I expect this is full of mistakes. [Letterhead of The Seelbach Hotel] Louisville, [Kentucky] [October] 20, 1911 Dear Aunt Emily: The [Recording Secretary] is reading the Recommendations of the [Executive Committee] & as I heard them all last night I will commence my letter to thee - It is all as interesting & people speak out clearly & loudly that I am really regretting that thee did not come. The president of the Louisville Woman's Club, a large fine looking woman, has just made an address of welcome & a splendid [underlined] suffrage [/underlined] speech at one & the same time. I know thee [would] have heard every syllable. Miss Clay has made the real welcoming speech which Mrs. McCulloch answered in an unusually happy vein. The sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was introduced & very smilingly said that she was in full sympathy with the Suffrage work. Now Miss Yates [Elizabeth University] is speaking on Presidential suffrage - On the platform are Miss Shaw, Mrs. McCulloch, Mrs. Dennett Miss Ashley, Mrs. Stewart & her stenographer, Miss Blackwell & Miss Clay. The place of meeting is [underlined] perfect [/underlined]. I thought we were entering a private house - it looked so in front & inside there were the rooms of a private house used in different ways for the convention. There were big printed signs, Rest Room, Literature Room, etc. Then the hall led on into a large audience room. The ceiling is festooned over with green & there are big boxes of yellow tarlatan in the green [which] makes it all very pretty. We did not get in until about 7 last night, delayed by some accident on the track. (Now auditor's report by Miss Clay.) We enjoyed the view, the country that we came [through] - much - especially as we neared Louisville & there were sunbonneted women & cabins with big chimneys & horseback rides. I saw one horse with a whole [Letterhead of The Seelbach Hotel] family on his back, man, woman, (in a sunbonnett) & one (I [underlined] think [/underlined] two) little children. It is beautiful country, everywhere the corn cut & standing. Miss Ashley is now reading the Treasurer's report. $20,000 were spent last year which Miss A. says is a pitifully small sum for a great [association] to spend in such a cause, especially considering the campaigns going on. Coming down we were joined at Cincinnati by a Miss Marian sent down to report the Convention by the Boston American. She graduated a year & a half ago from Wellesley & remembered Miss Billyard. She told us about Miss Foleys following the Republican candidate for governor [through] [Massachusetts] making speeches to his crowds. She was sent with other reporters for Boston was very [enthusiastic] [enthusiastic] over it. The [Woman's Journal] told about it I think. Mrs. Dennet is now urging the Assembly District Work - [Saturday] evening there was meeting of the [Executive Committee] to which we went. Hattie offered to make me member of the [Committee] but I thought it would be nice for her to ask Mrs. Shuler which she did. She is with us here at the hotel & we sit at table together. Mrs. Stubbs is entertained by friends. Already some people here asked about thee & I know many more will do so. I asked Miss Shaw about thy check this morning & she said not to give it to anybody but to report it when they began to take collections. Miss Reilly is now giving a wonderful press report & Mrs. Dennet's report was [underlined] tremendous [/underlined] - showing great amount of work & great progress. Woman's Journal Report now - had 15 [months] ago 4000 subscribers. Now is to [underlined] 20,000 [/underlined] I must stop now. I wonder if thee can make this out - Love Isabel [Letterhead of the Seelbach Hotel] Louisville, [Kentucky], [October] 21 1911 Dear Aunt E - The convention is opening for its [second] day & my mind turns to thee again. I have just had a pleasant talk with the president of the [District of Columbia], a young woman who works in the Congressional Library. Miss Gillette is expected today. I saw Mrs. Tyndall a moment yesterday. She asked particularly for thee. She is here with her mother & sister. The yellow state signs are up for the first this morning. We had a great time yesterday. After the afternoon meeting automobiles were standing out in front & we got in anywhere. In ours were Mr. & Mrs. Fernald who used to be in Maine but who have moved to [Massachusetts], a woman from Chicago who I did not know, Mrs. Shuler, Hattie & I. (They are getting greatly interested now in a discussion of how to interest the uninterested the authorities took us [through] the park. O, such