n board in the steerage. On the voyage Mrs.
Mott was moved to hold a religious meeting among them, but the matter
being broached to them, their Catholic prejudices objected. They would
not hear a woman preach, for women priest were not allowed in their
Church. But the spirit that was pressing upon the "woman preacher" for
utterance was not to be prevented from delivering its message without
a more strenuous effort to remove the obstacle. She asked that the
emigrants might be invited to come together to consider with her
whether they would have a meeting. This was but fair and right, and
they came. She then explained how different her idea of a meeting was
from a church service to which they were accustomed; that she had no
thought of saying anything derogatory of that service nor of the
priests who ministered to them; that her heart had been drawn to them
in sympathy, as they were leaving their old homes for new ones in
America; and that she had wanted to address them as to their habits
and aims in their every-day life in such a way as to help them in the
land of strangers to which they were going. And then asking if they
would listen (and they were already listening because her gracious
voice and words so entranced them they could not help it), she said
she would give an outline of what she had wanted to say at the
meeting, and so she was drawn on by the silent sympathy she had
secured until the Spirit's message was delivered; and only the keenest
witted of her Catholic hearers waked up to the fact, as they were
going out, that they had got the preachment from the woman priest
after all.
Presiding at a woman's convention on one occasion, a speaker painted a
very vivid picture in the darkest colors of this nation's injustice to
oppressed classes, and from the experience of other nations not based
upon principle, he foretold the certain downfall of our republic. On
rising, he had said that "he feared he should not be able to do his
theme justice, as he had just risen from a bed of sickness," but
warming up with his subject he rivaled Isaiah in his Jeremiad, and
left his audience in gloom and despair, the president sharing in the
general feeling, for the appeal had been thrilling and terrible. In a
moment, however, Mrs. Mott arose, saying: "I trust our future is not
as hopeless as our faithful friend, Parker Pillsbury, has just
pictured. We must remember he told us in starting that he had just
risen from a bed of sickne
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