so after the work was done I was
obliged to walk nine blocks to practice each day. When I thought
everything was going all right Mr. Blake began to act strangely. The
failure had affected him more than he let me know, and he was so
stunned by the blow that he had plunged us into poverty and it weighed
so on his mind that Dr. H.L. Baldwin advised a sea voyage. So we wrote
to his brother who was in Melbourne to expect him on a certain ship.
All was favorable and he sailed away the latter part of 1869. His
brain was softening and there was no hope for him if he remained.
After weeks of sailing he arrived safely in Melbourne. He so far
recovered that he was able to accept a position as expert in the
Omnibus railway office which he filled for one year and a half. In the
meantime I had been able to pay for all the furniture, through my
roomers and singing and sewing, but the large house was too much for
me, with sewing until twelve at night, and I concluded to take a
smaller house and called on Mr. George Lamson, the auctioneer. He was
Nance O'Neil's father and she was then a little girl. I selected what
furniture I needed for the house on Washington street and he sold the
rest. Four of the best roomers went with me to the new house, so I was
sure I'd not fail for awhile at least.

[Illustration:

Church of the Advent
San Francisco, 1880
Rev. H.D. Lathrop, Rector

Father Stockman's Roman Catholic Church
San Bernardino, 1888

Calvary Episcopal Church
Santa Cruz, 1864
Rev. Giles A. Easton, Rector

Pilgrim Congregational Church
East Oakland, 1893

CHURCHES WHERE MRS. BLAKE-ALVERSON HAS SUNG]

All these months of toil I had received one bill after another from
different men and business houses. When they came for money I told
them I did not have a dollar, only what I earned, but that if the
bills were correct, I would settle them as fast as I could earn the
money. I determined to pay all of Mr. Blake's indebtedness, rather
than there should be a blot upon his name or honor, and also for the
sake of his two sons who had their lives to live. I had been sewing
for Mrs. Letitia Ralph, the dressmaker, who gave me the children's
clothes to make after she had fitted and basted them up for me. I had
my own boys so beautifully clad she wanted to know who made their
clothes. She proposed that if I would make the children's clothing she
would prepare the work for me. After my work of the day was over and
all the family slept I