ped loudly when she herself asked
them to buy tracts and contribute to the work.

Complimentary as this was, she did not flatter herself that they had
endorsed woman's rights. That they had come to her meetings in large
numbers while vacationing in Saratoga Springs, this was important. In
some a spark of understanding glowed, and this spark would light
others. They came from the South, from the West, and from the large
cities of the East. There were railroad magnates among them, rich
merchants, manufacturers, and politicians. Charles F. Hovey, the
wealthy Boston dry-goods merchant, listened attentively to every word,
and in the years that followed became a generous contributor to the
cause.

* * * * *

Realizing how very tired she was and that she must feel more
physically fit before continuing her work, Susan decided to take the
water cure at her cousin Seth Rogers' Hydropathic Institute in
Worcester, Massachusetts. This well-known sanitorium prescribed water
internally and externally as a remedy for all kinds of ailments, and
in an age when meals were overhearty, baths infrequent, and clothing
tight and confining, the drinking of water, tub baths, showers, and
wet packs had enthusiastic advocates. The soothing baths relaxed
Susan and the leisure to read refreshed and strengthened her. She
read, one after another, Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_, George Sand's
_Consuelo_, Madame de Stael's _Corinne_, then Frances Wright's _A Few
Days in Athens_ and Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Bronte_, making
notes in her diary (1855) of passages she particularly liked. She
discussed current events with her cousin Seth on long drives in the
country, finding him a delightful companion, well-read, understanding,
and interested in people and causes. He took her to her first
political meeting, where she was the only woman present and had a seat
on the platform. It was one of the first rallies of the new Republican
party which had developed among rebellious northern Whigs,
Free-Soilers, and anti-Nebraska Democrats who opposed the extension of
slavery. After listening to the speakers, among them Charles Sumner,
she drew these conclusions: "Had the accident of birth given me place
among the aristocracy of sex, I doubt not I should be an active,
zealous advocate of Republicanism; unless perchance, I had received
that higher, holier light which would have lifted me to the sublime
height where now stand Garris