A bunch of white double tulips stood in a dull-gold vase on a small table under the arch of the handsome parlors of Mrs. George H. Fox, 18 East Thirty-first Street yesterday afternoon, and near it sat, in close ranks, women eager to hear again of the subject which is stirring society as it has not recently been stirred the political equality of the sexes.

The chief speaker of the occasion was Mrs. Montgomery of Rochester, N.Y., whose voice has already been heard in several of New York's drawing rooms.

The subject no longer needs any preamble to these parlor listeners, and she who came in five minutes after the brief introduction by the Chairman, Mrs. Fox, found the speaker already deep in her arguments.

Mrs. Montgomery took up the question of the ignorant vote, the bugbear that is continually being raised, and argued that the State, which was made up of more bad men and bad women than good men and good women was doomed in any event, and the gift of universal suffrage was not going to relieve it. It is not the ignorant vote, she said, that is to be feared now or any time. It is the apathy of the intelligent vote. She cautioned her listeners to differentiate between woman's suffrage and universal suffrage. Many women were in favor of an educational and property qualification, and women with the ballot would undoubtedly lend their aid to these restrictions.

The speaker showed how the enfranchisement of a class has the effect of educating that class. She also met the objection that family differences would be engendered by husband and wife voting. She produced statistics of the preponderance of women over men and claimed that this is not the time in the world's history to think that men and women will be so childish as to quarrel over a matter of individual belief.

An incident was told of a society woman who has come out for the cause of political equality, who gave as her reason that last Fall she pleaded with fifteen men of her acquaintance to stay in town on election day to vote, and not one of them would do it. She thought then it was time women aroused them from this apathy.

Following Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Sanders deprecated the calling of the present movement by some of the papers a mere fad and caprice. She told of one woman of social position and modest personality who had visited sixteen saloons in her district to procure signatures. She was most courteously received, it was added, but she got no signers. A brief talk from Mrs. Barney of Rochester and the offering of the usual resolution to ask the co-operation of the conventional delegates preceded adjournment.

Among those present at Mrs. Fox's residence were Mrs. John D. Archbold, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, Mrs. Dr. Schaeffer, Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield, Mrs. Cleveland, Mrs. Lillian Betts, Mrs. Place, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Edward P. Clark, Mrs. Henry Harris Barnard, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. John D. Champlin, Mrs. Herman Clarence Riggs, Miss Field, Mrs. Isaacs, and Mrs.. Francke H. Bosworth.

Miss Anna C. Brackett, from whose celebrated school, at 9 West Thirty-ninth Street, many of the best-known society women of New York have graduated, has come out as an advocate of the woman's suffrage movement. Her name appears among the list of 100 attached to the original Sherry appeal. To a reporter for the New York Times Miss Brackett said:

"I signed the appeal because I think the time has come when women should have the ballot. I have never taken any active part in suffrage work, and I do not intend to do so now. I have been asked to speak at some of the parlor meetings, but I have refused, for lack of time and for other reasons. Few people know how widespread this movement is. It has taken in women who have never in the past been identified with anything of the kind, women like Mrs. Ben Ali Haggin and Mrs. Henry M. Sanders.

"I first heard of the movement among society women from a pupil who lives up in the State, a daughter of Genet Smith. She came down here last Winter and said that both she and her mother were interested in the subject, and that they had started an active canvass to secure signatures to a petition to be presented to the Constitutional Convention, and that they had met with the most flattering success.

"The next I heard of the matter was when Mrs. Henry M. Sanders, who is a member of a special class for the study of Wordsworth which I have, asked me to take part in the campaign here. I could only grant her the use of my name and promise to render such passive assistance as might be consistent with my duties.

"There are many reasons why, to my mind, the granting of suffrage to women would be a good thing. The principal good, however, would come from the fact that once women are given political equality, they would have absolute free play in the race of life. it would lift the embargo which now rests on the sex, despite the fact that so many pursuits are open to them. A woman could go into any kind of work without making herself conspicuous if she was a voter.

"That has been the great trouble with the woman-suffrage workers in the past. They are almost without exception sweet and lovable women, like Susan B. Anthony, for instance, than whom there is no more womanly woman in existence. But from the very nature of things, as they exist today, they have been compelled to make themselves conspicuous until they fairly became offensive, and the impression has gone abroad that they are bold and unwomanly. If the right to vote were given them, they could talk politics with perfect freedom, and arouse no adverse comment.

"Personally, I don't care whether I have the privilege to vote or not. There was only one time in my life that I yearned for the ballot. That was the second time Lincoln ran for President. I did want to vote then, and looked upon my disfranchisement as a hardship, but since that time I haven't cared for the privilege particularly. But even if I do not seek the right of suffrage for myself, I think, as I said before, it would be a great boon to the sex as a whole and I can see no good reason why it should be denied."

Ex-Judge Henry E. Howland, another of the signers on the list of 100, doesn't feel quite certain that he would really like to see unrestricted female suffrage advocated by the Constitutional Convention.

