Mrs. Anthony

“ Miss Anthony, whom we know well and of whom we can speak from personal experience, is so broad in her charity, so cosmopolitan in her sympathies, that she will stand, without fearing speck or soil, beside any publican or sinner whose eyes have been opened to see the good in woman's rights, and who is willing to help on the work in his own way. ”

“ The audience was large and composed of the most respectable and intelligent of our citizens, a majority being ladies. Miss Anthony is one of the most remarkable women of the nineteenth century—remarkable for the purity of her life, the earnestness with which she promulgates her peculiar views, and the indomitable courage and perseverance with which she bears defeat and misfortune. ”

“ Miss Anthony is an American woman whom the better class of English people particularly, and of foreigners generally, will delight to honor, and one that her country-women are pleased to have represent them. She is, in point of character and ability, one of the few of her sex who have made themselves a name and a place in the history of her time....
She has had occasion to speak sharply, to lecture women severely, when in her heart she would have preferred to praise; but women love her dearly all the same, and trust her implicitly. ”

“ In our humble judgment, it is by no means complimentary to wives and mothers to be found present at such discourses, encouraging such untruthful and pernicious advice. If Miss Anthony's ideas were practically applied in the relations of life, women would sink from the social elevation they now hold and become the mere appendages of men. Miss Anthony concluded with a flourish of trumpets, that the woman's rights question could not be put down, that women's souls were beginning to expand, etc., after which she gathered her short skirts about her tight pants, sat down and wiped her spectacles. ”

“ I have studied Miss Anthony day and night for nearly a week, and I have taken the testimony of those who have known her intimately for twenty years, and all are united in this resume of her character: She is a woman of incorruptible integrity and the thought of guile has no place in her heart. In unselfishness and benevolence she has scarcely an equal, and her energy and executive ability are bounded only by her physical power, which is something immense. ”

“ Except to the growing child, however, time seemed to bring slight changes to the little home under whose roof he grew. The mistress thereof lost no charm either for her husband or her friends—Anthony indeed insisted that she grew younger; certainly, as time taught her new lessons without laying hands upon her beauty, she gained attractiveness in every way.
“You look as much like a girl as ever,” Anthony said to her one morning, as dressed for a trip into town she came out upon the porch where he and little Tony were frolicing together. ”

“ In this open letter old friends and neighbors unite with all who honor the birthday of its true citizen, and express the sincere wish that Miss Anthony in her sojourn in strange lands may find what she has in full measure here at home—a genuine appreciation of her true womanliness, her sturdy adherence to honest conviction and her heroic stand, against all opposition, for the higher education and enfranchisement of women. ”

“ Miss Anthony may be a very respectable lady, but such conversation is certainly not calculated to enhance public regard for her.... She announced quite confidently that wives don't de facto love their husbands if they are dissipated. Everyday observation proves the utter falsity of this statement, and if there is one characteristic of the sex which more than another elevates and ennobles it, it is the persistency and intensity of woman's love for man. But what does Miss Anthony know of the thousand delights of married life ”

“ It was said that Miss Anthony spoke as one inspired of the woman in whose death everything good had lost a helpful hand, who had gone out of life with no fear for herself but only loving thoughtfulness for others. ”

“ Anthony had forgotten his promise, but one day the saint appeared.
"Is this my godchild?" he asked as he looked at Antonia. "Surely she has grown prettier each year of her life."
Antonia blushed shyly and looked even more attractive than before.
"Dress yourself in your brother's garments," he said to her. "I am going to take you to the king's court and you are entirely too pretty to go there in your own dresses."
Accordingly, Antonia put on her brother's clothes and went to serve as a page to the king. She was now called Anthony instead of Antonia. ”

“ As Miss Anthony never approved of a woman's neglecting her household for any purpose, she urged no more but sought elsewhere for assistance. There was not one unmarried woman except herself in all the corps of available speakers and, while some of them could make a trip of a few weeks, not one could be depended on for steady work. ”

“ She is no "sour old maid," our Miss Anthony, nor are the young men shy of her when she can find time to accept an invitation out; genial, cheery, warm-hearted, overflowing with stories and reminiscences, utterly fearless and regardless of mere public opinion, yet having a woman's delicate sensitiveness as to anything outre in dress or appearance.
Our Susan B. Anthony will work up into a charming bit of biography some day without a dull page within the covers, providing, of course, stupidity does not have the writing of it. ”

“ In integrity, stainless honor and generosity of sentiment and of deed she has no peer. She has stood the storm of raillery and abuse she aroused, as the leader of the "shrieking sisterhood," with perfect equanimity, and while others were cowed by the ridicule which was hardest of all to bear, Miss Anthony busied herself using this opportunity to show to women the real opinion of them entertained by the stronger sex. ”

“ If there is one single drop of chivalric blood in woman's veins, it ought to bring a tinge of pride to the face that Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Julia Ward Howe and these other grand women, our leaders and our foremothers, are here for us to greet; that they, who heard so much that was not agreeable, may hear an occasional pleasant word while they are alive." Very few of the speakers failed to express their deep feeling of personal obligation and the indebtedness of all women to the early labors of Miss Anthony and the other pioneers. ”

“ As we came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they applauding for? She credits all attentions to herself as for the cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed, the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. ”

“ Anthony, a little awed, as one is by a range of feelings stretching beyond one’s grasp, comforted himself by the thought that probably the old fellow would have little to say. He wouldn’t want to talk about it. No man would. It must have been a real hell to him.
And then Anthony, at the end of the day in which he had gone through a marriage ceremony with Flora de Barral, ceased to think of Flora’s father except, as in some sort, the captive of his triumph. ”

