And the third claim is for a Sphere of Influence. "That is not
it," do you say? "You want to take woman _out_ of her sphere."
Not at all, we wish to give her a sphere, not to take her from
any place she likes to fill; to give her a chance to exercise
those wonderful, those divine faculties that God has wrapped in
the feminine mind, in the woman's heart.

As regards voting, why should not women go to the polls? You
think it a very strange desire, I know; but we have thought many
things stranger which seem quite natural now. One need not live
long to find strange things grow common. Why not vote, then? Is
it because they have not as much power to understand what is true
and right as man? If you go to the polls, and see the style of
men who meet there voting, can you come away, and tell us that
the women you meet are not as able to decide what is right as
those men? "Ah, it will brush off every feminine grace, if woman
goes to the polls." Why? "Because she must meet rude men there."
Very well, so she must meet them in the street, and they do not
hurt her; nor will I believe that there is not sufficient
inventive power in the Yankee intellect to overcome this
difficulty. I can conceive of a broader and more generous
activity in politics. I can see her drawing out all the harshness
and bitterness when she goes to the polls. These three points are
all I intended to touch; and I will give way to those who are to
follow.

Mrs. CAROLINE H. DALL was then introduced. She said: I have
observed that all public orators labor under some embarrassment
when they rise to speak. Not to be behind the dignity of my
position, I labor under a _double_ embarrassment.

The first is the "embarras des richesses." There are so many
topics to touch, so many facts to relate, that it is impossible
to cover them in one half hour, and the second--perhaps you will
think that an embarrassment of riches also; for it is an
embarrassment of Clarke and Phillips. The orator needs no common
courage who follows the one and precedes the other. It is my duty
to speak of the progress of the cause; it is impossible to keep
pace with it. You may work day and night, but this thought of God
outstrips you, working hourly through the life of man. Yet we
must often feel discouraged. O