"I do think," said the ex-Judge, "that the women who own property and who pay taxes should be given the right to say who shall administer the expenditure of their money. Everybody must admit that that is only common justice, and surely women of this class are better qualified to exercise the franchise than the man who cleans out our ash barrel. But as to unrestricted suffrage, I don't quite see the advantages that would accrue to the State. It would only seem to be doubling the evil as we are compelled to fact it now. It would simply give the machine politicians added power.

"Still, I suppose, it would be impossible to give one class of women the power to vote and withhold it from another class. However, I would like to see the Constitutional Convention adopt an amendment on the lines I have stated, if it can be done. This is my second thought on the subject. I signed the appeal hurriedly at the request of a friend without giving the matter very much study, but I am fully prepared to stand by it, as I certainly think that as matters stand now a very important element in the community is disfranchised.

"There is one thing certain," continued the ex-Judge, "this matter has assumed an entirely new phase. It has been taken up by a class of people who never gave the subject even a passing thought before it has become a society fad. You hear it discussed everywhere you go at dinners, at receptions, and at every gathering where there is talk on the current topics of the day.

The most intelligent people in the city make it a more or less constant topic of conversation, and whether anything comes of the movement so suddenly commenced or not, the question will certainly be better understood and appreciated than it ever has been before. It has as many or more opponents as it has advocates, and all its disadvantages are as clearly presented as are its advantages. Its advocates are more active than its opponents, but I haven't the slightest doubt that, if the people who are against it thought it worth their while, they could get up just as large a petition against the proposed amendment as has been obtained in its favor."

The Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks, who, with Mrs. Brooks, was among the first to sign the appeal issued by the society women, has no qualification to suggest regarding female suffrage, like ex-Judge Howland. To a reporter for the New York Times, he said:

"The trouble is not that arguments in favor of what the women ask cannot be found, but that no reasonable objection can be urged against the movement I am heartily in favor of granting the women absolute political equality. It will improve our government and elevate our morals. I certainly hope that the Constitutional Convention will adopt the amendment. The ballot in the hands of women will secure a remedy for many of the evils from which the State is now suffering. From the start, I have been in favor of the movement, and Mrs. Brooks is heartily in accord with it, even though she may not have taken any unduly active part. We signed the petition here at home at the request of a friend who is heart and soul in the movement."

The women of Brooklyn are bemoaning an apathy in their ranks in regard to the subject of woman suffrage. With five political equality leagues and one suffrage association the signatures to the petition to be presented to the Constitutional Convention are not increasing with proper rapidity.

To amend this sad state of affairs the example of the more energetic New York women has been followed and since Wednesday of last week a booth has been opened at the Wilson Assembly rooms, 153 Pierrepont Street, under the auspices of the Kings County Political Equality League. All residents of the county over twenty-one years old are invited to call and add their names to the list. The room is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and one of the leagues is in charge each day. The officers of the Kings County League are: President, Mrs. C.K. Hood, Vice President: Mrs. M.A. Chapman; Secretary: Miss R.C. Talbot: Treasurer: Miss J.J. Cassidy.

The business of receiving the guests has not so far been very arduous, and the committees have been busy sending out their invitations to call. These are signed, not by the officers of the league, but by women who represent a more purely society contingent. Among them are Mrs. Camden C. Dike, Mrs. C.T. Christensen, Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown, Dr. Eliza F. Mosher, Mrs. Truman J. Backus, Mrs. Charles Judson, Mrs. Stephen Loines, Mrs. William Augustus White, and Mrs.. Stephen Post.

Petition books have also been placed at 1260 Bedford Avenue and at the Royal Cafe, 571 Fulton Street, opposite Hanover Place. Large numbers of postal cards containing the notification are being sent to private individuals. Cards for Distribution are also sent to the various Brooklyn organizations.

Miss Cassidy, the Treasurer of the County League, was at the Pierrepont Street rooms yesterday. With about twenty other women, she has been investigating the tax records of Brooklyn. They found that taxes are assessed on $104,000,000 worth of property belonging to women. This does not include the Seventh Ward, where the amount has not yet been computed.

The South Brooklyn Political Equality League, a recent organization, held a meeting at the house of Dr. Clara L. Smith, 26 Fourth Place, yesterday afternoon. Miss Cassidy who addressed the meeting, asked her listeners to postpone their dressmaking until later in the season, and to devote their time to securing signatures to the petition, as a duty to their country and fellow-women.

"Men, she said, "will elect a man merely because he belongs to their party. A woman would not elect a bad man, whatever party he belonged to. Women do their own marketing, and voting is no more unwomanly."

The important question, Miss Cassidy thought, was to get equal wages for men and women. "The highest salary a woman teacher in the girls' high school can get here in Brooklyn," she went on, "is $1,500. A man in the boys' high school can get $2,500 and I know the men do not work conscientiously."

On Wednesday evening a meeting will be held at the house of the Rev. Dr. Nash, 57 Lefferts Place, and on Sunday evening there will be a service tendered by Dr. Nash at the Church of Our Father.