Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/182

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
152
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

the woman who wrote it, Mrs. Howe; and the Star Spangled Banner in the home of its author, Francis Scott Key.

The meetings were held in the beautifully decorated Lyric Theater with appreciative and enthusiastic audiences. The arrangements had been made by the Maryland Suffrage Association and its president, Mrs. Emma Maddox Funck. Ministers of nearly all denominations asked blessings on the various sessions and the best musical talent in the city gave its services. The papers were most generous with space and fair and friendly in their reports. Through the influence and efforts of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, the remarkable representation of Women's Colleges was secured. Baltimore's most prominent woman, Miss Mary FE. Garrett, was largely responsible for the social prestige which is especially necessary to success in a southern city. It was a convention long to be remembered by those who were so fortunate as to be a part of it.

The convention opened on the afternoon of February 7 with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the association, in the chair and was welcomed by Mrs. Funck, who said in a graceful speech: "You have come to the conservative South. Conservative—what a sweet-sounding word, what an ark for the timid soul! So you must expect to find a good many folks who mean well but who have not discarded their silver buckles and ruffles, but nothing will more clearly indicate the development of our people from provincialism and bigotry than their generosity of spirit and kindly intent towards the gathering of our clans in this convention. Most people have come to realize that to be a great nation we must have that catholicity of spirit which embraces all ologies and all isms.... From the suffrage pioneers we have learned the lessons of fair play and equal rights."

Fraternal greetings were offered by Mrs. Albert L. Sioussat, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Hattie Hull Troupe, president of the Women's Twentieth Century Club of Baltimore; Mrs. Rosa H. Goldenberg, president of the Maryland section Jewish Council of Women, and Mrs. Mary R. Haslup, president of the Baltimore Woman's Christian Temperance Union. As the vice-president of the association, Dr. Annice