ten minutes to three o'clock
The farmers were in such high good humour that , laying all masculine prejudice aside , they were determined to witness the last feature of the day 's entertainment , or rather they would indulge in the humour of gratifying their masculine prejudices at the mass meeting . They stamped their feet , they hooted , they looked at the still empty stage and demanded to know where were the leaders of the `` Crinoline Campaign . '' They whispered and nudged each other and shouted ribald laughter . At ten minutes to three o'clock a line of women filed on the rostrum and took their chairs at the back of it . They were the representatives of the Co-Citizens ' County Leagues . There were twenty-five of them , and they ranged in age and dignity all the way from Granny White , who was seventy , to the youngest bride from Apple Valley . Granny White looked like a crooked letter of the female alphabet in a peroda waist frock with a very full skirt , and a black silk sunbonnet upon her old palsied head , which wagged incessantly .