y sister being the first) handed in
their ballots as if they had always been accustomed to voting,
and everything passed off pleasantly. One lady, Mrs. Sargent,
seventy-two years old, said she thanked the Lord that He had let
her live until she could vote. She had often prayed to see the
day, and now she was proud to cast her first ballot.

It had been talked of for some days before the election in the
adjoining precinct--Black River--that Mrs. French was organizing
a party of women to attend the election in Grand Mound precinct;
but they were not sure the judges would let them vote. "If they
do," said they, "if the Grand Mound women vote, the Black River
women shall!" So they stationed a man on a fleet horse, at the
Grand Mound polls, with instructions to start as soon as the
women began to vote, and ride with all haste back to their
precinct and let them know. The moment the man rode in sight of
the school-house he swung his hat, and screeched at the top of
his voice, "They're voting! They're voting!" The teams were all
ready in anticipation of the news, and were instantly flying in
every direction, and soon the women were ushered into the
school-house, their choice of tickets furnished them, and all
allowed to vote as "American citizens."

While the women of these two precincts were enjoying the exercise
of their political rights, the women of Olympia were suffering
the vexation of disappointment. I had been stopping there for
some weeks previous to the election, trying to induce the women
to go to the polls, and also to convince the men that women had a
legal right to vote, and that their right must be respected. The
day before election the judges were interviewed as to whether
they would take the votes of the women. They replied, "Yes; we
shall be obliged to take them. The law gives them the right to
vote, and we can not refuse." This decision was heralded all over
the city, and women felt as if their millennium had come.
To-morrow, for the first time, their voice would be heard in the
government through the ballot. All day long women met each other,
and asked: "Are you going to the election to-morrow?" Groups
gathered in parlors and discussed the matter, and everything
seemed auspicious.

But how true the saying: "There's many a