e Congress on Government convened August 7 and, at Mr. Bonney's
request, Miss Anthony was present at the opening ceremony and responded
to an address of welcome in behalf of the civil service commission. Five
sessions of this Government Congress were devoted to a discussion of
equal suffrage, the speakers being women. The chairman, Hon. Wm. Dudley
Foulke, said it was not the intention to give this subject such
prominence, but women had shown so much more interest than men, half of
them accepting the invitation to take part and only one man in twenty
responding, that he was compelled thus to arrange the program.

Soon after the adjournment of the Woman's Congress Miss Anthony left the
Palmer House, which had been its headquarters, and, accepting the
invitation of Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, enjoyed the congenial atmosphere
of her beautiful home for a month. At the conclusion of her visit with
Mrs. Coonley she went for six weeks with Mr. and Mrs. Sewall, who had
taken a large house for the season. This was a social center and the
weekly receptions were a prominent feature, bringing together
distinguished people from all countries, who were in Chicago, as
officials or visitors, during this wonderful summer. While at Mrs.
Coonley's Miss Anthony formed two acquaintances who from that date have
been among her most valued friends--Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Gross. After
leaving the Sewalls she spent a delightful month with them at their
residence on the Lake Shore drive, where she was surrounded with every
luxury which wealth and affection could bestow. This added another to
the homes in that city always open to her, and Mrs. Gross often wrote:
"Your visits are a sweet benediction to our family."[87]

Among the most elegant of the many social affairs to which she was
invited was the luncheon in the great banquet hall of the Hotel
Richelieu, given by the officers of the National Council to those of the
International, the foreign delegates and a few other guests, 150 in all.
May Wright Sewall presided with great dignity and charm over the "after
dinner speech-making" of this assemblage of the representative women
from the most highly civilized nations of the world, and Miss Anthony
sat at her right hand.

Once she went to Harvey and spoke at a camp meeting of 3,000 persons;
and later to the Bloomington Chautauqua to give an address; then all the
way to Kansas to speak at the State Fair in Topeka and fill a month's
lecture engagement