At the close of the convention the principal speakers and many of the delegates went to Philadelphia to a national conference, which was largely attended. It was here that "Nelly Bly" had the famous interview published in the New York World of February 2, 1896. She had tried to secure this in Washington, but Miss Anthony could not spare time for it, so she followed her to Philadelphia. It filled a page of the Sunday edition and contained Miss Anthony's opinions on most of the leading topics of the day, in the main correctly reported, although not a note was taken. It began thus:
Susan B. Anthony! She was waiting for me. I stood for an instant in the doorway and looked at her. She made a picture to remember and to cherish. She sat in a low rocking-chair, an image of repose and restfulness. Her well-shaped head, with its silken snowy hair combed smoothly over her ears, rested against the back of the chair. Her shawl had half fallen from her shoulders and her soft black silk gown lay in gentle folds about her. Her slender hands were folded idly in her lap, and her feet, crossed, just peeped from beneath the edge of her skirt. If she had been posed for a picture, it could not have been done more artistically.
"Do you know the world is a blank to me?" she said after we had exchanged greetings. "I haven't read a newspaper in ten days and I feel lost to everything. Tell me about Cuba! I almost would be willing to postpone the enfranchisement of women to see Cuba free...."
"Do you believe in immortality?"
"I don't know anything about heaven or hell," she answered, "or whether I will meet my friends again or not, but as no particle of matter is ever destroyed, I have a feeling that no particle of mind is ever lost. I am sure that the same wise power which manages the present may be trusted with the hereafter."
"Then you don't find life tiresome?"
"O, mercy, no! I don't want to die as long as I can work; the minute I can not, I want to go. I dread the thought of being enfeebled. The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball—the further I am rolled the more I gain. But," she added, significantly, "I'll have to take it as it comes. I'm just as much in eternity now as after the breath goes out of my body."
"Do you pray?"
"I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees, but with my work. My prayer is to lift woman to equality with man. Work and worship are one with me. I can not imagine a God of the universe made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him 'great.'...
"What do I think of marriage? True marriage, the real marriage of soul, when two people take each other on terms of perfect equality, without the desire of one to control the other, is a beautiful thing; it is the highest condition of life; but for a woman to marry for support is demoralizing; and for a man to marry a woman merely because she has a beautiful figure or face is degradation...."
"Do you like flowers?" I asked, leading her into another channel.
"I like roses first and pinks second, and nothing else after," Miss Anthony laughed. "I don't call anything a flower that hasn't a sweet perfume."
"What is your favorite hymn or ballad?"
"The dickens!" she exclaimed merrily. "I don't know! I can't tell one tune from another. I know there are such hymns as 'Sweet By and By' and 'Old Hundred,' but I can not tell them apart. All music sounds alike to me, but still if there is the slightest discord it hurts me. Neither do I know anything about art," she continued, "yet when I go into a room filled with pictures my friends say I invariably pick out the best. I have good company, I always think, in my musical ignorance. Wendell Phillips couldn't recognize tunes; neither could Anna Dickinson."
"What's your favorite motto, or have you one?"
"For the last thirty years I have written in all albums, 'Perfect equality of rights for women, civil and political;' or, 'I know only woman and her disfranchised.' There is another, one of Charles Sumner's, 'Equal rights for all.' I never write sentimental things....
"Yes, I'll tell you what I think of bicycling," she said, leaning forward and laying a hand on my arm. "I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."
"What do you think the new woman will be?"
"She'll be free," said Miss Anthony. "Then she'll be whatever her best judgment dictates. We can no more imagine what the true woman will be than what the true man will be. We haven't him yet, and it will be generations after we gain freedom before we have the highest man and woman. They will constantly change for the better, as the world does. What is the best possible today will be outgrown tomorrow."
"What would you call woman's best attribute?"
"Good common sense; she has a great deal of uncommon sense now, but I want her to be an all-around woman, not gifted overly in one respect and lacking in others...."
"And now," I said, approaching a very delicate subject on tip-toe, "tell me one thing more. Were you ever in love?"
"In love?" she laughed. "Bless you, Nelly, I've been in love a thousand times!"
"Really!" I gasped, taken back by this startling confession.
"Yes, really," nodding her snowy head; "but I never loved anyone so much that I thought it would last. In fact, I never felt I could give up my life of freedom to become a man's housekeeper. When I was young, if a girl married poverty, she became a drudge; if she married wealth, she became a doll. Had I married at twenty-one, I would have been either a drudge or a doll for fifty-five years. Think of it!" and she laughed again....
