There is perplexity in the northern district of New York. It was in that jurisdiction that Miss Susan B. Anthony and sundry "erring sisters" voted at the November election. For this they were arrested and indicted. The venue was laid in Monroe county and there the trial was to take place. Miss Anthony then proceeded to stump Monroe county and every town and village thereof, asking her bucolic hearers the solemn conundrum, "Is it a crime for a United States citizen to vote?" The answer is supposed generally to be in the negative, and so convincing is Sister Anthony's rhetoric regarded that it is supposed no jury can be found to convict her. Her case has gone to the jurymen of Monroe, in her own persuasive pleadings, before they are summoned. The district-attorney has, therefore, postponed the trial to another term of the court, and changed the place thereof to Ontario county; whereupon the brave Susan takes the stump in Ontario, and personally makes known her woes and wants. It is a regular St. Anthony's dance she leads the district-attorney; and, in spite of winter cold or summer heat, she will carry her case from county to county precisely as fast as the venue is changed. One must rise very early in the morning to get the start of this active apostle of the sisterhood.—New York Commercial Advertiser.
It seems likely that the decision of the court will be in Miss Anthony's favor. If such be the result the advocates of woman suffrage will change places with the public. They will no longer be forced to obtain hearings from congressional and legislative committees for their claims, but will exercise their right to vote by the authority of a legal precedent against which positive laws forbidding them from voting will be the only remedy. It is a question whether such laws can be passed in this country. A careful examination of the subject must precede any such legislation, and the inference from the result of Judge Selden's investigation is that the more the subject is studied the less likely will any legislative body be to forbid those women who want to vote from so doing.—New York Evening Post.
Miss Susan B. Anthony, whatever else she may be, is evidently of the right stuff for a reformer. Of all the woman suffragists she has the most courage and resource, and fights her own and her sisters' battle with the most wonderful energy, resolution and hopefulness. It is well known that she is now under indictment for voting illegally in Rochester last November. Voting illegally in her case means simply voting, for it is held that women can not lawfully vote at all. She is to be tried soon, but in the meantime, while at large on bail, she has devoted her time to missionary work on behalf of woman suffrage, and has spoken, it is said, in every post-office district in Monroe county, where her trial would have been held in the natural course of things. She has argued her cause so well that almost all the male population of the county have been converted to her views on this subject. The district-attorney is afraid to trust the case to a jury from that county, and has obtained a change of venue to Ontario on the ground that a fair trial can not be had in Monroe.
Miss Anthony, rather cheered than discouraged by this unwilling testimony to the strength of her cause and her powers of persuasion, has made arrangements to canvass Ontario county as thoroughly as Monroe. Some foolish and bigoted people who edit newspapers are complaining that Miss Anthony's proceedings are highly improper, inasmuch as they are intended to influence the decision of a cause pending in the courts. They even talk about contempt of court, and declare that Miss Anthony should be compelled to desist from making these invidious harangues. We suspect that the courts will not venture to interfere with this lady's speech-making tour, but will be of the opinion that she has the same right which other people, male or female, have to explain her political views and make converts to them if she can. We have never known it claimed before that a person accused of an offense was thereby deprived of the common right of free speech on political and other questions.—Worcester Spy.
The vapid efforts of a part of the newspaper press to entertain the public, of late, by descriptions, criticisms and comments, founded upon pretended interviews with Miss Anthony, reveal a standard of courtesy and truth discreditable to the American press, and a meagerness of interesting matter suggesting the propriety of the suspension of such sheets altogether. The Pittsburg Leader, among others, disgraces itself by a scurrilous report of what "the gay old girl said to a reporter;" and the New York World, of course, waxed very funny in its account of the late convention. These gibes at Miss Anthony's personal appearance, unwillingness to tell her age, "fishy eyes," etc., are read by her friends in Rochester with indignation and with contempt for the press which will publish such misrepresentations as truth.
All Rochester will assert—at least all of it worth heeding—that Miss Anthony holds here the position of a refined and estimable woman, thoroughly respected and beloved by the large circle of staunch friends who swear by her common sense and loyalty, if not by her peculiar views. As for her age, she tells it often enough unsolicited, whenever the famous silk dress is alluded to; the dear old dress that a New York reporter held up as such perfection of taste and fashion! Anna Dickinson gave that dress to Miss Anthony upon her fiftieth birthday a number of years ago, and the news was in all the papers. That dress is going into history with Commissioner Storrs, Judge Selden and the illustrious rest. It has always been worn by a lady—a genuine lady—no pretense nor sham—but good Quaker metal. 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. Never mind what she has been fighting for, and will fight for till the victory is sure, we must all own hers a brave record, and she has already accomplished for her sex much that their scorn and contumely did not prevent her striving for. We heard a lady remark after attending the suffrage convention: "No, I am not converted to what these women advocate, I am too cowardly for that; but I am converted to Susan B. Anthony."—Rochester Evening Express.