t which Southern women feel in the
all-absorbing question of the day, "Woman and her Rights," that
idea would have been forever dispelled by a glance at the
splendid audience assembled last night. The hall was literally
packed to overflowing, not only with women but with men,
prominent representatives in every walk of life.

In 1896 the Era[292] Club was organized with Miss Belle Van Horn as
president. The successful work of this society has been largely due to
the ability and personal influence of Mrs. Evelyn W. Ordway, a
progressive Massachusetts woman, professor of chemistry in Newcomb
College, New Orleans, who was its second president. Miss Kate M.
Gordon was the third.

In 1896 the Era united with the Portia Club in the beginning of a
State suffrage association, of which Mrs. Merrick was made president.
Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado gave two lectures before the new
association this year. Those who have represented this body at the
national conventions are Mrs. Merrick, Miss Katharine Nobles and Miss
Gordon.

In 1898 a convention was held in New Orleans to prepare a new State
constitution. A committee composed of Mrs. Marie Garner Graham, Miss
Nobles, Miss Gordon and Miss Jean Gordon appeared before the Suffrage
Committee in support of a petition for Full Suffrage for the educated,
taxpaying women of Louisiana, which had been presented to the
convention by the Hon. A. W. Faulkner. Mrs. Graham made an eloquent
appeal in behalf of using the intelligence and morality embodied in
the woman's vote in solving the political problem of the South. The
committee further requested that Mrs. Chapman Catt be permitted to
address the convention. The request was immediately granted and an
official invitation courteously extended.

Mrs. Merrick, who was a delegate to the suffrage convention then in
session at Washington, urged that some prominent members of the
National Association should accompany this speaker on her important
mission, and Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Mary G. Hay of New
York were duly appointed. On February 24, in Tulane Hall, before the
assembled convention and a large throng of listeners in the galleries,
Mrs. Chapman Catt made a strong argument for the enfranchisement of
Louisiana women.

For many days woman suffrage was seriously considered as a means to
the end of securing white supremacy in the State. The following week
the Athenaeum, the finest lecture hall in