The Scarlet Sisters (58 page)

12.
soul of the American International:
Messer-Kruse,
The Yankee International
, p. 107.

13.
The Communards called for:
Stewart Edwards, ed.,
The Communards of Paris, 1871
. Documents of Revolution series (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973).

14.
“Let us kill no more!”:
Alistair Horne,
The Terrible Year: The Paris Commune, 1871
(London: Phoenix, 2004 paperback edition), p. 137. Estimates of the numbers of Parisians slaughtered vary wildly between 6,000 and 40,000. “Reliable French historians” placed the figure at between 20,000 and 25,000, although revisions continue. p. 139.

15.
murderous mobs:
Messer-Kruse,
The Yankee International
, p. 101.

16.
lowered the American flag:
(NY) World
, Dec. 18, 1871, p. 1.

17.
forged a compromise:
(NY) Sun
, Dec. 18, 1871, p. 1.

18.
exerted themselves like Trojans:
Ibid.

19.
All the spectators stared:
New York Herald
, Dec. 18, 1871, p. 3. Some biographers argue that Victoria was in a carriage in back the entire time, but contemporary newspapers clearly mention the sisters marching in front, although they may have retired to a carriage along the parade route.

20.
the sisters wore:
(NY) Sun
, Dec. 18, 1871.

21.
Tennie led the women’s group:
Baltimore Sun
, Dec. 18, 1871.

22.
she had to give up the banner:
New York Herald
, Dec. 18, 1871, p. 3.

23.
THE WORLD IS OUR COUNTRY:
(NY) World
, Dec. 18, 1871, p. 1.

24.
his Christian solution:
Ibid.

25.
denunciation of capitalist power:
Speech, New York Academy of Music, Feb. 20, 1872; Boston Music Hall, Feb. 1, 1872.

26.
abuse of men:
“A Lamp Without Oil,”
New York Times
, Feb. 22, 1872.

27.
comparison with Mr. Astor:
WCW
, March 1872.

28.
damaging tag of Mrs. Satan:
Amanda Frisken,
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and Popular Press in Nineteenth-Century America
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), pp. 46–48.

Chapter Thirteen: Being Tennie

1.
“Soup for three,”:
JM files, at SIU.

2.
That there should be two:
New York Times
, May 16, 1872, p. 4.

3.
not a person to trifle with:
Tucker-Sachs correspondence.

4.
unnerved the visitor:
Tucker-Sachs.

5.
“Oh that Tenn, Tenn, Tennessee.”:
Marberry,
Vicky
, p. 5.

6.
childlike and unsophisticated innocence:
Ibid.

7.
“Draw your own conclusions.”:
Ibid.

8.
referring to his private parts:
Tucker-Sachs.

9.
made Tennie a cover girl:
Frisken,
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution
.

10.
Tennie Claflin’s name:
Ibid., p. 78, quoting from
The Days’ Doings
, June 8, 1872; and
(NY) Evening Telegram
, May 15, 1872.

11.
the low-class portrayal:
Marberry,
Vicky
, p. 27.

12.
her upholstered derriere:
(NY) Sun
, March 21, 1870.

13.
denies all knowledge of her:
Stiles,
The First Tycoon
, p. 504;
(NY) Sun
, March 26, 1870.

14.
This silly illustration:
Amanda Frisken’s
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution
is a valuable addition to the sisters’ lore; Frisken examines the “sporting news” scandal periodicals. The cartoons described here are
Days’ Doings
illustrations reproduced in Frisken’s book.

15.
a twinlike personality:
Frisken, in her admirable examination of the sporting news treatment of the sisters, develops this concept.

16.
We have queer theories:
Brooklyn Eagle
, May 8, 1871, p. 10.

17.
make a solo splash:
WCW
, July 8, 1871.

18.
passing us by without recognition:
WCW
, Dec. 16, 1871.

19.
Each bewitching gypsy:
Underhill,
The Woman Who Ran for President
, pp. 34–35.

20.
kept her voice in check:
WCW
, Nov. 28, 1874, p. 9.

21.
the love that she inspired:
Tucker-Sachs.

22.
large lithograph of Tennie:
(NY) Sun
, Aug. 12, 1871, p. 1; entire recount of the meeting.

23.
two engines on the same track:
Swanburg,
Jim Fisk
, p. 209.

24.
decided to extort money:
Kenneth D. Ackerman,
Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Politician Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York
(New York and Berkeley: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2005), pp. 283–84.

25.
night that Abe Lincoln was shot:
Ibid., p. 284.

26.
without moral sense:
Ibid., p. 284.

27.
loudest professing saint:
WCW
, Feb. 3, 1872.

28.
occasion incredulity:
(NY) Sun
, May 15, 1872.

29.
the metaphorical stars of Col. Fisk:
New York Times
, May 16, 1872, p. 4.

30.
admire Miss Claflin’s logic:
New York Times
distorted her
(NY) Sun
letter to make her seem more arrogant; republished in
WCW
, June 1, 1872.

31.
erratically riding a horse:
Frisken,
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution
, p. 78; illustration in
The Days’ Doings
, June 8, 1872.

