KENTUCKY SENDS AGED SUFFRAGIST
Mrs. John B. Castleman, 79 Years Old, on Democratic Executive Committee.
By a Staff Correspondent of THE SUN AND NEW YORK HERALD.
San Francisco, June 30. - Probably the oldest of the women delegates is Mrs. John B. Castleman of Louisville, Ky. She is the widow of Gen. Castleman, a celebrated figure in his day, and the mother of famous beauties. she is 79 years old, and as a member of the executive committee of the National Democratic Committee was at the rooms where Mrs. Bass presided to-day.
"I'm so glad I could come. I think this is to be the most important convention since the civil war," she said to-day. "Sometimes I'm tempted to say since 1776. We Democrats have so much to do if we are to frame a successful platform that will fulfill the needs of this afterwar period."
Mrs. Castleman ceased talking as a tall, well groomed, beautiful woman approached.
"That is my daughter", she said. The daughter looked a bit worried.
But after her daughter disappeared, enthusiasm overcame Mrs. Castleman.
"No, perhaps I should not talk, but I've been interested for such a long time that it's difficult not to appear interested.
"It seems to me that I was born in politics. I've been in them, as they say, for a long time. I fought for years for suffrage in my Kentucky State. It was one of the hardest fights for that principle in the nation.
"The greatest drawback was the negro women. That was the argument that the anti-suffrage men always used. They didn't want the negro women's vote released and they didn't want the burden of educating the women negro vote, but we won in time."
Besides a long history in public life Mrs. Castleman has a story, one of real Southern romance. The late Castleman, her husband, was a Confederate officer during the civil war. It was Gen. Castleman who, with two other Confederate officers, released Southern prisoners held at Fort Sullivan in Indiana. For this activity Gen. Castleman was banished from the country and later ordered executed by the Northern force.
"It was Lincoln's hand that saved him from death on the scaffold," Mrs. Castleman said. "I have the President's letter at home; I am very proud of it."
San Francisco, June 30. - Probably the oldest of the women delegates is Mrs. John B. Castleman of Louisville, Ky. She is the widow of Gen. Castleman, a celebrated figure in his day, and the mother of famous beauties. she is 79 years old, and as a member of the executive committee of the National Democratic Committee was at the rooms where Mrs. Bass presided to-day.
"I'm so glad I could come. I think this is to be the most important convention since the civil war," she said to-day. "Sometimes I'm tempted to say since 1776. We Democrats have so much to do if we are to frame a successful platform that will fulfill the needs of this afterwar period."
Mrs. Castleman ceased talking as a tall, well groomed, beautiful woman approached.
"That is my daughter", she said. The daughter looked a bit worried.
But after her daughter disappeared, enthusiasm overcame Mrs. Castleman.
"No, perhaps I should not talk, but I've been interested for such a long time that it's difficult not to appear interested.
"It seems to me that I was born in politics. I've been in them, as they say, for a long time. I fought for years for suffrage in my Kentucky State. It was one of the hardest fights for that principle in the nation.
"The greatest drawback was the negro women. That was the argument that the anti-suffrage men always used. They didn't want the negro women's vote released and they didn't want the burden of educating the women negro vote, but we won in time."
Besides a long history in public life Mrs. Castleman has a story, one of real Southern romance. The late Castleman, her husband, was a Confederate officer during the civil war. It was Gen. Castleman who, with two other Confederate officers, released Southern prisoners held at Fort Sullivan in Indiana. For this activity Gen. Castleman was banished from the country and later ordered executed by the Northern force.
"It was Lincoln's hand that saved him from death on the scaffold," Mrs. Castleman said. "I have the President's letter at home; I am very proud of it."
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