as the
headquarters of the friends of woman suffrage.

The work of George Francis Train has been much and variously
commented upon. Certainly when he was in Kansas he was at the
height of his prosperity and popularity, and in appearance,
manners and conversation, was a perfect, though somewhat unique
specimen of a courtly, elegant gentleman. He was full of
enthusiasm and confident he would be the next President. He drew
immense and enthusiastic audiences everywhere, and was a special
favorite with the laboring classes on account of the reforms he
promised to bring about when he should be President. Well do I
remember one poor woman, a frantic advocate of woman suffrage,
who button-holed everybody who spoke a word against Train to beg
them to desist; assuring them "that he was the special instrument
of Providence to gain for us the Irish vote."

Both propositions got about 10,000 votes, and both were defeated.
After the canvass the excitement died away and the Suffrage
Associations fell through, but the seed sown has silently taken
root and sprung up everywhere. Or rather, the truths then spoken,
and the arguments presented, sinking into the minds and hearts of
the men and women who heard them, have been like leaven, slowly
but surely operating until it seems to many that nearly the whole
public sentiment of Kansas is therewith leavened. A most liberal
sentiment prevails everywhere toward women. Many are engaged in
lucrative occupations. In several counties ladies have been
elected superintendents of public schools. In Coffey County, the
election of Mary P. Wright, was contested on the ground that by
the Constitution a woman was ineligible to the office. The case
was decided by the Supreme Court in her favor. By our laws women
vote on all school questions and avail themselves very
extensively of the privilege. Our property laws are conceded to
be the most just to women of any State in the Union. It is
believed by many that were the question of woman suffrage again
submitted to the people it would be carried by an overwhelming
majority.

The following letter from Susan E. Wattles, the widow of the pioneer,
Augustus Wattles, shows woman's interest in the great struggle to make
Kansas the banner State of universal freedom and franchise.