Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/861

had gone before was the great gathering in Skansen, the magnificest park, where at 7 o'clock, from two platforms, noted speakers from ten countries addressed an audience of thousands. A dinner followed in the park house, Hogenloft, with fine music, and then in the open air the visitors saw the famous national dances and processions by the young people in the picturesque costumes of the country.

Although the official languages of the Alliance were French, German and English a crowded meeting was held one evening in the People's House with the speeches in the northern tongues, understood by all the Scandinavian people. It was opened by Mayor Lindhagen, an ardent advocate of woman suffrage. At another session the Woman Question in the Russian Parliament was considered by the noted woman leader, Dr. Shiskin-Yavein; the Suffrage Outlook in Bohemia by Miss Maria Tumova, recent candidate for Parliament; the Future of South African Women by Miss Nina Boyle. A special meeting was held one afternoon in the hall of the Young Women's Christian Association. Mrs. Marie Stritt, Germany; Mme. Maria Verone, France, and Miss Macmillan were appointed to compile a pamphlet of information about woman suffrage in all lands to be used for propaganda work.

A delegate from the United States, Professor Mary Gray Peck, officially connected with its national suffrage headquarters, gave the following description in a letter to the press:

The ball room of the Grand Hotel where the meetings were held is a palatial apartment, its walls richly gilded and adorned with long mirrors between the windows, while from the ceiling hang great crystal chandeliers, which were always lighted while the congress was in session. The platform for officers and distinguished guests was placed between gilded pillars at one end of the hall, draped and canopied with the national colors of Sweden, blue and yellow, and the international suffrage colors, yellow and white. Then there is the memory of other places where the delegates assembled, the ancient State Church, with its reminder of St. Paul's in London; the splendid Academy of Music, with the heraldic banners of the nations suspended around the gallery; the Royal Opera House with its tiers of balconies and the rising of the curtain to show the beautiful stage picture of the speakers and the arch of flowers beneath which they spoke; the Moorish court in the Royal Hotel, where the reception was held, with the delightful Birgitta cantata, recalling the heroic in Swedish womanhood; the open air meeting at Skansen