrs. Harriet H. Robinson. Letters were received from William Lloyd Garrison, Elizur Wright, Richard P. Hallowell, Bishop Gilbert Haven, Judge Robert C. Pitman, Hon. George F. Hoar and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. An able set of resolutions, prepared by W. S. Robinson (“Warrington”) was adopted:

Resolved, That Woman has an equal right with man to the ballot, and that to deprive her of the use of it is an act of usurpation which ought to be immediately discontinued.

Resolved, That we care not whether the right of Suffrage be called natural and absolute, or conventional, or dependent on capacity, or property, or on any kind of qualification which may be acquired, it is the same in woman as in man; that historically and legally—by Genesis and by the Statutes, this equality is specially recognized.

Resolved, That the reasons why women were excluded from voting at certain elections (not at all) and upon certain subjects (not upon all) by the framers of the Constitution, are no longer applicable; because, since the year 1780, woman has, in hundreds of instances, individually and in classes, broken over those restraints which were once held to keep her in subordinate positions in the active affairs of life; she teaches, preaches, practices the medical profession, edits newspapers, buys and sells, owns and manages property, and transacts business of all descriptions. The reason for the exclusion of Woman from the Suffrage having vanished, let the spirit and practice of exclusion go with it.

Resolved, That the presence that Woman should be kept from the ballot-box and the town meeting, because government 227221is founded upon force and military power, is a legal and historical falsehood, inasmuch as the Constitution, by Art. X, Sec. I, Chap. II, specifies a certain class of elections for the militia alone to share in; and as, furthermore, to confine the Suffrage to those who from the military force would exclude from our elections thousands of males who now vote, or who are now specially complained of for not voting; and finally because by the last and perhaps most important of the Declaration of Rights, it is stipulated that the power of making the laws and the power of executing them shall be kept forever apart; to the end that “it may be a government of laws and not of men.”

Resolved, That the Legislature of Massachusetts, by persisting in its opposition to the granting of all petitions for the removal of usurping rules and statutes on the subject, is unjust; and that, no matter whether this spirit and practice of injustice be the result of carelessness or ignorance of malice, it is its duty as once to correct it, and no longer to interpose its own will and wilfulness against the demand of justice and the dictates of duty.

In a volume of old letters of the Winthrop family, published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, can be found some very interesting facts concerning the part taken by a woman in the inception of the first school or college in the State. This lady was Lucy Downing, a sister of Gov. Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts. She was the wife of Emmanuel Downing, a lawyer of the Inner Temple, a friend of Gov. Winthrop, and afterwards a man of mark in the infant colony.

Mr. Downing and his wife remained in England some years after John Winthrop came to New England, and these early letters are written from that place. In one of these letters to her brother, Lucy Downing expresses the desire of herself and husband to come to New England with their children, but laments that if they do come her son George cannot complete his studies. She adds: “You 253247have yet no societies nor means of that kind for the education of youths in learning.” She goes on to express her solicitation in the matter and says: “It would make me goe far nimbler to New England, if God should call me to it, than otherwise I should, and I believe a colledge would put noe small life into the plantation.” This letter was written early in 1636, and in October of the same year, the General Court of the Massachusetts colony agreed to give 400 pounds towards establishing a school or college in Newtowne, (two years afterwards called Cambridge.) Soon afterwards Rev. John Harvard died and left one half of his estate to this “infant seminary,” and in 1638 it was ordered by the General Court that the “Colledge to be built at Cambridge shall be called Harvard College.”

Whether Lucy Downing's earnest plea to her brother, the then powerful Governor of New England, for a school in which to educate her son, prompted him, or hurried his attention thus early to act in this direction, we cannot now tell. It is as the history says “certainly a remarkable coincidence.” Early in 1638 Lucy Downing and her husband arrived in New England, and the name of George Downing stands second on the list of the first class of Harvard graduates in 1642. The Downings had other sons who do not seem to have been educated at Harvard, and daughters who were put out to service. One of these daughters was married, or given in marriage, against her own wishes, for she preferred at least two lovers to the man chosen by her parents to be her husband. The son, for whom so much was done by his mother, was afterwards known as Sir George Downing, and he became rich and powerful in England. Downing street in London is named for him. In after life he forgot his duty to his mother, who so naturally looked to him for support; and her last letter written from England after her husband died, when she was old and feeble, tells a sad story of her son's avarice and meanness, and leaves the painful impression that she suffered in her old age for the necessaries of life.

