f
woman he will be grateful. Just now it is new and strange and men
cannot comprehend what it would mean but the change is not far away.
The nation is soon to have woman suffrage and it will be a glad and
proud day when it comes."

Mrs. Howe in the dignity of her eighty-seven years made a lovely
picture in a gown of mauve satin with a creamy lace scarf draped about
her head and shoulders. She was escorted to the front of the platform
by the Governor and said in her brief response: "Madam president and
you dear suffrage friends, and the rest of you who are going to become
suffrage friends before we leave this city, I give you thanks for this
friendly greeting. I am very, very glad to meet you all. I am not
going to preach a sermon but I have a text from the New Testament, a
question that the Lord asked when the crowd came to see him, 'What
came ye out to see? A reed shaken with the wind?' No, it was a prophet
that they came to see and hear. When you come to these suffrage
meetings you do not come to see reeds shaken by the wind. We do not
any of us claim to be prophets but you do come to hear a prophecy, a
very glad prophecy which some of us have believed in and followed for
years, and all the way of that following has been joyous and bright
though it has not been popular. I remember many years ago going with
Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone to a meeting in New England and the
report was sent out that 'three old crows were coming to disturb the
town with their croakings.' I can never forget that evening. When Mary
Livermore looked the audience over in her calm and dignified manner
they quieted down as if by magic. When reasonable measures are
proposed in a reasonable way there are always some people who will
respond and be convinced. We have no desire to put out of sight the
difficulties of government. When we talk about woman suffrage people
begin to remember how unsatisfactory manhood suffrage is, but I should
like to see what men would do if there was an attempt to take it away.
We might much improve it by bringing to it the feminine mind, which
in a way complements the masculine. I frankly believe that we have
half the intelligence and good sense of humanity and that it is quite
time we should express not only our sentiments but our determined will
to set our faces toward justice and right and to follow these through
the thorny wilderness if necessary--follow them straight, not to the
'bitter end,' for it will not be b