es of my acquaintance were almost afraid to go to the polls.
I tried to get them out during the first hours after sunrise, when I
went myself, but in vain. Even that early, I heard things that made
me shudder. Those who came later, went home resolved to give up their
rights rather than undergo a second experience of rowdyism. But it was
a jubilee for the servant girls. Mrs. Buckwalter didn't gain much by her
apostasy, for Bridget came home singing "The Wearing of the Green," and
let fall a whole tray full of the best china before she could be got to
bed.

Burroak, which, the year before, had a Republican majority of three
hundred, now went for the Democrats by more than five hundred. The
same party carried the State, electing their Governor by near twenty
thousand. The Republicans would now have gladly repealed the bill giving
us equal rights, but they were in a minority, and the Democrats refused
to co-operate. Mrs. Whiston, who still remained loyal to our side,
collected information from all parts of the State, from which it
appeared that four-fifths of all the female citizens had voted the
Democratic ticket. In New Lisbon, our great manufacturing city, with
its population of nearly one hundred thousand, the party gained three
thousand votes, while the accessions to the Republican ranks were only
about four hundred.

Mrs. Whiston barely escaped being defeated; her majority was reduced
from seven hundred to forty-three. Eleven Democratic Assemblywomen and
four Senatoresses were chosen, however, so that she had the consolation
of knowing that her sex had gained, although her party had lost. She was
still in good spirits: "It will all right itself in time," she said.

You will readily guess, after what I have related, that I was not only
not re-elected to the Legislature, but that I was not even a candidate.
I could have born the outrageous attacks of the opposite party; but the
treatment I had received from my own "constituents" (I shall always hate
the word) gave me a new revelation of the actual character of political
life. I have not mentioned half the worries and annoyances to which I
was subjected--the endless, endless letters and applications for office,
or for my influence in some way--the abuse and threats when I could
not possibly do what was desired--the exhibitions of selfishness and
disregard of all great and noble principles--and finally, the shameless
advances which were made by what men call "the lobby,