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[Illustration: Photo of Julia Ward Howe

Signed,

Yours very cordially,

Julia Ward Howe.]




Is Polite Society Polite?

And Other Essays

BY

[Illustration: colophon]

MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE

BOSTON & NEW YORK

Lamson, Wolffe, & Company

1895

Copyright, 1895, By Lamson, Wolffe, & Co.

All rights reserved




Preface


I REMEMBER that, quite late in the fifties, I mentioned to Theodore
Parker the desire which I began to feel to give living expression to my
thoughts, and to lend to my written words the interpretation of my
voice.

Parker, who had taken a friendly interest in the publication of my first
volumes, "Passion Flowers" and "Words for the Hour," gave his approval
also to this new project of mine. "The great desire of the age," he
said, "is for vocal expression. People are scarcely satisfied with the
printed page alone: they crave for their instruction the living voice
and the living presence."

At the time of which I write, no names of women were found in the lists
of lecture courses. Lucy Stone had graduated from Oberlin, and was
beginning to be known as an advocate of temperance, and as an
antislavery speaker. Lucretia Mott had carried her eloquent pleading
outside the limits of her Quaker belonging. Antoinette Brown Blackwell
occupied the pulpit of a Congreg