iety being
earnestly enlisted in the good work, responded to this invitation.
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Bloomer accepted the appointment, and on
arriving at Syracuse, found many of the delegates already there, and
everything indicating a large Convention. The next morning, while
preparing to go to the hall, a gentleman was announced, who wished to
see them in the parlor. On descending thither, they were happy to meet
Samuel J. May. He came to inform them that their arrival had created
great excitement among some of the clergy, who were shocked at the
idea of women delegates to the Convention, and threatened if they were
admitted, to withdraw. This had alarmed others who were not quite so
conservative, but who feared to have anything occur to create
disturbance. They had persuaded Mr. May to wait upon the ladies and
urge them quietly to withdraw. Mr. May performed his part well, merely
stating the facts of the case, and leaving them to act upon their own
judgment. But when they decided to present their credentials and
demand their rights as members of the Convention, his face beamed with
joy, as he said to them, "You are right." At the appointed time they
were seated with other ladies in attendance at the side of the
platform. Presently Rev. Dr. Mandeville, of Albany, arose, turned his
chair facing them, his back to the audience, and stared at them with
all the impudence of a boor, as if to wither them with his piercing
glance.

WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH, says _The Lily_,[97] read the annual report,
which, among other things, "hailed the formation of the Woman's
State Society as a valuable auxiliary in the cause of
temperance." Rev. J. Marsh moved that the report be accepted and
adopted.

Dr. MANDEVILLE objected in a speech of some length, characterized
by more venom and vulgarity than it had ever before been our
fortune to hear; and such as the most foul-mouthed politician or
bar-room orator would have hesitated to utter before respectable
audiences. He denounced the Woman's State Temperance Society, and
all women who took an active public part in promoting the cause.
Spoke contemptuously of woman going from home to attend a
temperance convention, and characterized such as a sort of
"hybrid species, half man and half woman, belonging to neither
sex." The short dress and woman's rights questions were "handled
without gloves." These movements must be