32.
outfit the six-hundred-man regiment:
(NY) Sun
, June 14, 1872, p. 1. Entire coverage of event is from this source.

33.
cosmetics of the Caucasian woman:
New York Times
, June 16, 1872.

34.
respect of New York’s black community:
Messer-Kruse,
The Yankee International
, p. 204.

35.
was never commissioned:
There was no follow-up account. Some biographers contend that she was never commissioned because the regiment demanded uniforms up front, which she could not supply.

36.
a five or six-inch skirt:
New York Times
, June 16, 1872.

37.
select a mule to ride on:
(NY) Evening Telegram
, May 15, 1872, quoted in Frisken,
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution
, p. 78.

38.
mob of ten thousand persons:
(NY) Sun
, March 30, 1872, p. 1.

39.
POLLUTION OF THE ACADEMY:
(NY) World
, March 30, 1872.

40.
free to turn the tables:
New York Herald
, March 30, 1872, p. 5.

41.
even at typesetting:
(NY) Sun
, March 30, 1872.

42.
their vile tobacco puddles:
Her speech quoted in Ibid.

43.
reputations to lose
:
New York Times
, March 31, 1872.

Chapter Fourteen: Future Presidentess

1.
the woman we are after:
Underhill,
The Woman Who Ran for President
;
WCW
, Jan. 27, 1872.

2.
resorted to blackmailing:
Underhill,
The Woman Who Ran for President
, p. 226.

3.
I shall not hesitate:
WCW
, April 2, 1873.

4.
whose souls are black with crimes:
Paulina Wright Davis letter to Victoria Woodhull, December 1872, quoted in Goldsmith,
Other Powers
, p. 317.

5.
the two best girls in the world:
(NY) Sun
quoted in Gabriel,
Notorious Victoria
, p. 165, n.d. given for newspaper.

6.
turn out all the gaslights:
Ida Husted Harper,
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony
, chapter 24, vol. 1 (Project Gutenberg ebook version, 2005) www.gutenberg.org.

7.
“demoralizing” embrace of Woodhull:
Ibid.

8.
“heterogeneous gathering that assembled in any city in any age.”:
(NY) World
, May 11, 1872.

9.
speeches lasting until 4:00 p.m.:
(NY) Sun
, May 11, 1872.

10.
the usual masculine shortness:
(NY) World
, May 11, 1872.

11.
justice, though the heavens fall!:
New York Herald
, May 11, 1872.

12.
“blood-stained document.”:
(NY) Sun
, May 11, 1872.

13.
the honor you have conferred:
New York Herald
and the
(NY) Sun
, May 11, 1872.

14.
nominate a “heathen Chinese.”:
(NY) Sun
, May 11, 1872, p. 1; and AP wire service, May 11, 1872.

15.
ugly minstrels:
Frisken,
Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution
, p. 69.

16.
little money to offer:
The Equal Rights Party was financially doomed. In a country locked into the two-party system, opinion makers traditionally view even well-financed third-party efforts as futile. They are either ignored or ridiculed, and voters are warned to resist voting for windmill-tilting dreams. This was especially so in 1872, when populist challenges to the capitalistic status quo were weak in numbers.

17.
this pettifogging pretender:
WCW
, March 2, 1872.

18.
whittled to a “toothpick.”:
Griffith,
In Her Own Right
, p. 153.

Chapter Fifteen: Down and Out in Manhattan

1.
“guessing wrong more often than right,”:
Underhill,
The Woman Who Ran for President
, p. 128.

2.
“The loss is immeasurable,”:
The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
(Library of America, Series, 1994), p. 709. [no publication location given].

3.
boisterously ratified the nomination:
WCW
, June 15, 1872.

4.
the constitution needs improvement:
WCW
, Feb. 24, 1872.

5.
Brown would rob them:
WCW
, May 25, 1872.

6.
denounces the greatest of all reforms:
WCW
, Nov. 2, 1872.

7.
“barefaced attempt to misrepresent”:
Kerr,
Lucy Stone
, p. 172; and
WCW
, June 1872.

8.
nothing to do with Stone’s AWSA:
Kerr,
Lucy Stone
, p. 173.

9.
calling him a fallen despot:
Messer-Kruse,
The Yankee International
, pp. 175–76.

10.
bridging America’s racial divide:
Ibid., p. 205.

11.
found Zula Maud and Byron:
WCW
, Nov. 2, 1872.

12.
frighten away all their family boarders:
Even though she was willing to run for office with a black man, an absolutely amazing concept in her day, and could speak righteously about social reform, Victoria was not free from racial prejudices. In attacking free love critics who thought women freed from marital bondage would chase after any man, Woodhull responded. Would these critics not say “that even negroes would not escape the mad debauch of white women?” Woodhull both invoked the Reconstruction era’s explosive hatred of miscegenation and also belittled as ludicrous the notion that a white woman could be attracted to a black male. Carpenter,
Selected Writings
, introduction, quoting the “Scare-crows of Sexual Slavery” speech by VW.