onvention was
assembled, and the elegant costumes worn by the ladies both in the body
of the house and on the platform. Mrs. Minor presided and a beautiful
address of welcome was delivered by Miss Couzins. The ladies were
invited to the Merchants' Exchange by its president, and also visited
the Fair grounds by invitation of the board. Miss Couzins gave a
reception at her home, and the evening before the convention opened,
Mrs. Minor entertained the delegates informally. Of this latter
occasion the Globe-Democrat said:

Miss Susan B. Anthony, perhaps the only lady present of national
reputation, commanded attention at a glance. Her face is one which
would attract notice anywhere; full of energy, character and
intellect, the strong lines soften on a closer inspection. There is
a good deal that is "pure womanly" in the face which has been held
up to the country so often as a gaunt and hungry specter's crying
for universal war upon mankind. The spectacles sit upon a nose
strong enough to be masculine, but hide eyes which can beam with
kindliness as well as flash with wit, irony and satire. Angular she
may be--"angular as a Lebanon Shakeress" she said the New York
Herald once termed her--but if so, the irregularities of outline
were completely hidden under the folds of the modest and dignified
black silk which covered her most becomingly.

At this convention occurred that touching scene which has been so often
described, when May Wright Sewall presented Miss Anthony, to her
complete surprise, with a beautiful floral offering from the delegates.
The Globe-Democrat thus reports:

Miss Anthony, visibly affected, responded: "Mrs. President and
Friends: I am not accustomed to demonstrations of gratitude or of
praise. I don't know how to behave tonight. Had you thrown stones
at me, had you called me hard names, had you said I should not
speak, had you declared I had done women more harm than good and
deserved to be burned at the stake; had you done anything, or said
anything, against the cause which I have tried to serve for the
last thirty years, I should have known how to answer, but now I do
not. I have been as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to this
movement. I know nothing and have known nothing of oratory or
rhetoric. Whatever I have done has been done because I wanted to
see better conditions, better surroundings, be