Miss Anthony's seventy-sixth birthday was celebrated by the Rochester Political Equality Club at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. S. A. Linn. The spacious and beautifully decorated rooms were crowded with guests, and interesting addresses were given by Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Gannett, Mr. J. M. Thayer and Mary Seymour Howell, to which Miss Anthony made a happy response. On February 17 she spoke at a church fair given by the colored people of Bath, and then completed her preparations for a long journey and a great campaign. It will be remembered that Miss Anthony had decided to rest from "field work" during 1896, and to arrange her papers for the writing of the history of her life, which her friends felt was now the most important thing for her to do. To this end a roomy half-story had been built on the substantial Rochester home, and therein were placed all the big boxes and trunks of letters and documents which had been accumulating during the last fifty years and stored in woodshed, cellar and closets; a stenographer had been engaged and all was in readiness for the great work. Then came an appeal from 3,000 miles away which rent asunder all her resolutions.
When she had been in California the previous year and had helped the women plan their approaching campaign, nothing had been further from her thoughts than returning to give her personal assistance. As the time for action drew near, those who had the matter in charge began to realize that the task before them was far greater than they had anticipated, and that they were lacking in the experience which would be needed. There were very few women who could be depended on to draw together and address great audiences of thousands of people, to speak thirty consecutive nights in each month, and to be equal to every emergency of a political campaign; nor were there any considerable number who understood the best methods of organization. It was then both natural and sensible that the State society should appeal to the national association for assistance. It is an essential part of the business of the officers of that body to respond to such calls.
Miss Anthony had been home from California but a short time in 1895 when Ellen C. Sargent, president of the State association, wrote an earnest official request for the help of the national board. At the same time Sarah B. Cooper, president of the campaign committee, sent the strongest letter her eloquent pen could write, emphasizing Mrs. Sargent's invitation. These were followed by similar pleas from the other members of the board and from many prominent women of the State. Miss Anthony felt at first as if it would not be possible for her to make the long trip and endure the fatigue of a campaign, which she understood so well from having experienced it seven times over. On the other hand she realized what a tremendous impetus would be given to the cause of woman suffrage if the great State of California should carry this amendment, and she longed to render every assistance in her power. It was not, however, until early in February that she yielded to the appeals and decided to abandon all the plans she had cherished for the year. The moment her decision reached California, Harriet Cooper, secretary of the committee, telegraphed their delight and sent her a check of $120 for travelling expenses.
The question now arose with Miss Anthony what she should do with her secretary, whom she had engaged for a year but did not feel able to take with her. This was settled in a few days through the action of Rev. and Mrs. W. C. Gannett, who went among the friends and in a short time raised the money to pay Mrs. Sweet's expenses to California and back, all agreeing that Miss Anthony must have some one to relieve her of the mechanical part of the burden she was about to assume. This seemed too good to be true, as she had had no such help in all her forty-five years of public work. The two started on the evening of February 27, a large party of friends assembling at the station to say good-by to the veteran of seventy-six years about to enter another battle. They stopped at Ann Arbor for the Michigan convention, the guests of Mrs. Hall, and then a few days in Chicago, where Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gross sat for a statuette by Miss Bessie Potter.
She reached San Diego March 10 and, after attending the Woman's Club, went to Los Angeles where she was beautifully received, sharing the honors with Robert J. Burdette at the Friday Morning Club. Mrs. Alice Moore McComas wrote to Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. Cooper the next day: "Dear Miss Anthony came, saw and conquered, and we are hers! Letters and telegrams were dispatched in every direction as soon as we found she was coming and she has been able to reach women that I have almost despaired of. Dozens who have heretofore held aloof, have promised me today to stand by the amendment till all is over, and with these recruits we feel that we can undertake the convention work in this county. The women are aroused and we will see that they stay aroused. Miss Anthony's visit was opportune and just what was needed."
She arrived at San Francisco a few days later, being joyfully greeted at the Oakland station by Mrs. Cooper and Harriet. She went directly to the Sargent residence, and from this delightful home, Miss Anthony, the National president, and Mrs. Sargent, the State president, directed the great campaign.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] The following from the Wichita Eagle is noteworthy because in the Kansas campaign the year before, and in all previous years, it had been abusive beyond description and had at all times put every possible stumbling-block in the way of woman suffrage and berated all who advocated it: