specially brilliant one, as all the dancers
wore their native costumes. Also, for the first time in the history of
Geneva, the buildings of Parliament were opened to women and a woman's
organization was given the key to the city. At that time the Swiss women
were making their fight for a vote in church matters, and we helped
their cause as much as we could. To-day many Swiss women are permitted
to exercise this right--the first political privilege free Switzerland
has given them.

The International Alliance meeting in Amsterdam in 1909 was the largest
held up to that time, and much of its success was due to Dr. Aletta
Jacobs, the president of the National Suffrage Association of Holland.
Dr. Jacobs had some wonderful helpers among the women of her country,
and she herself was an ideal leader--patient, enthusiastic, and
tireless. That year the governments of Australia, Norway, and Finland
paid the expenses of the delegates from those countries--a heartening
innovation. One of the interesting features of the meeting was a cantata
composed for the occasion and given by the Queen's Royal Band, under
the direction of a woman--Catharine van Rennes, one of the most
distinguished composers and teachers in Holland. She wrote both words
and music of her cantata and directed it admirably; and the musicians
of the Queen's Band entered fully into its spirit and played like
men inspired. That night we had more music, as well as a
never-to-be-forgotten exhibition of folk-dancing.

The same year, in June, we held the meeting of the International
Council in Toronto, and, as Canada has never been eagerly interested in
suffrage, an unsuccessful effort was made to exclude this subject from
the programme. I was asked to preside at the suffrage meetings on the
artless and obvious theory that I would thus be kept too busy to say
much. I had hoped that the Countess of Aberdeen, who was the president
of the International Council, would take the chair; but she declined
to do this, or even to speak, as the Earl of Aberdeen had recently
been appointed Viceroy of Ireland, and she desired to spare him any
embarrassment which might be caused by her public activities. We
recognized the wisdom of her decision, but, of course, regretted it;
and I was therefore especially pleased when, on suffrage night, the
countess, accompanied by her aides in their brilliant uniforms, entered
the hall. We had not been sure that she would be with us, but she
entered