urishing institution,
that the native crab does to the grafted tree. This was the first
woman's club in the State, if not in the whole country.

[153] A few ladies met at the house of Dr. Harriot K. Hunt to
consider a plan for organization. Its avowed object was "to supply
the daily increasing need of a great central resting place, for the
comfort and convenience of those who may wish to unite with us, and
ultimately become a center for united and organized social thought
and action." Its first president was Caroline M. Severance. On the
executive board were the names of Julia Ward Howe, Ednah D. Cheney,
Lucy Goddard, Harriet M. Pitnam, Jane Alexander, Abby W. May, and
many others who have since become well known. This club held its
first meetings in private houses, but it has for several years
occupied spacious club rooms on Park street in Boston. Julia Ward
Howe is its president. The club has its own historian, and when
this official gives the result of her researches to the public,
there will be seen how many projects for the elevation of women and
the improvement of social life have had their inception in the
brains of those who assemble in the parlors of the New England
Woman's Club. In 1874, it projected the movement by which women
were first elected on the school committee of Boston, and also
prepared the petition to be sent to the Massachusetts legislature
of 1879, the result of which was the passage of the law allowing
women to vote for school committees. In the _Woman's Journal_ for
1883 will be found a sketch of this club.

[154] "Taxation of Women in Massachusetts"; "Woman Suffrage
a Right, not a Privilege," and "The Forgotten Woman in
Massachusetts."

[155] Its projectors were A. Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Professor W. T. Harris, Frank B. Sanborn, Professor Benjamin
Pierce, Dr. H. K. Jones, Elizabeth P. Peabody and Ednah D. Cheney.

[156] This act is almost as brief as a certain clause in one of the
election laws of the State of Texas, which says: "The masculine
gender shall include the feminine and neuter."

[157] We deeply regret that we have been unable to procure a good
photograph of our generous benefactor, as it was our intention to
make her engraving the frontispiece of this volume, and thus give
the honored place to her through whose liberality we have been
enabled at last to complete this work. We are happy to state that
Mrs. Eddy's will was not contested by any of the descendents