f; to be busy through weariness and
difficulty and resting only in a change of labor; to bear the stinging
hail of ridicule which fell on this movement, and to receive with
surprised tears the flowers that bloomed in her thorny path; to be in
the heat of the noonday harvest field at seventy, with years of activity
and usefulness still remaining to add to her glorious life and crown it
with such dignity as belongs to few--this is the story of Susan B.
Anthony."

Miss Anthony carried in her arms seventy pink carnations with the card,
"For she's the pink o' womankind and blooms without a peer," from Miss
Cummings, of Washington. Flowers were sent in profusion, and there was
no end of lovely little remembrances of jewelry, water colors, books,
portfolios, card cases, handkerchiefs, fans, satin souvenirs,
fancy-work, the gifts of loving women in all parts of the country.[53]
The evening was one of the proudest and happiest of a life which,
although filled with toil and hardship, had been brightened, as had that
of few other women, with the bountiful tributes and testimonials not
only of personal friends but of people in all parts of the world who
knew of her only through her work for humanity. The next day she sat
down to Sunday dinner at a table which, thanks to Mrs. Spofford's
thoughtfulness, had been arranged especially for the occasion,
surrounded by twenty-five of her own relatives who had come to
Washington to celebrate her birthday.

Among many newspaper editorials upon this celebration, an extract from
the Boston Traveller, which bears the impress of the gifted Lilian
Whiting, may be taken as an example of the general sentiment:

Without any special relay of theories on the subject, Miss Susan B.
Anthony discovered early in life the secret of imperishable youth
and constantly increasing happiness--a secret that may be
translated as personal devotion to a noble purpose. To devote one's
self to something higher than self--this is the answer of the ages
to those who would find the source of immortal energy and
enjoyment. It is a statement very simply and easily made but
involving all the philosophy of life. Miss Anthony recognized it
intuitively. She translated it into action with little
consciousness of its value as a theory; but it is the one deepest
truth in existence, and one which every human soul must sometime or
somewhere learn.

On February 15