tesimal bits of paper; but it must not be inferred
from this peculiarity that she was penurious, as she was generous in
her charities, and in the support of every good cause. Considering her
means and the self-denial she practiced in her personal expenses, her
gifts were lavish. Alfred Love, President of the Peace Society, who
frequently received letters from Mrs. Mott, says: "The one before me
is two and a half inches wide by two and a quarter inches long,
written on both sides, and contains one hundred and forty-one words,
and treats of seven distinct matters, and disposes of them in good
order, apologizing for her apparent economy of paper, and enclosing a
contribution of five dollars for a benevolent object." Though she
always dressed in Quaker costume, she attached no special significance
to it as a means of grace. One Sunday morning at a religious meeting,
she was in her accustomed seat in the gallery, when a young man, a
stranger to many, spoke in behalf of Peace. At the close of the
meeting some one who could not see the speaker asked Lucretia Mott his
name, and added: "Does he wear a standing collar and dress plain?" She
replied in her happy, cheerful manner, "Well, really I did not look to
see, I was too much interested in what he said to look at the cut of
his coat."
'Mid all the differences, dissensions, and personal antagonisms,
through the years we have labored together in the Woman's Rights
movement, I can not recall one word or occasion in which Mrs. Mott's
influence has not been for harmony, good-will, and the broadest
charity. She endured too much persecution herself ever to join in
persecuting others. In every reform she stood in the fore-front of the
battle. Wherever there was a trying emergency to be met, there you
could rely on Lucretia Mott. She never dodged responsibility nor
disagreeable occasions. At one time when excitement on the divorce
question ran high in New York, and there was a great hue and cry about
free love on our platform, I was invited to speak before the
Legislature on the bill then pending asking "divorce for drunkenness."
We chose the time at the close of one of our Conventions, that Mrs.
Mott might be present, which she readily consented to do, and promised
to speak if she felt moved. She charged Ernestine Rose and myself not
to take too radical ground, in view of the hostility to the bill, but
to keep closely to the merits of the main question. I told her she
might feel sur
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