the convention, but it was clear that she was still worrying
over the details of future work. One day at luncheon Miss Thomas asked
me, casually:

"By the way, how do you raise the money to carry on your work?"

When I told her the work was wholly dependent on voluntary contributions
and on the services of those who were willing to give themselves
gratuitously to it, Miss Thomas was greatly surprised. She and Miss
Garrett asked a number of practical questions, and at the end of our
talk they looked at each other.

"I don't think," said Miss Thomas, "that we have quite done our duty in
this matter."

The next day they invited a number of us to dinner, to again discuss
the situation; and they admitted that they had sat up throughout the
previous night, talking the matter over and trying to find some way to
help us. They had also discussed the situation with Miss Anthony, to
her vast content, and had finally decided that they would try to raise
a fund of $60,000, to be paid in yearly instalments of $12,000 for five
years--part of these annual instalments to be used as salaries for the
active officers. The mere mention of so large a fund startled us all.
We feared that it could not possibly be raised. But Miss Anthony plainly
believed that now the last great wish of her life had been granted.
She was convinced that Miss Thomas and Miss Garrett could accomplish
anything--even the miracle of raising $60,000 for the suffrage
cause--and they did, though "Aunt Susan" was not here to glory over the
result when they had achieved it.

On the 15th of February we left Baltimore for Washington, where Miss
Anthony was to celebrate her eighty-sixth birthday. For many years
the National American Woman Suffrage Association had celebrated our
birthdays together, as hers came on the 15th of the month and mine on
the 14th. There had been an especially festive banquet when she was
seventy-four and I was forty-seven, and our friends had decorated the
table with floral "4's" and "7's"--the centerpiece representing "74"
during the first half of the banquet, and "47" the latter half. This
time "Aunt Susan" should not have attempted the Washington celebration,
for she was still ill and exhausted by the strain of the convention. But
notwithstanding her sufferings and the warnings of her physicians, she
insisted on being present; so Miss Garrett sent the trained nurse to
Washington with her, and we all tried to make the journey the least
poss