It is a pathetic story, and one that has been told by many women since Lucy Downing's day. “I am now att ten pounde a yeare for my chamber, and three pounde for my servant's wages, and have to extend the other ten pounde a yeare to accommodat for our meat and drink, and for my clothing and all other nessessaries I am much to seek, and more your brother Georg will not hear of for me, and he says that it is only covetousness that makes me ask more. He last summer bought another town near Hatly, calld Clappum, cost him thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds, and I really beleeve one of us two are indeed covetous.” Then the poor old lady goes on to tell the high price of coal and wheat, and sends world to her nephew, John Winthrop, Jr., to see if he cannot help her in her want while she lives, and after her death help her daughter Peters (one of those who went out to service), who she says plaintively “never yet had any portion, and to her I am sure it will not be offensive to my son Georg, whilst the principal remains to him, it being his patrimonie.”

This letter was shown to John Winthrop, Jr., and he wrote at once a long letter to Sir George, begging him to make some suitable provision for his mother “aunt Lucy in her tyme of age and infirmity,” and to settle upon her about an hundred pounds as annuity. Sir George in a short note replied, that it was not in is power to do more for his mother than he was already doing, that his means were not so large as was supposed, nor had he nearly as much money as people thought. The sequel shows, however, that he died very wealthy, and that the accumulated wealth of his family during their generations was finally used to establish a college in Cambridge, England.

At the present time it is hard to estimate how much influence the earnest longing of this one woman for the better education of her son, had in the founding of this earlieast college in Massachusetts. But for her thinking and speaking at the right time, the enterprise might have been delayed for half a century. It is to be deplored that Lucy 255249Downing established the unwise precedent of educating one member of her family at the expense of the rest; a precedent followed by too many women since her time. Harvard College itself has followed it as well, in that it has so long excluded from its privileges, that portion of the human family to which Lucy Downing belongs.

Women of Harvard yard!!

Although women have never been permitted to become students of this college, or of any of the schools connected with it, yet they have always taken a great interest in its pecuniary welfare, and the university is largely indebted to the generosity of women for its endowment and support. From the annual reports and other records of Harvard College, it appears that since its foundation, funds have been contributed by one hundred and sixty-seven women which amount in the aggregate to $325,000. Out of these funds a proportion of the university scholarships were founded, and at least one of its professors’ chairs. In its Divinity School alone, five of the ten scholarships beat the names of women. Caroline A. Plummer of Salem gave $15,000 to found the Plummer Professorship of Christian Morals. Sarah Derby bequeathed $1,000 towards founding the Hersey Professorship of Anatomy and Physic. The Holden Chapel was built with money given for that purpose by Mrs. Holden (widow of Samuel Holden) and her daughters. Anna E.P. Sever in 1879 left a legacy to this College of $140,000.

The names of other women benefactors of Harvard University are Lady Moulson, Hannah Sewall, Mary Saltonstall, Dorothy Saltonstall, Joanna Alford, Mary P. Townsend, Ann Toppan, Eliza Farrar, Ann F. Schaeffer, Levina Hoar, Rebecca A. Perkins, Caroline Merriam, Sarah Jackson, Hannah C. Andrews, Nancy Kendall, Charlotte Harris, Mary Osgood, Lucy Osgood, Sarah Winslow, Julia Bullock, Marian Hovey, Anna Richmond, Caroline Richmond, Clara J. Moore, Susan Cabot, and others.

