ve up _The Revolution_. Not only was the operating
deficit piling up alarmingly, but there were persistent rumors of a
competitor, another woman suffrage paper to be edited by Lucy Stone
and Julia Ward Howe.

Susan had assumed full financial responsibility for _The Revolution_
because Mrs. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, both with families to
consider, felt unable to share this burden. Mrs. Stanton had always
contributed her services and Parker Pillsbury had been sadly
underpaid, while Susan had drawn out for her salary only the most
meager sums for bare living expenses.

With a maximum of 3,000 subscribers, the paper could not hope to pay
its way even though she had secured a remarkably loyal group of
advertisers.[245] Reluctantly she raised the subscription price from
$2 to $3 a year. Her friends and family were generous with gifts and
loans, but these only met the pressing needs of the moment and in no
way solved the overall financial problem of the paper.

Appealing once again to her wealthy and generous Quaker cousin, Anson
Lapham, she wrote him in desperation, "My paper must not, shall not go
down. I am sure you believe in me, in my honesty of purpose, and also
in the grand work which _The Revolution_ seeks to do, and therefore
you will not allow me to ask you in vain to come to the rescue.
Yesterday's mail brought 43 subscribers from Illinois and 20 from
California. We only need time to win financial success. I know you
will save me from giving the world a chance to say, 'There is a
woman's rights failure; even the best of women can't manage business!'
If only I could die, and thereby fail honorably, I would say, 'Amen,'
but to live and fail--it would be too terrible to bear."[246] He came
to her aid as he always had in the past.

Susan's sister Mary not only lent her all her savings, but spent her
summer vacation in New York in 1869, working in _The Revolution_
office while Susan, busy with woman suffrage conventions in Newport,
Saratoga, Chicago, and Ohio, was building up good will and
subscriptions for her paper. Concerned for her welfare, Mary
repeatedly but unsuccessfully urged her to give up. Daniel added his
entreaties to Mary's, begging Susan not to go further into debt, but
to form a stock company if she were determined to continue her paper.
She considered his advice very seriously for he was a practical
businessman and yet appreciated what she was trying to do. For a time
the formation of a stock co