of the things that she wished to learn, and as showing how early she caught a glimpse of the life mission that was before her, it is said that she raised the question with her mother one day as to this absolute subjection of the woman to the man. It was called out by her having read in the Bible that passage speaking of Eve, and including, as it was supposed, all women,-"Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." She came in despair to her mother, and asked if there was anything that would put an end to her existence; for it did not occur to her to question the authority of the old Hebrew tradition. The mother laid her hand on the child's hair, smoothing it, and said, "Lucy, it is a part of the curse that has come upon woman on account of the sin of Eve in the garden of Eden; and it is our duty to be patient, and submit." But little Lucy was not satisfied; and she said within herself, "I will learn Greek and Hebrew, and I will read this passage in the original, and find out whether there be not somewhere some mistake." This was one of the mainsprings and motive forces that determined her to seek an education for herself. She picked berries, chestnuts, anything, everything, for which she could find a market, even at the smallest price, to buy herself books, and as soon as she was able began to teach. That was one of the few things that women were permitted to do, although the pay was very small. She could teach the same school that her brother could teach, but could receive only about half the same pay. She worked until she was twenty-five years of age before she got money enough together to go to Oberlin, Ohio, this being the only college in all this broad land where either a negro or a woman could go to study.

Here again, as indicating the general situation, let me say that Mrs. Livermore told me that after she herself had graduated she was very anxious to study Italian. But she could not find a teacher who was willing to have it known that he was teaching a girl Italian. She at last persuaded one of the Harvard professors to become her teacher on condition that she should keep it a strict and close secret, because he

was afraid it would injure his standing as a Harvard professor if it were known that he taught a girl Italian.

Lucy Stone on her journey to Oberlin was so anxious to save the little money she had secured that, when crossing the lake on the steamer from Buffalo to Cleveland, she could not afford to get a state-room, but slept with two or three other women as poor as herself on a pile of bags of grain among the horses and freight on deck. When she got to Oberlin, although they had arranged matters so that they could board the pupils, many of whom were poor, for a dollar a week, that was so far beyond her means that she was obliged to board herself, and during most of the four years that she was there she lived on about fifty cents a week. During those four years - think of this, young women of to-day, would you be willing to pay such a price for an education? — she had just one new dress, and that a cheap print. During that whole time she could not afford to make the journey home. She graduated when she was twenty-nine, and immediately began her life-work.

When she was thirty-six, she was married to Mr. Henry B. Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell had seen her and heard her speak two years before. He was a hardware merchant in Cincinnati, an Abolitionist, and in favor of greater freedom for women. He became such an admirer of Lucy Stone that he determined, if possible, to make her his wife. After two years he succeeded in persuading her to become his wife, although she had thought never to marry, but to consecrate herself entirely to the work which she had undertaken. It has been said in the newspapers recently that, when they were married, they were obliged to send thirty miles for a minister who would leave out the word obey in the marriage service. Colonel Higginson, who was at that time a Unitarian minister and who was the minister selected to marry them, tells us that this is not true, that a good many could have been found willing to leave that objectionable word out. He was chosen as the minister, however, as being in general sympathy with their purpose.

I wish to read to you the famous protest which Mr. Blackwell and his wife drew up and signed at that time,— a protest against the marriage laws then in existence :

While acknowledging our mutual affection by publicly assuming the relationship of husband and wife, yet, in justice to ourselves and a great principle, we deem it our duty to declare that this act on our part implies no sanction of nor promise of voluntary obedience to such of the present laws of marriage as refuse to recognize the wife as an independent, rational being, while they confer upon the husband an injurious and unnatural superiority, investing him with legal powers which no honorable man would exercise, and which no man should possess. We protest especially against the laws which give to the husband:1. The custody of the wife's person.

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fact that Lucy Stone kept her own name.

There was no law in existence forbidding this. It was done by mutual consent, and was intended as a protest against the idea that a woman's individuality was merged at marriage in that of her husband.

From the time that Lucy Stone began her work until laid aside by illness, shortly before her death, her history is a part of the history of the movements of this age. I shall defer the account of her beautiful death until a little later on, and speak of the condition of things when she began her work, and the condition of things to-day; and, in doing this, I shall avail myself of some material which she herself has furnished, as also some given me by Mrs. Livermore.

I hold in my hands a little leaflet prepared by Mrs. Stone, which I will ask the privilege of referring to without giving any of it verbatim. The leaflet is entitled "The Gains of Forty Years." It was prepared several years ago. In the first place, about that time there was no possibility of a woman being treated with anything like decency or respect if she attempted anywhere to speak in public. When she graduated from Oberlin, for example, she had shown such scholarship that she was chosen to write an essay; that is, had she been a boy, she would have had what is called a graduating part. But she was told by the professors of Oberlin that it was unwomanly to read it herself. By way of protest against that, she declared that, unless she could read it herself, she would not write it, and so would not accept the honor.

The wearing of a bonnet in church caused her always a severe headache; and she was accustomed to quietly take it off until she was remonstrated with by the Ladies' Board, who said, “Paul taught that it was a disgrace to a woman to appear in public with uncovered head." At last they compromised by letting her sit under the gallery out of sight, so that she could take her bonnet off and make herself as comfortable as she could. This shows the condition of things then.

Before one of her lectures in those early years this was the kind of reception she had from one of the churches. She was going to speak in Malden at an anti-slavery meeting. The minister of the church had been asked to give notice of it. He gave it in this language: "I am requested by Mr. Mowry to say that a hen will undertake to crow like a cock at the town hall this afternoon at five o'clock. Anybody who wants to hear that kind of music will of course attend." That was a church notice of one of the attempts to speak in that early day!

When she was once thinking of going to Springfield to lecture, old Deacon Samuel Bowles, the founder and publisher of the Springfield Republican, used in his paper the phrase, "You she-hyena, don't you come here!" The Springfield Republican has been for years an advocate of woman suffrage, and has a department devoted entirely to the work of women.

There is another gain that has been made. Women can now travel, hold meetings, conventions, discuss matters as they please, anywhere in this country. Lucy Stone and a few other young women at Oberlin wished to learn to talk and debate. They were refused the privilege of debating in the literature class with the other students; and the only way they had was to get an old colored woman to let them come to her house. And there they gathered separately, one coming from one direction, and another from another, and keeping it strictly private, so that it should not be known that girls were learning to debate questions in which they were interested.

I have already intimated to you to what an extent women have gained the right to be educated. It is true to-day, I think, that at least eight-tenths of all the colleges, and pro-" fessional and technical schools of this country are open to women, and the time is coming, and is nearly here, when they will be able to graduate and receive a diploma from Harvard University. President Eliot has intimated that he is ready to make the Annex - The Society for the Collegiate