Mrs. Hood and her three
children, moved to a smaller and more suitable house I had in another
part of East Adelaide. A placid flowing of the river of life for a year
or two led on to my being elected, in 1892, President of the Girls'
Literary Society. This position I filled with joy to myself and, I
hope, with advantage to others, until some years later the society
ceased to exist.

Crowded and interesting as my life had been hitherto, the best was yet
to be. My realization of Browning's beautiful line from "Rabbi Ben
Ezra"--"The last of life, for which the first was made," came when I
saw opening before me possibilities for public service undreamed of in
my earlier years. For the advancement of effective voting I had so far
confined my efforts to the newspapers. My brother John had suggested
the change of name from proportional representation to effective voting
as one more likely to catch the popular ear, and I had proposed a
modification of Hare's original plan of having one huge electorate, and
suggested instead the adoption of six-member districts. The State as
one electorate returning 42 members for the Assembly may be
magnificent, and may also be the pure essence of democracy, but it is
neither commonsense nor practicable. "Why not take effective voting to
the people?" was suggested to me. No sooner said than done. I had
ballot papers prepared and leaflets printed, and I began the public
campaign which has gone on ever since. During a visit to Melbourne as a
member of a charities conference it was first discovered that I had
some of the gifts of a public speaker. My friend, the Rev. Charles
Strong, had invited me to lecture before his working men's club at
Collingwood, and I chose as my subject "Effective Voting."

When on my return Mr. Barr Smith, who had long grasped the principle of
justice underlying effective voting, and was eager for its adoption,
offered to finance a lecturing tour through the State, I jumped at the
offer. There was the opportunity for which I had been waiting for
years. I got up at unearthly hours to catch trains, and sometimes
succeeded only through the timely lifts of kindly drivers. Once I went
in a carrier's van, because I had missed the early morning cars. I
travelled thousands of miles in all weathers to carry to the people the
gospel of electoral reform. Disappointments were frequent, and
sometimes disheartening; but the silver lining of every cloud turned up
somewhere, and I loo