, high schools or clubs for literature and other
information concerning woman suffrage, which is now the subject of
debate from the great universities down to the cross roads schoolhouse.
In past years libraries have been very deficient in matter upon this
question because there was no general call for it, but now the demand is
so large that it scarcely can be supplied, and all instinctively turn to
Miss Anthony for information.

Some idea has been given of the scope of her correspondence of a public
nature, but it hardly would be possible to describe the private letters.
Standing for half a century as the friend and defender of women, and
known so widely through her travels and newspaper notices, she is
overwhelmed with appeals for advice and assistance. From the number of
wives, and husbands also, who pour the tale of their domestic grievances
into her ears, she would be fully justified in believing marriage a
failure. She is daily requested to sign petitions for every conceivable
purpose, and begged for letters of recommendation by people of whom she
never heard. Women entreat her to obtain positions for their husbands
and children and to help themselves get pensions, or damages, or wages
out of which they have been defrauded. Girls and boys want advice about
their plans for the future. Women, and men too, without education or
experience, insist upon being placed as speakers on the suffrage
platform. Authors send books asking for a review. People write of their
business ventures, their lawsuits, their surgical operations, their
diseases and those of all their family, and of every imaginable
household matter. Scores of letters ask for a "word of greeting" on all
sorts of occasions. Editors of papers and pamphlets, advocating every
ology and ism under the sun, send them with the entreaty that she will
examine and express an opinion, each insisting that "it will take only
a few hours of her time." She is besieged to dress dolls and make aprons
for fairs, to write her name upon pieces to be used for quilts and
cushions, and to furnish scraps of her gowns for the same purpose.
Babies are named for her and she is asked to send a letter of
acknowledgment and a little keepsake. Requests for autographs outnumber
the days of the year.

She is constantly importuned to examine MSS., and not only to do this
but to secure a publisher. During the year 1897 one man sent an article
of sixty-eight closely typewritten pages of legal c