"I wish the
_World_ to know that when I go among fashionable people in the Church
of the Puritans, I do not carry 'rations' in my bag; I keep my shadow
there. I have good friends enough to give me clothes and rations. I
stand on principle, always in one place, so everybody knows where to
find Sojourner, and I don't want my shadow even to be dogging about
here and there and everywhere, so I keep it in this bag." "I think,"
said one of the group, "the press should hereafter speak of you as
Mrs. Stowe's Lybian Sybil, and not as 'old church woman.'" "Oh, child,
that's good enough. The _Herald_ used to call me 'old black nigger,'
so this sounds respectable. Have you read the _Herald_ too, children?
Is that born again? Well, we are all walking the right way together.
I'll tell you what I'm thinking. My speeches in the Convention read
well. I should like to have the substance put together, improved a
little, and published in tract form, headed 'Sojourner Truth on
Suffrage;' for if these timid men, like Greeley, knew that Sojourner
was out for 'universal suffrage,' they would not be so afraid to
handle the question. Yes, children, I am going to rouse the people on
equality. I must sojourn once to the ballot-box before I die. I hear
the ballot-box is a beautiful glass globe, so you can see all the
votes as they go in. Now, the first time I vote I'll see if a woman's
vote looks any different from the rest--if it makes any stir or
commotion. If it don't inside, it need not outside. That good speech
of Henry Ward Beecher's made my heart leap for joy; he just hit the
nail right on the head when he said you never lost anything by asking
everything; if you bait the suffrage-hook with a woman you will
certainly catch a black man. There is a great deal in that philosophy,
children. Now I must go and take a smoke!" I tell you in confidence,
Mr. Editor, Sojourner smokes!

Yours respectfully, E. C. S.

P. S.--She says she has been sent into the smoking-car so often she
smoked in self-defense--she would rather swallow her own smoke than
another's.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN, 1867.

IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE IN KANSAS--A VIGOROUS CANVASS ANTICIPATED.

ST. LOUIS, April 3.

The _Democrat's_ Topeka, Kansas, special says: "A large convention of
those in favor of impartial suffrage is in session in this