e to lecture on woman's rights. His reply
was prompt; his assurances hearty. I had "only to name the time," and
I would find everything in readiness. That the truce-like courtesy of
the compact between us may be appreciated, I copy a postscript
appended to his letter and a postscript in reply added to my note of
appointment; with the explanation, that in our Kansas City interview,
the Colonel had declared the negro incapable of education, and that
emancipation would result in amalgamation.

Postscript No. 1.--Have you tried your experiment of education on any
little nigger yet? J. S.

Postscript No. 2.--No, I have not tried my educational experiment, for
the reason that the horrid amalgamationists preceded us, and so
bleached the "niggers" that I have not been able to find a pure-blood
specimen. C. I. H. N.

The subject of slavery was not again mentioned between us. And when we
shook hands in the cabin of the steamer at parting, he remarked, with
a manly frankness in grateful contrast with the covert contempt felt,
rather than expressed, in his previous courtesies, that he thought it
proper I should know, that my audiences, composed of the most
intelligent and respectable people of St. Joseph, were pleased with my
lectures. One of its most eminent citizens had said to him, that he
"had not thought of the subject in the light presented, but he really
could see no objection to women voting."

Only one lecture had been proposed. By a vote of my audience I gave a
second, and had reason to feel that I had effectually broken ground in
Missouri; that I had not only won a respectful consideration for
woman's cause and its advocacy, but improved my opportunity to
vindicate New England training, in face of Southern prejudices. One
little episode, as rich in its significance, as in the inspiration it
communicated, will serve to round out my St. Joseph experience.

In introducing me to my audience, the Colonel--remembering, perhaps,
that I did not "mix things," or feeling that he might trust my
consciousness of being cornered on the slavery question--remarked in a
vein of courteously concealed irony: "It looks very strange to us for
a lady to speak in public, but we must remember that in the section of
country from which this lady comes, the necessity of self-support
bears equally upon women, and crowds them out of domestic life into
v