Page:The Souvenir of Western Women.djvu/43

Rh, as he flourished his whip, "Keep your seat, Miss Anthony; I'll get you there on time."

Annie Pixley. who was then starring in the Pacific Northwest, had possession of the only hall Walla Walla afforded; and no church being open to any woman speaker at any price, we secured a little hall at the rear end of a saloon, where we had a fine audience, but were solemnly censured for accepting the only place open to us by every preacher who had shut the door of his church in our faces.

From Walla Walla we journeyed by river and stage coach to Olympia, where we addressed a joint session of the territorial legislature. Miss Anthony remarking at the beginning of her speech that, although women had before addressed similar assemblies, this was the first time to her knowledge that they had done so by official invitation.

We then went to Seattle, Port Townsend and other Puget Sound hamlets, after which we visited Victoria, making many friends for equal rights in British Columbia as well as in Oregon and Washington. Our return trip by stage from Olympia to Cowlitz Landing was peculiarly trying. The November rains had come, the roads were horrible, and the night was pitch dark. But the driver was wise, the horses were intelligent and we reached the Columbia River without other mishaps than bumps and bruises. From Albany, Oregon, Miss Anthony took stage for Sacramento, lecturing often en route and everywhere making converts.

A quarter of a century later she returned to Portland, crowned with age and riches and fame. She was the bright particular star at the first Oregon congress of women in 1896, and was the honored guest of all sorts of public and private functions and organizations of women. Society opened its doors to her and her co-workers, and open-handed hospitality greeted them at every turn. The stage coach had given way to four transcontinental railroads, and the Star Spangled Banner was floating over the islands of the sea.

"The hour of woman's full and complete enfranchisement is not yet come," said our distinguished guest, "but it is coming. We have but to work and wait for it yet a little longer."

Years after the close of the Nez Perce mission the outward forms of religion were observed by the Indians. Prayers and singing were heard in nearly every lodge. At the council at Walla Walla in 1855 it was found that three lodges of the Cayuses and about one thousand of the Nez Perce Indians kept up regular family worship. They sang from the Nez Perce hymn book and read in their own language the gospel of St. Matthew, prepared for them by Mr. Spalding while at Lapwai. They showed surprising endurance of piety. Many kept up their knowledge of reading and writing so well indeed that they took notes and also made copies of the treaties and the speeches at this council at Walla Walla eight years after the close of the mission. In 1843, under Dr. White, these Indians organized a simple form of government, elected chiefs and adopted a few laws.