ndustries, the audience demanded a speech and would not
be satisfied until it was made.[84] Large numbers of the women who gave
addresses in these various meetings paid tribute to her work, and the
mention of her name never failed to elicit a burst of applause. At the
many public and private receptions given to the congress the post of
honor was assigned to her, and no guest ever was satisfied to leave
without having touched her hand.

[Illustration: May Knight Sewall (with signature)]

It is not too much to say that no woman in this country, or in any
other, ever was so honored because of her own individual services to
humanity. It was the universal recognition of her labors of nearly half
a century, that had laid the foundation upon which had been reared all
the great organizations represented by the women in this congress. Hers
had been the pioneer work, the blazing of the pathway through the
forests of custom and prejudice which for untold centuries had forbidden
them to step beyond the narrow limits of domestic occupations. All of a
sudden, it seemed, the women of the world had awakened to the knowledge
that she had borne ridicule, abuse, misrepresentation, disgrace, that
they might enter into the kingdom of woman's right to her highest
development. Long-delayed though it had been, the women of her own and
other countries came to lay their homage at her feet, to bow before her
in loving gratitude, to rise up and call her blessed.

Letters of congratulation were received from far and wide; one from
Frances E. Willard in Switzerland said:

MY BELOVED SUSAN: You are a happy woman and we are all crowing to
think the people love, honor and call for you so loud and long. It
suits one's sense of poetic justice; it confirms one's faith in
human nature and the Heavenly Power not ourselves "that makes for
righteousness." Lady Henry, Anna Gordon and I have "hoorayed" over
your laurels and said, "Bless her; she is not only _our_ Susan but
everybody's." Lady Henry says you have the true sign of greatness
that you are absolutely without pretension. You do not take up all
the time and luxuriate in the sound of your own voice, but are glad
to give the other ones a bit of breath too. She says no woman of
fame has ever so thoroughly made this impression of modesty and
unselfishness upon her mind. And I say Selah.[85]

[Illustration: Autograph: "Isabel Somerset"]

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