loons in Boston and other big towns." As I had nothing
to do with Boston, and much to do with East Dennis, I preached on that
place three Sundays in succession, and feeling became so intense that I
handed in my resignation and prepared to depart. Then my friends rallied
and the resort was suppressed.

That was my last big struggle. During the remaining five years of my
pastorate on Cape Cod the relations between my people and myself were
wholly harmonious and beautiful. If I have seemed to dwell too much on
these small victories, it must be remembered that I find in them such
comfort as I can. I have not yet won the great and vital fight of my
life, to which I have given myself, heart and soul, for the past thirty
years--the campaign for woman suffrage. I have seen victories here and
there, and shall see more. But when the ultimate triumph comes--when
American women in every state cast their ballots as naturally as their
husbands do--I may not be in this world to rejoice over it.

It is interesting to remember that during the strenuous period of the
first few months in East Dennis, and notwithstanding the division in
the congregation, we women of the church got together and repainted and
refurnished the building, raising all the money and doing much of the
work ourselves, as the expense of having it done was prohibitive. We
painted the church, and even cut down and modernized the pulpit. The
total cost of material and furniture was not half so great as the
original estimate had indicated, and we had learned a valuable lesson.
After this we spent very little money for labor, but did our own
cleaning, carpet-laying, and the like; and our little church, if I may
be allowed to say so, was a model of neatness and good taste.

I have said that at the end of two years from the time of my appointment
the long-continued warfare in the church was ended. I was not
immediately allowed, however, to bask in an atmosphere of harmony, for
in October, 1880, the celebrated contest over my ordination took place
at the Methodist Protestant Conference in Tarrytown, New York; and for
three days I was a storm-center around which a large number of truly
good and wholly sincere men fought the fight of their religious lives.
Many of them strongly believed that women were out of place in the
ministry. I did not blame them for this conviction. But I was in the
ministry, and I was greatly handicapped by the fact that, although I was
a licensed pr