Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/70

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

before her that were sent her daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind her, bent forward listening with attentive faces—a pretty picture. Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes; a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian delegates; over $500 from Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quantities of fruit and flowers. The address was as follows:

We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our gratitude for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice. Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends, Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland, Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway; Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle, Germany.

[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved silver card case.]

The Washington Times said of the occasion:

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from some of the principal suffrage workers with these touching words: "Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear, dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in