following,
signed "Fatima," the _nom de plume_ of Clara Merrick Guthrie,
appeared in the _Democrat_:

A well-known notary signed this petition with a flourish,
remarking that "few women and not over half the men were
aware of the disabilities of wives and daughters."

If the convention should invest women of property with the
elective franchise it would give to the respectable side of
politics a large body of sensible voters which would go far
toward neutralizing the evil of unlimited male suffrage. The
policy in the Northern States has been to demand
unrestricted suffrage, but the women of Louisiana may with
propriety exhibit certain variations in the nature of their
appeal. This subject in all its phases inspires my
enthusiasm, but I dare not be as eloquent as I might, lest a
messenger should be sent to me with an urgent request to
address the convention next Monday evening. * * * *

_On dit._--Other ladies beside our brave Mrs. Saxon are
desired to give their views. Now surely the convention would
not ask these quiet house-mothers, who are not even remotely
akin to professional agitators, to do such violence to their
old-time precedents if the prospect of some reward were not
encouraging and immediate. Nothing could induce me to make
personal application save the solemn obligation of the whole
august body to accede to my timid proposal simultaneously
and by acclamation. Fortunately for us there are women in
Louisiana more sacrificing of their naturally shrinking
disposition, who perhaps take the cause more seriously than
your correspondent, who would make a most persuasive
enrolling-officer but not so gallant a general for active
service.

After securing over 400 influential names[517] the petition was
sent in to the convention and was referred to the Committee on
Suffrage, Mr. Felix P. Poche, chairman, now judge of the Supreme
Court. On May 7, the committee invited the ladies to a conference
at Parlor P, St. Charles Hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Saxon, Colonel and
Mrs. John M. Sandige and Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis were present.
Mrs. Saxon spoke for an hour and replied to questions from the
committe