of the people, and it strengthened my
growing conviction that little could be done for the poor in a spiritual
or educational way until they were given a certain amount of physical
comfort, and until more time was devoted to the problem of prevention.
Indeed, the more I studied economic issues, the more strongly I felt
that the position of most philanthropists is that of men who stand at
the bottom of a precipice gathering up and trying to heal those who
fall into it, instead of guarding the top and preventing them from going
over.

Of course I had to earn my living; but, though I had taken my medical
degree only a few months before leaving Cape Cod, I had no intention
of practising medicine. I had merely wished to add a certain amount
of medical knowledge to my mental equipment. The Massachusetts Woman
Suffrage Association, of which Lucy Stone was president, had frequently
employed me as a lecturer during the last two years of my pastorate. Now
it offered me a salary of one hundred dollars a month as a lecturer and
organizer. Though I may not have seemed so in these reminiscences, in
which I have written as freely of my small victories as of my struggles
and failures, I was a modest young person. The amount seemed too large,
and I told Mrs. Stone as much, after which I humbly fixed my salary at
fifty dollars a month. At the end of a year of work I felt that I had
"made good"; then I asked for and received the one hundred dollars a
month originally offered me.

During my second year Miss Cora Scott Pond and I organized and carried
through in Boston a great suffrage bazaar, clearing six thousand dollars
for the association--a large amount in those days. Elated by my share in
this success, I asked that my salary should be increased to one hundred
and twenty-five dollars a month--but this was not done. Instead, I
received a valuable lesson. It was freely admitted that my work was
worth one hundred and twenty-five dollars, but I was told that one
hundred was the limit which could be paid, and I was reminded that this
was a good salary for a woman.

The time seemed to have come to make a practical stand in defense of
my principles, and I did so by resigning and arranging an independent
lecture tour. The first month after my resignation I earned three
hundred dollars. Later I frequently earned more than that, and very
rarely less. Eventually I lectured under the direction of the Slaton
Lecture Bureau of Chicago, and later