Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 1.djvu/514

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History of Woman Suffrage.

turned to the Convention, and reported the success of their mission, in full confidence that their prayers would be answered. But alas! they forgot that women were a disfranchised class, and that legislators give no heed to the claims of such for protection.

In the evening, the ladies had two immense meetings, one in the church, and one in the Assembly Chamber of the Capitol. At the latter, Susan B. Anthony read Mrs. Stanton's "Appeal to the Legislature," and addresses were made by Mary C. Vaughan and Antoinette Brown; the galleries as well as the floor of the house being literally packed; while at the former, Mrs. Bloomer, Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Albro, and Miss Clark addressed an equally crowded audience.

Following this Convention, Mrs. Bloomer, Miss Brown, and Miss Anthony went to New York, on the invitation of S. P. Townsend, and addressed 3,000 people in Metropolitan Hall; Lydia F. Fowler presided; Mr. and Mrs. Horace Greeley, Abby Hopper Gibbons, and other prominent gentlemen and ladies sat on the platform. . They also addressed large audiences in the Broadway Tabernacle and Knickerbocker Hall, and in Brooklyn. And during March and April made a most successful tour through the State, speaking at Sing Sing, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Troy, Cohoes, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Lockport, Buffalo, and many of the smaller cities, and were greeted everywhere with large audiences and the most respectful attention from both press and people.

The New York Tribune, under the heading of Great Gathering of The Women of New York, said of their Metropolitan meeting: The Women's Grand Temperance Demonstration at Metropolitan Hall last evening, was a most brilliant and successful affair. The audience which assembled on that occasion to welcome Mrs. Bloomer and her assistants in the cause of Temperance, was almost as large and fully as respectable as the audiences that nightly greeted Jenny Lind and Catharine Hays during their engagement in that hall. Good order was observed throughout the evening, and earnest and hearty applause was frequent. The only hissing evidently intended for the speakers was when Mrs. Bloomer reviewed the sentiments of Hon. Horace Mann relative to woman; and then the plaudits came to her rescue and triumphantly sustained the speaker. The audience was a smiling one; some smiled at the novelty of the occasion; others with admiration; the latter, judging from the twinkling of eyes and clapping of hands, were in the majority. While some evidently writhed under the application of the lash for their disregard of the principles of temperance; others enjoyed the rigor of the infliction and manifested their satisfaction by applause.

The New York Evening Post said: The first meeting of the Women's Temperance Society was held last evening in Metropolitan Hall. There were about three thousand persons present, a large proportion of whom