d be helped on his way;
not at all; but only that, as he staggers along, he shall
not be retarded, shall not be tripped up and made to fall.

Brave and tender words these for our black brother; but see how
prone men are to invert truth, justice, and mercy in dealing with
women. During the Pembina debate, Senator Merrimon said:

I know there are a few women in the country who complain;
but those who complain, compared with those who do not
complain, are as one to a million.

As a literal fact, the women who have complained, have
petitioned, sued, reasoned, plead, have knocked at the doors of
your legislatures and courts, are as one to fifty in this
country, as we who watch the record know; and even that is a
small proportion of those who would, but dare not; who are bound
hand and foot, and will be bound until you make them free. But if
no others feel the wrong but those who have dared to complain; if
the poor, the ignorant, the betrayed, the ruined do not
understand the question, and the well-fed and comfortable "have
all the rights they want," do you give that for answer to our
just demand? What do we ask? Not that poor woman "shall be helped
on her way"--not at all; but only that, "as she staggers along,
she shall not be retarded, shall not be tripped up, shall not be
made to fall."

And here on this national soil, for the women of this District of
Columbia--your peculiar wards--I ask you to try the experiment of
exact, even-handed justice; to give us a voice in the laws under
which we must live, by which we are tried, judged and condemned.
I ask it for myself, that I may the better help other women. I
ask it for other women, that they may the better help themselves.
As you hope for justice and mercy in your hour of need, may you
hear and answer.

Rev. Olympia Brown, of Connecticut; Belva A. Lockwood, of
Washington; and Phoebe Couzins, of St. Louis, also addressed the
committees; enforcing their arguments with wit, humor, pathos and
eloquence.

On her way home from Washington, Mrs. Gage stopped in Philadelphia
to secure rooms for the National Association during the centennial
summer, and decided upon Carpenter Hall, in case it could be
obtained. This hall belongs to the Carpenter Company of
Philadelphia, perhaps the oldest existing associ