Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/214

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182
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

citizenship; but today our cities are not walled, our foes are not without the gates trying to scale the walls. The enemies are within, often found sitting in high places. Today citizens are called upon to fight, not warriors, but vice and corruption and low standards. Are not our mothers quite as capable as our fathers to wage warfare against these, the enemies in our midst?

When I was in The Hague last summer I visited the only kind of battleground which any intelligent, progressive, self-respecting nation ought to show with pride.... There in the peaceful little House in the Wood national disputes are settled, not by sacrificing the lives of thousands of innocent, helpless young men, not by creating thousands of widows and orphans, but by threshing out all matters relating to the dispute in a rational, calm, judicial and honorable way.... It seemed to me that this 20th century battleground, this quiet, peaceful House in the Wood, augured well for a new era, one in which our swords will indeed be turned into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks, and the angels of peace and righteousness will hover over us.

The social features of the convention were of an unusually interesting character. The Garrett family mansion had been closed for the winter but Miss Garrett opened it completely, invited as home guests Miss Anthony, Mrs. Howe, Miss Addams, Dr. Thomas and other distinguished visitors and gave a series of entertainments that conferred on the convention a prestige which added much to its influence in that conservative city. In order that its representative men and women might meet the officers and delegates Miss Garrett had a luncheon and dinner every day, the formal invitations reading: "To meet Miss Susan B. Anthony and Governor and Mrs. Warfield"; "To meet Miss Anthony and the speakers of the College Evening," etc.,—on each invitation Miss Anthony's name preceding those of the other guests of honor. All of the speakers on the College Women's evening were her house guests and after the meeting she gave a large reception. To quote again from the Biography: "No one present will ever forget the picture of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Howe sitting side by side on a divan in the large bay window, with a background of ferns and flowers. At their right stood Miss Garrett and Dr. Thomas, at their left Dr. Shaw and the line of eminent college women, with a beautiful perspective of conservatory and art gallery.... There was nothing in the closing years of Miss 'Anthony's life that offered such encourage-