of
the towns never had been visited by a woman speaker, and wagon-loads of
people would come from miles around to see the novelty. The audiences
were cold but respectful and, as a rule, she was treated decently by
the county papers. Occasionally a smart editor would get off the joke
about her relationship to Mark Antony, which even then had become
threadbare, and invariably the articles would begin, "While we do not
agree with the theories which the lady advocates." Most of them,
however, paid high tribute to her ability as a speaker and to the
clearness, logic and force of her arguments. A quotation from the
Rondout Courier will illustrate:

At the appointed hour a lady, unattended and unheralded, quietly
glided in and ascended the platform. She was as easy and
self-possessed as a lady should always be when performing a plain
duty, even under 600 curious eyes. Her situation would have been
trying to a non-self-reliant woman, for there was no volunteer
co-operator. The custodian of the hall, with his stereotyped
stupidity, had dumped some tracts and papers on the platform. The
unfriended Miss Anthony gathered them up composedly, placed them on
a table disposedly, put her decorous shawl on one chair and a very
exemplary bonnet on another, sat a moment, smoothed her hair
discreetly, and then deliberately walked to the table and addressed
the audience. She wore a becoming black silk dress, gracefully
draped and made with a basque waist. She appears to be somewhere
about the confines of the fourth luster in age, of pleasing rather
than pretty features, decidedly expressive countenance, rich brown
hair very effectively and not at all elaborately arranged, neither
too tall nor too short, too plump nor too thin--in brief one of
those juste milieu persons, the perfection of common sense
physically exhibited. Miss Anthony's oratory is in keeping with all
her belongings, her voice well modulated and musical, her
enunciation distinct, her style earnest and impressive, her
language pure and unexaggerated.

Judging from other friendly notices this must be an accurate
description of Miss Anthony at the age of thirty-five. The experiment
of a woman on the platform was too new, however, and the doctrines she
advocated too unpopular for it to be possible that she should receive
fair treatment generally, and there were few papers which described her