Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/825

752 demand, including the subsequent governor of the State, George C. Perkins, then senator from Butte county. Soon afterwards Mrs. Gordon removed to Nevada, and no more lectures on woman suffrage were given until the visit of Anna Dickinson in the summer of 1869.

The way was being prepared however, for further agitation by the appearance of The Revolution in 1868 in New York, which was hailed by the women of California (as elsewhere) as the harbinger of a brighter and better era. Its well filled pages were eagerly read and passed from hand to hand, and the effect of its startling assertions was soon apparent. Mrs. Pitts Stevens had about that time secured a proprietary interest in the San Francisco Mercury, and was gradually educating her readers up to a degree of liberality to endorse suffrage. Early in 1869 she became sole proprietor, changing the name to Pioneer, and threw the woman suffrage banner to the breeze in an editorial of marked ability.

The organization of the National Woman Suffrage Association in New York, May, 1869, gave fresh impetus to the movement, and the appointment of Mrs. Elizabeth T. Schenck as vice-president for California by that association, met with the approval of all those interested in the movement. Soon after this Mrs. Schenck with her gifted ally, Mrs. Stevens, decided to organize a suffrage society, and at an impromptu meeting of some of the friends at the residence of Mrs. Nellie Hutchinson, July 27, 1869, the first association for this purpose on the Pacific coast was formed. There were just a sufficient number of members to fill the offices. This society grew rapidly and within a month the parlors were found inadequate to the constantly increasing numbers. Through the courtesy of the Mercantile Library Association their commodious apartments were secured.

The advent of Anna Dickinson afforded the ladies an opportunity to attest their admiration for her as a representative woman, which they did, giving her a public breakfast, September 14. Their honored guest appreciated the compliment; and in an earnest and eloquent speech referred to it, saying that although she had received many demonstrations of the kind, this was the first ever given her exclusively by her own sex.

Soon after Miss Dickinson's departure, Mrs. Schenck, much to the regret of the society, resigned the chair, and Mrs. J. W. Stow was appointed to fill the vacancy. The ladies having for some time considered the organizing of a State Society of great importance, it was decided to hold a grand mass convention for that purpose. There was need of funds to carry forward the work, and a course of three lectures was suggested as a means to raise money. This carried, on motion of Mrs. Stow, and her offer to deliver the first lecture of the course was accepted. All the members of the society devoted their energies to secure the success of the undertaking. Many of them engaged in selling tickets for the two weeks inter-