“ Anthony presses his hands to his head, and remains silent for a long time. Then, taking a step forward, he places his right hand in that of The Woman. They slowly leave the ground. As they mount in the air the few retarded rays of light utterly vanish, and blackest night confounds the jutting rock with the starless heaven. ”

“ Anthony is years too old for you, even if you loved him. And you don't love him."
"Yet I can't break a promise, can I?"
He moved restlessly.
"If you told him, he would release you, of course. But somehow I'd feel an awful cad to have Anthony think that I had taken you from him."
"How do you think I should feel?" The color flamed in her cheeks. "Don't you know that a woman has just as fine a sense of honor in such things as a man?"
As she made a movement to rise, he caught at the floating ends of her white veil, and held them, as if he would thus anchor her to himself. ”

“ Not only is it a delight to her contemporaries, but it will be a pleasure to future generations who shall read her history, that Miss Anthony lived to receive her meed of appreciation. While not all of even the enlightened minds of today have progressed far enough to accept her doctrine of perfect equality, which will be universally admitted by the next generation, there are few who do not recognize and honor the splendid character of the woman and the service she has rendered. ”

“ He halted, and surveyed Anthony with a lowered, searching curiosity, clenching with a strained and surprising force the knob of a black stick. Anthony met his scrutiny with the salutation of youth and the road; but the other made no reply; his countenance was as blank as though no word had been spoken. Then a sudden flicker of hot light burned in the dull depths of his gaze, his worn face quivered with a swift malignancy, an energy of suspicion, of hatred, that touched Anthony's heart with a cold finger of fear. ”

“ The idea of giving the reception originated among the members of the Wednesday Club, some of whom conceived the thought that it was time for the women of Rochester in some way to recognize Miss Anthony's ability, energy and labors in behalf of her sex.... Reformers, as a rule, are not popular in their day, and Miss Anthony ran the gauntlet of derision and abuse years ago, but today the magnificent services she has rendered for woman are everywhere recognized. ”

“ That is usually the case when Miss Anthony is about, but it was always suffrage in its relation to the home. Who, knowing Miss Anthony's reputation, could suppose that she would cross the continent in the evening of her life to discuss the draping of a lace curtain or the best colors for a parlor carpet?... Five thousand people waiting on the steps of the Temple Emanu-El for the purpose of hearing the woman preacher's last address does not look as if her position were uncertain. Mere curiosity does not take the same people to nineteen consecutive sessions. ”

“ Then suddenly appears—An Aged Woman. Anthony starts to his feet in affright. It seems to him that he beholds his mother arisen.
But this woman is far older, and prodigiously thin.
A shroud, knotted about her head, hangs down, together with her white hair, so as to cover her legs, slender as crutches. The brilliancy of her ivory-coloured teeth make her earthy skin darker still. The orbits of her eyes are full of shadow; and far back within them two flames vacillate, like the lamps of sepulchres. ”

“ But now that she mentioned a father, it seemed to Anthony that he could see a mighty man, a man of wrath and muscle and perhaps a man who could slay with one blow and—oh, there was no other way!
All his life, Anthony had shied from woman. All these last twenty-five years he had thanked his lucky stars that one of them had never snared him! He had been alone, to live as he pleased and act as he pleased and think as he pleased; married men do not do that, as witness Johnson Boller, ensnared by Beatrice, a decent enough young woman but his ruler. ”

“ She shakes her tresses, "banged" and usually blonde; she lifts her alluring eyes, and nine times out of ten makes him do as she listeth. No wonder when the earnest appeal of honest women reaches his hands, he has neither response, honor nor justice to give it.
Miss Anthony had been speaking in all parts of the country for a quarter of a century and generally had been her own manager. The preceding year she had given the Slayton Lyceum Bureau a partial trial and at the beginning of 1877 made a contract with it, commencing the last of January. ”

“ And yet, Anthony, you have the hardihood, you assume the wisdom, to decide for us both—squarely against the dictates of both our hearts. You assume not only to decide for us now—you are deciding what the future would be if we should stay together. And that is—why, that is silly, Anthony. There never was a man and woman who needed each other more than you and I need each other.” Her voice dropped, and softened. “I don't think a man and woman ever loved more wonderfully, Anthony. We are n't children. ”

“ She interrupted him quickly:
"Father is an innocent man. He was cruelly wronged."
"Yes. That's why," Anthony insisted earnestly. "And you are the only human being that can make it up to him. You alone must reconcile him with the world if anything can. But of course you shall. You'll have to find words. Oh you'll know. And then the sight of you, alone, would soothe--"
"He's the gentlest of men," she interrupted again.
Anthony shook his head. "It would take no end of generosity, no end of gentleness to forgive such a dead set. ”

“ Catt was the signal for a burst of applause, which rose into an ovation when Miss Huberwald, in a few graceful words, presented Mrs. Merrick, who in turn introduced Miss Anthony as the most famous woman in America. When the applause subsided, Miss Anthony, whose voice is singularly sweet and clear, began to speak.
She was presented with a basket of flowers and a bouquet from Mrs. J. M. Ferguson, president of the Arena club. At the close hundreds pressed forward to take the hands of the speakers. ”

“ Garstin was stooping before the hearth, tremulously turning some girdle-cakes that lay roasting in the embers.
At the sound of Anthony's heavy tread in the passage, she rose, glancing sharply at the clock above the chimney-piece. She was a heavy-built woman, upright, stalwart almost, despite her years. Her face was gaunt and sallow; deep wrinkles accentuated the hardness of her features. She wore a black widow's cap above her iron-grey hair, gold-rimmed spectacles, and a soiled, chequered apron.
'Ye're varra late, Tony,' she remarked querulously. ”