r death and to
take her sister Mary and her niece Lucy with me, and we followed these
orders within a week of her funeral, arriving in Portland on the third
day of April. I had attempted too much, however, and I proved it
by fainting as I got off the train, to the horror of the friendly
delegation waiting to receive us. The Portland women took very tender
care of me, and in a few days I was ready for work, but we found
conditions even worse than we had expected. Miss Gregg had collapsed
utterly and was unable to give us any information as to what had been
done or planned, and we had to make a new foundation. Miss Laura Clay,
who had been in the Portland work for a few weeks, proved a tower of
strength, and we were soon aided further by Ida Porter Boyer, who came
on to take charge of the publicity department. During the final six
weeks of the campaign Alice Stone Blackwell, of Boston, was also with
us, while Kate Gordon took under her special charge the organization of
the city of Portland and the parlor-meeting work. Miss Clay went into the
state, where Emma Smith DeVoe and other speakers were also working, and
I spent my time between the office headquarters and "the road," often
working at my desk until it was time to rush off and take a train for
some town where I was to hold a night meeting. Miss Mary and Miss Lucy
Anthony confined themselves to office-work in the Portland headquarters,
where they gave us very valuable assistance. I have always believed that
we would have carried Oregon that year if the disaster of the California
earthquake had not occurred to divert the minds of Western men from
interest in anything save that great catastrophe.

On election day it seemed as if the heavens had opened to pour floods
upon us. Never before or since have I seen such incessant, relentless
rain. Nevertheless, the women of Portland turned out in force, led by
Mrs. Sarah Evans, president of the Oregon State Federation of Women's
Clubs, while all day long Dr. Pohl took me in her automobile from
one polling-place to another. At each we found representative women
patiently enduring the drenching rain while they tried to persuade men
to vote for us. We distributed sandwiches, courage, and inspiration
among them, and tried to cheer in the same way the women watchers, whose
appointment we had secured that year for the first time. Two women had
been admitted to every polling-place--but the way in which we had been
able to secure th