financing systems, the
Credit Foncier and Credit Mobilier, to develop our mines and
railroads; the issuing of greenbacks; and penny ocean postage "to
strengthen the brotherhood of Labor."

All in all it was not a program with wide appeal. Dazzled by the
opportunities for making money in this new undeveloped country, people
were in no mood to analyze the social order, or to consider the needs
of women or labor or the living standards of the masses. Unfamiliar
with the New York Stock Exchange, they found little to interest them
in the paper's financial department, while speculators and promoters,
such as Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, wanted no advice from the lone eagle,
George Francis Train, and resented Melliss's columns of Wall Street
gossip which often portrayed them in an unfavorable light. Nor did a
public-affairs paper edited and published by women carry much weight.
None of this, however, mattered much to Susan, who did not aim for a
popular paper but "to make public sentiment." It was her hope that
just as the _Liberator_ under William Lloyd Garrison had been "the
pillar of light and of fire to the slave's emancipation," so _The
Revolution_ would become "the guiding star to the enfranchisement of
women."[208]

* * * * *

Upon Susan fell the task of building up subscriptions, soliciting
advertisements, and getting copy to the printer. As her office in the
New York _World_ building, 37 Park Row, was on the fourth floor and
the printer was several blocks away on the fifth floor of a building
without an elevator, her job proved to be a test of physical
endurance. To this was added an ever-increasing financial burden, for
Train had sailed for England when the first number was issued, had
been arrested because of his Irish sympathies, and had spent months in
a Dublin jail, from which he sent them his thoughts on every
conceivable subject but no money for the paper. He had left $600 with
Susan and had instructed Melliss to make payments as needed, but this
soon became impossible, and she had to face the alarming fact that, if
the paper were to continue, she must raise the necessary money
herself. Because the circulation was small, it was hard to get
advertisers, particularly as she was firm in her determination to
accept only advertisements of products she could recommend. Patent
medicines and any questionable products were ruled out. Subscriptions
came in encouragingly but in no sense met