do with the making and
enforcing of the laws. They must only coax."

The diary shows over one hundred letters written by Miss Anthony's own
hand in arranging for the May Anniversary in New York, while she sat at
the bedside of her mother, who was very ill. Many cordial answers were
received, among them one from Josephine E. Butler, of England. Mary L.
Booth thus closed her reply: "Pray believe that I always hold you in
affectionate remembrance as one of the most sincere, earnest and
disinterested women whom it has ever been my fortune to meet, and whom
I shall always be glad to hear from or to see." Mrs. Stanton sent an
extract from a letter of Martha C. Wright, saying: "Our only hope is in
the gradual accession of thinking men and women, and in our indomitable
Susan."

At Miss Anthony's earnest desire, Mrs. Wright was elected president of
the association and this proved to be her last appearance on that
platform which she had graced for many years. An interesting feature of
the meeting was the presence of the veteran worker, Ernestine L. Rose,
who was back from England on a visit. During this May meeting a
telegram was sent over the country stating: "Miss Anthony stalked down
the aisle with faded alpaca dress to the top of her boots, blue cotton
umbrella and white cotton gloves, perched herself on the platform,
crossed her legs, pulled out her snuff-box and passed it around. On the
platform were Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Rose and other
noted women, all dressed in unmentionables cut bias, and smoking penny
drab cigars. Susan was quite drunk." The New York Herald, which rarely
had a good word for the suffrage conventions, in a long and respectful
account of this same meeting, said:

There was a perfume of Fifth Avenue about the audience. Carriages
in livery rolled up to the door. The striking contrast of this
audience with that of other years, in the almost perfect conformity
of the manner and dress of the women to those of other women who
rule in the fashionable world and are supposed to look down upon
these knights-errant of the sex, was not greater than that between
the treatment of Miss Anthony now and in other times. In former
years they came to scoff at this wiry and resolute champion of her
sex. Now every word she utters is received with almost reverent
rapture. Yesterday brought together as intelligent and perhaps as
refined an audience of ladies as