Husted Harper, whom she had met in 1878
while lecturing in Terre Haute, Indiana, and who was in California
that winter. When the San Francisco _Examiner_, William Randolph
Hearst's powerful Democratic paper, offered Susan a column on the
editorial page if she would write it and sign it, she dictated her
thoughts to Mrs. Harper, who smoothed them out for the column, helping
her as Mrs. Stanton had in the past, for writing was still a great
hardship. Grateful to Mrs. Harper, she sang her praises: "The moment I
give the idea--the point--she formulates it into a good
sentence--while I should have to haggle over it half an hour."[397]

California women had won suffrage planks from Republicans, Populists,
and Prohibitionists, and the prospects looked bright. Rich women came
to their aid, Mrs. Leland Stanford, with her railroad fortune,
furnishing passes for all the speakers and organizers, and Mrs. Phoebe
Hearst contributing $1,000 to their campaign. What warmed Susan's
heart, however, was the spirit of the rank and file, the seamstresses
and washerwomen, paying their two-dollar pledges in twenty-five-cent
installments, the poorly clad women bringing in fifty cents or a
dollar which they had saved by going without tea, and the women who
had worked all day at their jobs, stopping at headquarters for a
package of circulars to fold and address at night. The working women
of California made it plain that they wanted to vote.

Susan insisted upon carrying out what she called her "wild goose
chase" over the state.[398] People crowded to hear her at farmers'
picnics in the mountains, in schoolhouses in small towns, and in
poolrooms where chalked up on the blackboard she often found "Welcome
Susan B. Anthony." She was at home everywhere and ready for anything.
The men liked her short matter-of-fact speeches and her flashes of
wit. Her hopes were high that the friendly people she met would not
fail to vote justice to women.

She grew apprehensive, however, when the newspapers, pressured by
their advertisers, one by one began to ignore woman suffrage. The
Liquor Dealers' League had been sending letters to hotel owners,
grocers, and druggists, as well as to saloons, warning that votes for
women would mean prohibition and would threaten their livelihood. Word
was spread that if women voted not one glass of beer would be sold in
San Francisco. As in Kansas, liquor interests had persuaded
naturalized Irish, Germans, and Swedes to oppose