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340 & most elegant of which had not yet arrived when SBA wrote this letter. See SBA to P.B.McLaren and Millicent G.Fawcett,14 May 1900,and “Susan B.Anthony from some earnest friends of the Political Enfranchisement of Women,” Film, 41:4–7, 281–82. 5. Emily Maude Brown Gross (1851–?), an admirer of SBA since Lydia Coonley introduced them in 1893, traveled with SBA on her trip to England in 1899. Emily Gross and her husband, Samuel Eberly Gross, often entertained SBA in their Chicago mansion. Samuel Gross earned fortune and fame as a designer and builder of subdivisions in the city with moderate-priced houses for the families of workingmen, and he was the model for Theodore Dreiser’s character, Samuel E. Ross, in Jennie Gerhardt. Emily Gross, also known as Maude, was born in England, moved to Chicago with her family, and married Gross in 1874. Their one child died young. (Emily Clark and Patrick Ashley, “The Merchant Prince of Cornville,” Chicago History 21 [December 1992]: 4–19; Emily Clark, “Samuel E. [G]ross: Dreiser’s Real Estate Magnate,”in Dreiser’s Jennie Gerhardt: New Essays on the Restored Text,ed.James L.W.West III [Philadelphia,1995],183–93; Chicago Daily Tribune, 25 October 1893; SBA diary, 2 November 1893, Film, 31:3ff. See also Papers 5.) 6. The transcript reads “everything pet [blank] the freedom of women”. The words in the text are the editor’s guesswork. 7. Enclosure missing. See the printed circular, illustrated with a portrait of Blatch, “Greetings. Harriot Stanton Blatch, Daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Lafayette Opera House, Washington, D.C. February 15, 1900,” Film, 40:933–34. 8. SBA knew some members of the family well. Agnes McLaren (1837–1913), a stepdaughter,pioneering physician of Scotland,and medical missionary,met SBA first in 1883, and again during SBA’s visit in 1899. (British Medical Journal 1 [26 April 1913]: 917.) SBA spent time with Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren (1850– 1937) and his wife, Laura Elizabeth Pochin McLaren (1854–1933), in 1883, when Charles McLaren served in Parliament and Laura McLaren, a second-generation suffragist herself, was active as a speaker and campaigner. (Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament, vol. 2; Oxford DNB, s.v. “McLaren, Laura Elizabeth.” See also Papers 4.) ••••••••• 153 • SBA to Laura Clay Rochester, N.Y. April 15, 1900 My Dear Miss Clay Here it is just two months since I rounded out my four score years— I little thought then—when told it was the illness of your noble mother 1 that kept you away from us—that I should fail thus to write you. I do hope she 31 march 1900 ^ 341 is better—and that your hearts are lightened for a time at least— still we all know that approach to 80 must in the nature of things bring us nearer to the flight to the beyond!! Why is it that we cannot learn to see ourselves & our loved ones pass on with out such heart-breaks— Do—if but on a Postcard —tell me how your dear mother is—and how you & Mary & Sarah are also— 2 We did so very, very much need you my dear Laura—in our Business Committee meetings—yes and in our Ex. Com. meetings also— I am sure your level, judicial mind would have been a great help all round— Very sincerely & affectionately U Susan B. Anthony Personal— I found—I had better cut off the first sheet It was a most unexpected crisis— From what Mrs Upton nhadp reported to me that Mrs Catt said when you nallp returned to the Hotel from calling on me at Mrs Sewalls—that Sunday a.m. at Indianapolis 3 —last December,—I had thought she entirely agreed with what I replied to you— viz—that “when any one threatened to leave us & quit work for the cause— if she couldn’t have nfirstp the president’s chair at the meeting—and last the Chairmanship of the Organization Committee—it was time to let her go”!! And Mrs C.—replied—“Well I guess Miss Anthony is right”— 4 But to my utter amazement after all the amendments the B.C.had decided upon were made—and as we thought everything settled just as we all talked at Indianapolis—& just as we all had agreed in Washington—Mr Blackwell moved the re-instatement of the Organization Com—just at the close of the last session—when not a member of the B...

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