.
The audiences were truly representative, embracing the business,
professional and working interests of our city, and composed very
largely of voters and citizens influential in politics.

The next convention was held in Lincoln with the same crowded houses.
The newspapers were fair in their reports. The National Association
raised $5,000 by contributions, mostly from outside the State. Miss
Anthony gave her time and services and over $1,000 in money besides all
she collected. Mrs. Foster and daughters contributed $500. Eleven
speakers were kept in the field,[10] and all the complicated series of
meetings was arranged and managed by Rachel Foster, assisted by Mrs.
Colby. Miss Anthony herself spoke in forty counties, free transportation
being given her by all the railroads in the State. On October 13, she
held the famous debate at Omaha with Edward Rosewater, editor of the
Bee, in the presence of an immense audience. Everywhere her meetings
were perfect ovations, people coming in from a radius of twenty-five
miles; and outside of Lincoln and Omaha, there was no audience-room
large enough to hold the crowds.

A splendid force of Nebraska women conducted the campaign in behalf of
the State. Every effort possible was made in the brief space of six
weeks, but the masses of voters were not prepared for the question, most
of the leading newspapers opposed it, and the women had no help from
either of the political parties. In spite of these fatal drawbacks, the
suffrage amendment received about one-third of the total vote.[11]

Miss Anthony returned home by way of St. Louis, where Mrs. Minor gave a
large reception in her honor. When she reached Rochester she was invited
by the Lincoln Club, one of the leading political organizations of the
city, to give her address, "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot." The
Democrat and Chronicle said in its report: "The large audience-room of
the city hall was completely filled, and many extra seats were brought
in. A number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied seats upon the
platform. W. E. Werner, president of the club, in introducing the
speaker, said it was fitting the hall should be full to overflowing with
an audience anxious to hear the greatest advocate of one of the greatest
questions of the day."

Miss Anthony had made a short trip to Washington immediately upon her
return from Nebraska, to confer with the select committees on woman
suffrage and also to make