The treasurer of the “Harvard Annex” in his annual report declares the great need that exists for funds to provide 256250a suitable building, books, etc, for the numerous women students who continue to apply there for admission; and he appeals to the generosity of the public, for contributions of money to be used for this purpose. The casual observer might suggest that those women who will hereafter become the benefactors of this university, should remember the needs of their own sex, and leave their donations or bequests, so that they can be used for the benefit of the “Harvard Annex” and its students.

This most ancient kingdom does not send members to the British Parliament. It has its own government, its own House of Lords (the Council) and House of Commons (the Keys). It enacts its own laws, and imposes its own taxes, the only control being the sanction of the Queen. The House of keys is a much older institution than the English House of Commons. It was established by a Scandinavian prince named Orry, about the year 938.

On Nov. 5, 1880, a “Franchise Bill” to secure further privileges to voters was introduced into the House of Keys. In committee of the House Mr. Richard Sherwood moved an amendment to strike out the word “male.” This was done by the honorable member for the purpose of extending the franchise to women who possessed the required property qualifications. This amendment was carried by a two-thirds vote, and the Bill was signed by the Queen, Jan. 5, 1881. It could not, however, become a law, until, in accordance with immemorial custom, it was officially announced in the open air from the top of Tynwald Hill. This event took place Jan. 31, 1881. In March following, out of the 700 women electors on the island, 460 voted 257251under the new law. At several of the polling stations, the women were the first to vote; and they were all received most cordially. Mr. Farrant who made a speech after the close of the election said: “The more we have of the women voters the better.” Mr. Sherwood was one of the candidates for the house of Keys and of course received every woman's vote. In his address to his constituents he said, substantially: “On my nomination in this court, about eleven years ago, I was asked what I thought about female suffrage. I am glad to say that since then, we have achieved that, and that the first voter at the Ayer election was a woman. The subject of woman suffrage has brought the Isle of Man more prominently before many countries, than anything that has ever taken place. It turns out that we are the first Legislature in Europe which has extended the privilege to women. There is no doubt they will follow up the movement in England and perhaps before twelve months.” The women voters in the Isle of Man received hearty congratulations from leading suffragists of England because of the proud position occupied by them in being the first women within Her Majesty's dominions whose rights as parliamentary electors have been recognized and legally secured.

In May, 1881, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Municipal Franchise bill for the women of Scotland, and the act received the royal ascent on June 3. After January, 1882, the women of that portion of the United Kingdom, will be legally entitled to vote in the elections of every Municipal Council. This is a great step towards establishing Parliamentary Franchise in Scotland.

Last of all to come into line is despotic Austria. In July, 1881, a new electoral law was proclaimed in Croatia, a province of Austria, by which women were called upon to vote in the forthcoming general election of Municipal Councils. Good news also, continues to come from Italy. Two girl students of the Roman University—Carolina Magistrelli and Evangelina Bottero—who had passed 258252with great distinction examinations in Greek, Latin and Italian literature, have recently taken doctor's degrees in the Natural Sciences. The Rome Opinione says, that so far as is known, no woman has, until now, taken a degree in the Roman University, since its foundation by Innocent IV. in the thirteenth century.

In 1650, when Anne Bradstreet lived and wrote her verses, a woman author was almost unknown in English Literature. This lady was the wife of the Governor of Massachusetts, and because of her literary tendencies, was looked upon by the people of her time as a marvel of womankind. Her contemporaries called her the “tenth muse lately sprung up in America,” and one of them, Rev. Nathaniel Ward, was inspired to write an address to her, in which he declares his wonder at her success as a poet, and playfully foretells the consequences, if women are permitted to intrude farther into the domain of man. The closing lines express so well the conflicting which torment the minds of the opponents of the Women Suffrage movement, that I venture to quote them, as an appropriate ending to this book: “‘Good sooth,’ quoth the old Don, ‘tell ye me se I muse whither at length these Girl will go. It half revives my chil, frost-bitten blood To sea a woman once do aught that's good And Chode by Chaucer's Boots and Homer's Furrs Let men look to't, least Women wear the Spurrs.’”