ssing that her own National American Woman Suffrage
Association in comparison was poor in numbers and limited in funds,
she added, "I would philosophize on the reason why. It is because
women have been taught always to work for something else than their
own personal freedom; and the hardest thing in the world is to
organize women for the one purpose of securing their political liberty
and political equality."[382] Even so, the vital woman's rights
organizations, she concluded, drew the whole world to them in spirit
if not in person.

Her very presence among them without her words, in fact her very
presence on the fair grounds, advertised her cause, for in the mind of
the public she personified woman suffrage. This tall dignified woman
with smooth gray hair, abundant in energy and spontaneous
friendliness, was the center of attraction at the World's Congress of
Representative Women. In her new black dress of Chinese silk,
brightened with blue, and her small black bonnet, trimmed with lace
and blue forget-me-nots, she was the perfect picture of everyone's
grandmother, and the people took her to their hearts.[383] She was the
one woman all wanted to see. Curious crowds jammed the hall and
corridors when she was scheduled to speak, and often a policeman had
to clear the way for her. At whatever meeting she appeared, the
audience at once burst into applause and started calling for her,
interrupting the speakers, and were not satisfied until she had
mounted the platform so that all could see her and she had said a few
words. Then they cheered her. After years of ridicule and
unpopularity, she hardly knew what to make of all this, but she
accepted it with happiness as a tribute to her beloved cause. Many
who had been critical and wary of her newfangled notions began to
reverse their opinions after they saw her and heard her words of good
common sense. Even those who still opposed woman suffrage left the
World's Fair with a new respect for Susan B. Anthony.

She stayed on in Chicago for much of the summer and fall, for she was
in demand as a speaker at several of the world congresses and had five
speeches to read for Mrs. Stanton, who felt unable to brave the heat
and the crowds. She felt at home in this bustling, rapidly growing
city which for so many years had been the halfway station on her
lecture and campaign trips through the West. Here she had always found
a warm welcome, first from her cousins, the Dickinsons, then fr