ion to bright carpets and artistic decorations, were
books, flowers, birds, and other refined accessories. Mrs.
Elizabeth Loomis says of the meetings held in those delightful
parlors: "At every successive session we could see that we were
gaining ground and receiving influential members. I well remember
how it encouraged us to number the Rev. Dr. Thomas among our
friends; and how gladly I made the motion to have him appointed
temporary chairman in the absence of the president--a position
which he cheerfully accepted." One of the most brilliant reunions
ever enjoyed by the club, was a reception given to Mrs. Stanton
and Miss Anthony, as they were _en route_ to California, early in
June, 1871. Of this reception, Miss Anthony, in a letter from Des
Moines, Iowa, to _The Revolution_, said: "Mrs. Stanton and I were
in Chicago the evening the Illinois State and Cook County
Association held their opening reception at their new central
bureau, a suite of fine rooms handsomely carpeted and furnished
by prominent merchants of the city, where, with music,
conversation, speeches, etc., the hours passed delightfully
away," forming, as Miss Anthony might have added, a delightful
oasis amid the many discomforts of a continuous appeal to the
people to deal justly.

In November, 1871, Mrs. Catharine V. Waite, of Hyde Park, made a
written application to the board of registration, asking them to
place her name upon the register as a voter, which they refused
to do on the ground that she was a woman, whereupon Mrs. Waite
filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Cook county, stating the
facts, and praying that the board be compelled by mandamus to
place her name upon the register. Chief-Justice Jameson granted
an alternative writ, returnable on the following Monday,
commanding the board to show cause, if any they have, why Mrs.
Waite's name should not be placed upon the register. Judge
Charles B. Waite, the husband of the plaintiff, made an
exhaustive and unanswerable argument before Judge Jameson, but to
no purpose as far as the result of that case was concerned, as
the opinion of the court delivered January 12, 1872, which was
very lengthy,[362] denied the relator with costs.

In 1872, Norman T. Gassette, esq., clerk of the Circuit Court of
Cook county, an