wonderful trees as some were! Such birches & such enormous sycamores! One sycamore was said to be the largest tree in the state. The leaves are turning here but are not yet off as at home. We ended at a beautiful home in the country, a great house with a wide veranda in the 4 sides within the ceilings were away above us. The pictures were dim old paintings. There were some pieces of statuary about. In the dining room was [something] that set me about awed. On the table which held the elegant refreshments were the most gorgeous dahlias that I ever [underlined] dreamed [/underlined] of. I [could] not believe they were real. They were so large & so dazzlingly brilliant. Last evening the hall was packed for the jubilee meeting & the jubilee speakers took up so much time that Miss Shaw had no chance to make her annual address. Thee will read about the speakers & what they said. The [California] people seemed to find it hard themselves & believe in their great good fortune. [Letterhead of The Seelbach Hotel] Sunday morning - I did not get on farther in the meeting [though] I might have while the discussion on the constitutional [amendments] was going on. There was much [difference] of opinion over the subject of making organizations in a state other than the regular state associations directly auxiliary to the [National Convention]. Standing votes were taken & it was decided to do so if they come to number 300. Hattie worked for 500 but lost. The meeting last evening was very fine & I wish thee had been there. It was College Night & Miss Thomas presided. She also made a fine address after Jane Adams's impressive & convincing one. It had been announced that Mrs. Pankhurst [would] come in & answer questions but her train was late & Miss Shaw talked to fill in the time. She was at his best & that means that she was magnificent. I was greatly interested in two young girls near me who listened to it all, spellbound. They [underlined] seemed [/underlined] really too young to understand. Their mother & brother left tired out & the mother admonished them not to stay long afterward but they seemed powerless to leave. It recalled up early enthusiasm when thee would take me to Washington meetings. An interesting feature of last night to me was the [presence?] of several, 3 at least, simply [underlined] enormous [/underlined] women. They present a broadside of flesh that was easily twice that of some, the ordinarily fleshy people I can think of. Tentatively, blue goods must be [that] flesh producing. The question almost arises whether such people ought not to be considerate [enough] to stay outside of crowds. One of them wore the kind of big hat we laugh at in milliners' windows. This morning is a great caucusing time & Hattie is much desired. The Shaw adherents are in Miss Thomas's room. It seems there is another ticket in the field with Mrs. McCulloch as president. Private- It is a most pathetic thing that a second set of formerly dear friends of Miss Shaw are [Letterhead of the Seelbach Hotel] turning against her. Hattie & I are forced to conclude that she is as hard to work with as was claimed last year. Mrs. McCulloch, Miss Gordon & Mrs. Stewart all refused to go on the ticket again - unless they have been induced to do so since yesterday. If [underlined] only [/underlined] Miss Shaw [would] give it up of herself & devote her splendid powers to the lecturing! She tells Hattie that she needs the salary for her support. but the feeling against her will grow each year - there is no question of that. There is also a movement a foot to change the headquarters to Chicago for most excellent reasons. In spite of Miss Shaw's opposition & Hattie's, I cannot help seeing their side. All the same I shall vote with Miss Shaw as as will all the [New York] delegation I think. I did not tell that Mrs. Pankhurst finally came last night & was warmly welcomed. She talked some about her work but not at great length as she is to speak on Tuesday evening. This [afternoon] Miss Johnston, Dr. [?], Miss Breckenridge & [Crossed out: Harriet] Caroline Bartlett Crane are to speak & the meeting is to be in the Macauley theater. The hall is really too small for any of the public meetings. We shall probably leave here on Tuesday and be home [Wednesday] or [Thursday]. We may go to the Mammoth Cave but I do not believe we shall. There is so little time before the Ithaca Convention & the car trip is so long, leave one afternoon & get back the next. Things underground never attract me very much [though]. I [should] - go of course if we were nearer & it was all right to go - Much love, Isabel