"They plied me with questions: 'Do you have women in your faculty? Do
men and women hold the same rank?' I returned the questions: 'Is there a
girl's college in Moscow?' 'No,' said the youngest sister, with a sigh,
'we are always _going_ to have one.' The eldest sister asked: 'Do women
vote in America?' 'No,' I said. 'Do women vote in Russia?' She said
'No;' but her mother interrupted her, and there was a spicy conversation
between them, in Russian, and then the mother, who had rarely spoken,
turned to me, and said: 'I vote, but I do not go to the polls myself. I
send somebody to represent me; my vote rests upon my property.'
"Have you not read a story, of late, in the newspapers, about some
excellent women in a little town in Connecticut whose pet heifers were
taken by force and sold because they refused to pay the large taxes
levied upon them by their townsmen, they being the largest holders of
property in the town? That circumstance could not have happened in
barbarous Russia; there, the owner of property has a right to say how it
shall be used.
"'Why do you ask me about our government?' I said to the Russian girls.
'Are you interested in questions of government?' They replied, 'All
Russian women are interested in questions of that sort.' How many
American women are interested in questions concerning government?
"These young girls knew exactly what questions to ask about Vassar
College,--the course of study, the diploma, the number of graduates,
etc.
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