Luther, his future wife, and under the direction of her father were sent two weeks in advance to sheriff and postmaster, accompanied by a letter from Miss Anthony requesting that they be put up in a conspicuous place.  She then wrote Wendell Phillips asking if any funds were available from the Philadelphia convention, and he replied “no,” but sent a personal check for $50.  With this money in her pocket, and without the promise of another dollar, she started out alone, at the beginning of winter, to canvass the great State of New York.

[Footnote 19:  At the top of their voices they shouted such doggerel as this: 

“Heigh ho,
Thro’ sleet and snow,
Mrs. Bloomer’s all the go. 
Twenty tailors take the stitches,
Plenty of women wear the breeches,
Heigh ho,
Carrion crow!”

And this: 

“Gibbery, gibbery gab,
The women had a confab
And demanded the rights
To wear the tights. 
Gibbery, gibbery gab.”
*/]

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST COUNTY CANVASS——­THE WATER CURE.

1855.

Miss Anthony left home on Christmas Day, 1854, and held her first meeting at Mayville, Chautauqua Co., the afternoon and evening of the 26th.  On her expense account is the item:  “56 cents for four pounds of candles to light the courthouse.”  The weather was cold and damp and the audiences small, although people were present from eight towns, attracted by curiosity to hear a woman.  At the evening session a “York shilling” admittance fee was charged.  At Sherman, the next evening, there was a large audience and the diary says:  “I never saw more enthusiasm on the subject; even the orthodox churches vied with each other as to which should open its doors.”

The plan adopted was to hold these meetings every other day, allowing for the journey from place to place; but whenever distances would permit, one was held on the intervening day.  Occasionally Miss Anthony had the assistance of another speaker, but more than half the meetings were conducted with the little local help she could secure.  In the afternoon she would read half of her one and only speech and try to form a society, but there was scarcely a woman to be found who would accept the presidency.  In the evening she would read the other half, sell as many tracts as possible and secure names to the petitions.  In almost every instance she found the sheriff had put up her posters, inserted notices in the papers, had them read in the churches and prepared the courthouse for her.  From only one of the sixty counties did she receive an insulting reply to her letters, and this was from Schoharie.  The postmasters also pasted her hand-bills in a conspicuous place, and they were a source of much amusement and comment.  Most of the towns never had been visited by a woman speaker, and wagon-loads of people would come from miles around to see the novelty.  The audiences