Bishop Potter last evening attended a "parlor meeting" arranged by the society women who have taken up the campaign for equal suffrage. The Bishop did not speak at the meeting, but it was taken for granted that he meant to put himself formally on record in favor of the movement by his presence at a gathering called especially to promote the case.

The meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Ben Ali Haggin, 10 East Fifty-fourth Street, and was one of the most representative gatherings brought together so far by the society workers in the suffrage movement. Frederic R. Coudert, Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks, Dr. William R. Huntington, and Dr. Jacobi made addresses in favor of the movement, and urged all those present who had not yet signed the petition to the forthcoming Constitutional Convention asking for female suffrage to do so at once. Mrs. Haggin's large parlors were crowded to their utmost capacity, notwithstanding the fact that the invitations sent out had been limited to the immediate friends of the hostess.

" My house is so small," Mrs. Haggin, who is one of the most eager workers in the movement, explained to a reporter for the New York Times, "that I have asked only the people whom I know well."

The house was handsomely decorated for the meeting, and every provision was made to insure the comfort of the guests. From the applause that frequently interrupted the remarks of the speakers it was evident that the company followed the addresses with the closest attention. It was after midnight before the gathering broke up, and only a few of the guests left before the speechmaking was concluded.

Hereafter a representative society woman will be in charge of the suffrage headquarters at Sherry's every day from 9 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening. With one of their own number to look after the work of securing signatures and distributing suffrage literature, the society women think that the petition to the Constitutional Convention which is kept on file at Sherry's will show better results than it would if the headquarters were left in charge of a hired messenger, as has been the case at times in the past.

In conformity with this idea, Mrs. A.M. Jackson mounted guard yesterday over the petition list, aided by a very pretty young lieutenant. There was very little for them to do in the early part of the day, as callers were few and far between. Later, however, when the weather became less inclement, the number of visitors was increased, and the calls for literature became frequent. The chief reliance of the advocates of woman's suffrage in the way of literature is a little pamphlet containing the eloquent plea made on behalf of the women by George William Curtis in the Constitutional convention of 1867. In that convention Mr. Curtis moved an amendment giving men and women equal political rights. Among other things, Mr. Curtis said:

In their report the committee omit to tell us why they politically class the women of New York with idiots and criminals. They assert merely that the general enfranchisement of women would be a novelty, which is true of every step of political progress, and is, therefore, a presumption in its favor; and they speak of it in a phrase which is intended to stigmatize it as un-womanly, which is simply an assumption and a prejudice.

I wish to know, Sir, and I ask in the name of the political justice and consistency of this State, why it is that half of the adult population, as vitally interested in good government as the other half, who own property, manage estates, and pay taxes, who discharge all the duties of good citizens, and are perfectly intelligent and capable are absolutely deprived of political power and classed with lunatics and felons.

The boy will become a man and a voter; the lunatic may emerge from the cloud and resume his rights: the idiot, plastic under the tender hand of modern science, may be molded into the full citizen; the criminal, whose hand still drips with the blood of his country and of liberty, may be pardoned and restored: but no age, no wisdom, no peculiar fitness, no public service, no effort, no desire, can remove from woman this enormous and extraordinary disability. Upon what reasonable grounds does it rest: Upon none whatever. It is contrary to natural justice, to the acknowledged and traditional principles of the American Government, and to the most enlightened political philosophy.

The absolute exclusion of women from political power in this State is simply usurpation.

Despite this plea, delivered in his most earnest manner, Mr. Curtis's proposition for equal suffrage was rejected by the convention. But the women who have now taken the work in hand say that public opinion has undergone a great change since 1867, and they feel that they will have a better chance of success before the convention that meets in Albany on May 8 than the women had in 1867.

Miss Adele M. Field, one of the signers of the appeal sent out by the society women and chief among the organizers of the work, is particularly sanguine of success before the convention, arguing that the public can easily be convinced of the justice of the suffrage cause. Miss Field was found yesterday by a reporter for the New York Times studying the last census reports for ammunition to support the cause.

"An objection that is very constantly raised," said Miss Field, "is that if suffrage is given to women the enfranchisement of the foreign-born population will enable the foreign women to outvote the native-born women. Of the emigrants to this country I find that for the year ending June 30, 1893, the proportion was four women to eleven men. In New York State there are 56,000 more native-born white women than men. This shows the large proportion of native-born voters we shall have if women have the freedom of the ballot. The criminal records show fourteen times as many men as women convicts, and the latter are guilty principally of misdemeanors."

Miss Field pointed with pride to these figures, and asserted that the growth of the movement was quite worthy of the substantial food upon which it subsisted.

"Our progress," she said, "has been really wonderful. Within the last month one woman alone, whom I know, succeeded in obtaining 900 signatures to the suffrage petition."

Then reverting to her beloved statistics once more, Miss Field said:

"Another objection that has been made to giving women the ballot is that the kitchen will outvote the parlor. Now, here, are some figures about that. Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia are the only States in the Union where the domestic servants come anywhere near equaling in number the upper classes. In the State of New York the domestic servants only form 3 1/2 per cent. of the population."

Mrs. Sarah N. Gardiner was present during Miss Field's interview, and she listened delightedly to the calm, learned exposition by the enthusiastic advocate of the value of equality at the polls.

"That's it," declared Mrs. Gardiner. "Figures are what we want, not sentiment, to build up our cause. The movement is extending everywhere. It has spread outside of society circles.

"In a petition book that I placed in a German grocery store on Forty-fifth Street, near Ninth Avenue, there are 150 signatures already. People have no idea of the interest women in all walks of life have in political and economical questions. I know of a class of eight or ten very wealthy society women who have been studying social economics with great earnestness under Prof. Gunton of the School of Social Economics. You would know them in a moment if I should mention their names. They were very exclusive and kept entirely by themselves. They even refused to have a new member, a Sorosis woman Prof. Gunton wanted to join the class. They are women engaged in many practical philanthropies, and they apply the economic information they have obtained to all their work.

"A large class in social economics was started under Prof. Gunton at the Rev. Dr. Heber Newton's church several years ago. A great many women joined, and they have continued the study of economic questions up to the present time. It is women of this class who have studied the subject closely who are most active now in the work of securing political justice."

There will be an afternoon meeting today in the parlors of Mrs. Henry M. Day, 6 East Forty-fourth Street, at which Miss Field will preside. There are to be fifteen-minute addresses from the Rev. Theodore Williams and several other speakers. A meeting will be held at the house of Mrs. Russell Sage tomorrow.