The friends of Miss Susan B. Anthony, to the number of about fifty, comprising the more prominent leaders of the suffrage movement, assembled in the parlors of the Grand Hotel last evening.  After an hour spent in social conversation and the interchange of congratulations upon the bright prospects of the cause they represent, the guests were ushered into the spacious dining-hall, where a bountiful collation had been spread....

Miss Anthony said:  “....I go from you freighted with a burden of love and gratitude, and no greetings have been more precious than those of working men and women.  Tonight when the woman who earns her livelihood by selling flowers through the hotel came to the door of the parlor and, presenting me with the beautiful bouquet which I hold in my hand, asked, ’Will you accept this because you have spoken so nobly for us poor workingwomen?’ it brought tears to my eyes, unused to weeping.  I felt a thrill of gratitude that I had been permitted to prosecute this work.  We who are seated around this board may have all the rights we need; we are not working for ourselves, but for those now suffering around us.  For them, our sisters, and for future generations must we labor....”

    She took her seat amid warm applause.  A number of brief, pithy
    speeches were made and all dispersed with a hearty Godspeed to the
    talented lady in whose behalf they had assembled.

Laura de Force Gordon had arranged a number of lectures for Miss Anthony on the route eastward.  At Nevada City she was the guest of A. A. Sargent, the newly elected United States senator, and his wife, both earnest friends of woman suffrage.[62] The rainy season had set in and the diary says:  “These storms which bring new life and hope to farmers and miners, mean empty benches for me.”  The mud, snow and wind in Nevada were terrible.  At Virginia City, where she lectured, she was snowed in for several days and finally left in a six-horse sleigh, in the midst of a blinding storm, on Christmas Day.

[Autograph: 

  I wish you a successful
  meeting, and encouraging
  progress for your cause. 
    Resp’y
    A. A. Sargent.]

She arrived at Reno to find that the Sargents, whom she expected to join on their way to Washington, had passed through a day or two before but, as they were delayed by snowdrifts, she overtook them at Ogden, and enjoyed the privileges of their luxurious staterooms until they reached Chicago.  It happened most fortunately that the Sargents were supplied with inexhaustible hampers of provisions, for the trip from Ogden to Chicago occupied twelve days.  Senator Mitchell and family, of Oregon, and several other friends were on the train, but with all the pleasant companionship and all the entertainment which could be devised, the journey was long and tedious.  The ever-faithful diary contains a brief record of each day: