iway's
long and earnest labors for this cause as he had seen them during his
thirty-seven years in Oregon.

At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first
evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more
conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national
suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the
last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said:
"Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and
she speaks with fluency and ease." The _Oregonian_ thus described her
appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the
high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in
old-time fashion and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to
belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but
determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was
deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over
the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the
receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me
then--but they were not roses--and there were not epithets enough in
Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of
spirit which has come over the American people."

Governor George E. Chamberlain gave the welcome of the State,
declaring himself unequivocally and emphatically in favor of woman
suffrage and expressing the hope that Oregon was now ready to grant
it. T. C. Devlin extended the welcome of the city as proxy for the
Mayor, who addressed the convention later. The Hon. Jefferson Myers,
president of the State Commission for the Exposition, paid eloquent
tribute to Miss Anthony and her co-workers and said:

I hope that you may yet live to see many victories for the
principles which you have so nobly advocated in behalf of the
women of our land. These principles are not new to the American
people. There are many differences of opinion, but, after all the
argument for and against, it hardly seems possible that any one
who is entitled to the privilege which you request can afford to
deny that privilege to his mother. There is no question but that
the women of our land bear today as great, if not greater,
burdens in the affairs of a good and honorable government than
our men. The raising of the children, their education and
protection from