Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/839

762 and when the radicalism of her husband caused the suspension of that journal in 1878, Mrs. Slocum began the publication of Roll Call, a temperance magazine which was mainly edited by her gifted little daughter Clara, only fifteen years old, who also set all the type. Among the earliest printers of California was Lyle Lester. She established a printing office in San Francisco in 1860, in which she employed a large number of girls and women as compositors. Miss Delia Murphy—now Mrs. Dearing—ranks with the best printers in San Francisco, and several women in various portions of the State have taken like standing. "Mrs. Richmond & Son," is the novel sign which decorates the front of a large printing establishment on Montgomery street, San Francisco, known for many years as the "Woman's Coöperative Printing Company," but which, in fact, was always an individual enterprise. Mrs. Augusta DeForce Cluff has entered upon her seventh year in practical journalism as publisher of a sprightly weekly, the Valley Review, at Lodi, in which enterprise she has met with remarkable success, being a superior business manager as well as a facile and talented writer. Some of her little poems have great merit. Mrs. Cluff and Mrs. Gordon have both filled official positions in the Pacific Coast Press Association. Miss Mary Bogardus, the gifted young daughter of that pioneer journalist, H. B. Bogardus, editor of Figaro, is her father's main assistant in all the business of his office. Mrs. Wittingham has been elected postmaster of the State Senate several terms, and is at present employed in the U. S. branch mint in San Francisco.

One of the most meritorious and successful enterprises occupying the attention of the women of California, is the silk culture, which promises to develop into one of the dominant industries of the nation. Mrs. G. H. Hittel first brought the subject into public notice by able articles on the cultivation of the mulberry tree, published in various journals. In 1880 she formed the Ladies' Silk Culture Society of California. This association like its predecessor, the first Woman Suffrage Society, was organized and held its meetings in private parlors for a time, but it soon required more room. Men have been taken into membership since the object for which the society was formed seemed to be feasible, and, as a natural result, whatever of financial and honorary reward may be accorded the self-sacrificing women who performed the arduous and thankless labor of founding the institution, will be shared with the men who now come into the work.

During the session of the legislature of 1883, a committee was appointed to ask an appropriation from the State for the purpose of establishing a Filature or free silk-reeling school. After considerable delay the committee called to their aid Mrs. Gordon, and asked her to visit the State capital and see what could be done. The session was rapidly drawing to a close, and even the warmest friends of the measure feared that it was too late to accomplish anything. But happily the bill was got through both branches of the legislature and sent to the governor the last hour of the session. By its provisions a State Board of Silk Culture was created consisting of nine members, five of whom were to be women,