Then began the long struggle for life.  For nine weeks Miss Anthony sat by his bedside giving the service of a born nurse, added to the gentleness of a loving sister.  At the end of the first month the physicians decided on a continued pressure upon the artery above the wound to prevent the constant rush of blood into the aneurism which had formed.  Owing to its peculiar position this could be done only by pressing the finger upon it, and so the family and friends took turns day and night, sitting by the patient and pressing upon this vital spot.  After five weeks, to the surprise of the whole medical fraternity, the experiment proved a success and recovery was no longer doubtful.  The papers were filled with glowing accounts of Miss Anthony’s devotion, seeming to think it wonderful that a woman whose whole life had been spent in public work should possess in so large a degree not only sisterly affection but the accomplishments of a trained nurse.[84]

Miss Anthony took back to Rochester her little four-year-old niece and namesake, Susie B., and many touching entries in her journal show how closely the child entwined itself about her heart.  She found that Lydia Mott still lived, and, allowing herself only two days’ rest after all the hard weeks of physical and mental strain, she went to Albany to stay with her friend till the end came, a month later.  The diary of August 20 says:  “There passed out of my life today the one who, next to my own family, has been the nearest and dearest to me for thirty years.”

On October 2, 1875, she heard Frances E. Willard lecture for the first time, and comments, “A lovely, spirited and spiritual woman, characterized by genuine Christian simplicity.”  Miss Anthony was a guest with Miss Willard at the home of Professor and Mrs. Lattimore.  When they reached the hall Miss Willard asked her to sit on the platform, but Miss Anthony declined, saying, “No, you have a heavy enough load to carry without taking me.”  November 4 Miss Anthony gave her lecture on “Social Purity” in Rochester, introduced by Judge Henry R. Selden, and writes, “I had a most attentive and solemn listening.”  The rest of the year was spent in finishing the interrupted lectures in Iowa, and the beginning of 1876 found her in the far West with so many engagements that she decided, for the first time in all the years, not to go to Washington to the National Convention.  This was in the capable hands of Mrs. Gage, who was then president; so she sent an encouraging letter and a liberal contribution.

Miss Anthony still continued on her weary round-through the inclement winter and spring, sometimes lecturing to meager and sometimes to crowded houses but netting an average of $100 a week, which was religiously applied to the payment of the debt.  She returned to Chicago to lecture again in the Dime course, Sunday, March 26, and says in her diary:  “An immense audience, hall packed, my speech was free, easy and happy, my audience quick to see and appreciate.”