of derision that the
speaker called for "order," and reminded the House that "no man was
to be scorned for voting alone any more than with a crowd." The
action and the voting came cheerily. More than one man, to the
objection of "an entering wedge," said "he was ready to grant the
whole." The bill passed the Senate triumphantly and was approved by
the governor, December 18, 1880:

Women shall have the same right to vote as men have, in all
school-district meetings and in the election of school
commissioners in towns and cities, and the same right to
hold office relating to school affairs.

An item in the _Woman's Journal_, from Vergennes, March 22, 1881,
says:

At the city election to-day General J. H. Lucia, a staunch friend
of woman suffrage, was elected mayor, and principally through his
management Miss Electa S. Smith has been chosen to the office of
city clerk, which office he has held for the past two years. The
legislature of 1880 authorized the election of women to the
offices of superintendent of schools and town clerk, and some of
the friends of the cause were disposed to try the working of the
law here. They selected a candidate whose ability, qualifications
and thorough fitness all had to concede, and against whom the
only objection that could be raised was her being a woman. It
took the conservatives some time to get over their surprise at
the first suggestion of her name, but they admitted the propriety
of the thing and gallantly lent a hand, so that when the election
came all the candidates who had been talked about were
conspicuous by their absence, and Miss Smith was elected by
acclamation. Surely the world does move.

SPRINGFIELD, February 7, 1884.

_Miss Lydia Putnam, Brattleboro', Vt.:_

Your letter is at hand. I think but few women have, as yet,
availed themselves of the privilege of voting in school meetings
in this State, and I am not able to say what the effect upon our
schools has been up to the present time.

Very respectfully, JUSTUS DARTT.

Notwithstanding the above reply from the state-superintendent of
the public schools of Vermont, the Associated Press reports of
every year[199] since 1881 make mention of women being elected to
school offices in the various towns a