dvancement of Thy Kingdom."

The _Picayune_ thus described the occasion: "In the presence of a
magnificent audience that packed the Athenaeum to its utmost capacity,
the thirty-fifth annual convention of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association was formally opened last night, with the
president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Seldom perhaps in
its history has the association received such a greeting, for the
audience was not only deeply interested and sympathetic but it was
representative of the finest culture in the city and State.
Distinguished jurists, physicians and teachers, staid men of business
and leaders in many lines united with women of the highest social
standing in giving the convention a hearty and earnest welcome. Many
were no doubt attracted by the memory of the former visits of Miss
Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the remarkable
personality of the pioneer suffrage workers, but whether they came
from pure interest in these famous leaders or deep sympathy with the
cause, all were generous in giving to both the credit and applause
they justly deserved....

Mayor Paul Capdeville, who was to welcome the convention, was ill and
this was very acceptably done by "Tom" Richardson, secretary of the
Progressive Union, an important commercial body of 1,600 members that
had joined in the invitation for it to come to New Orleans and
contributed the rent of the Athenaeum. He expressed his pleasure at
being associated with the suffragists of the city, "who had never
neglected any opportunity to promote its best interests," and said:
"No other class of our citizens have done it so much good." He was
followed by the Hon. Edgar H. Farrar, an eminent lawyer, author of the
Drainage and Sewerage plan, who told of the valuable assistance of
women in the strenuous fight against the State lottery ten years
before and described the splendid work of the women since the
constitutional convention of 1898 had given them taxpayers' suffrage.
Miss Gordon read a poem of welcome by Mrs. Grace G. Watts and gave the
Era Club's welcome and then Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was presiding,
introduced Miss Anthony to respond. The _Picayune_ said in its report:

Seated upon the platform was Miss Susan B. Anthony, the woman who
for two-score years stood the brunt of ridicule, sarcasm and
cartooning and never once was deterred from the course that she
fully believed to be the just and true o