Culture and Women's Clubs 99 



ful voice; she knew her subject and was absolutely so 

 committed to it that she never faltered ; she feared noth- 

 ing. As one listened, he forgot the speaker; he noted 

 first only the music of her speech, like a rain of silver 

 coin upon a marble counter; then he caught the argu- 

 ment, the torrent of invective and sarcasm, the gentle- 

 ness of appeal, and went away, if not convinced, at least 

 conscious that he should have been. She was a great 

 student, a fearless orator, and a great and noble woman. 



And she won! Prior to 1860 she secured, through 

 legislation, for the women of New York State, the right 

 to their own earnings and to the guardianship of their 

 own children, amazing as that now sounds to us; and 

 she won it practically alone. There was no women's 

 club then in every village to help her; though she had 

 doubtless the sympathy of thousands, she was victorious 

 in her own might, because she felt that she was right; 

 and she was! 



Another woman of very different type, but similar 

 history, was Lucretia Mott. She was seven years of age 

 when the nineteenth century came in. As a girl she 

 was a teacher in the public schools of New York, but 

 presently became a preacher for the Society of Friends. 

 In 1818 she visited old Virginia in the course of her re- 

 ligious work, and there saw black men and women and 

 children doomed to bondage. She went home to New 

 York, married, and forthwith joined her husband in a 

 life-long campaign for the emancipation of the slave. 

 She was a member of the American Anti-Slavery So- 

 ciety; but when, in 1840, she went with her husband 

 to attend the world's anti-slavery convention in Lon- 



