, and were intended to have the force of a sort of
ante-election vote.

Denver presented an interesting social aspect at this time. It
was as if the precursive tremor of a moral earthquake had been
felt, and people, only half awake, did not know whether to seek
safety in the house, or outside of it. Women especially were
perplexed and inquiring, and it was observed that those in favor
of asking a recognition of their rights in the new State, were
the intelligent and leading ladies of the city. The wives of
ministers, of congressmen, of judges, the prominent members of
Shakespeare clubs, reading circles, the directors of charitable
institutions,--these were the ones who first ranged themselves on
the side of equal rights, clearly proving that the man was right
who pointed out the danger of allowing women to learn the
alphabet.

When February 15 came, it was a momentous day for Colorado. The
report of the Committee on Suffrage and Elections was to come up
for final action. As a matter of fact there were two reports;
that of the minority was signed by two members of the committee,
Judge Bromwell, whose breadth and scholarship were apparent in
his able report, and a Mexican named Agapita Vigil, a legislator
from Southern Colorado where Spanish is the dominant tongue. Mr.
Vigil spoke no English, and was one of those representatives for
whose sake an interpreter was maintained during the session of
the convention.

Ladies were present in large numbers. Some of the gentlemen
celebrated the occasion by an unusual spruceness of attire, and
others by being sober enough to attend to business. The report
with three-fifths of the signatures, after setting forth that the
subject had had careful consideration, went on to state the
qualifications of voters, namely, that all should be male
citizens, with one exception, and that was, that women might vote
for school district officers.

Mr. A. K. Yount of Boulder, spoke in favor of the motion to
strike out the word "male" in section 1: "That every male person
over the age of 21 years, possessing the necessary
qualifications, shall be entitled to vote," etc. He called
attention to the large number of petitions which had been sent
in, asking for this, and to the fact that not a single
remonstr