oratress

That challenge to conventional thinking lays her open to being treated as an old-school humorist, as a butt of ridiculing jokes, a status that would match her with Hollingsworth, just as Coverdale's claim that she ought to be "a stump oratress" (44) blatantly mirrors Hollingsworth's ability as a public speaker.

In "Starting from Paumanok" for example, he had written, "Crossing the prairies, dwelling again in Chicago, dwelling in every town, / Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts, / Listening to orators and oratresses in public halls, / Of and through the States as during life, each man and woman my neighbor" (LG, 25).