y. The authors were to pay
for composition, stereotyping, the making of the plates for the
engravings and the printing of the same; Fowler & Wells for the paper,
press-work, binding and advertising. Miss Anthony and her co-workers
were to receive only 12-1/2 per cent. commission on the sales. It
readily may be seen that she did not go into this as a money-making
scheme. Her only thought, her only desire, was to collect the facts in
connection with the movement to secure the rights of women, before they
should be scattered and lost, and to preserve and put them into shape
for reference.

In preparing the first two volumes she had used every dollar she had
been able to earn and all she could obtain from generous friends, and
there were still large unpaid bills. Now, with plenty of money at her
command, she bought out the rights of Fowler & Wells, and engaged
Charles Mann, of Rochester, to print the third volume. Mrs. Stanton had
returned to Tenafly, and there Miss Anthony again sent all the trunks
and boxes of precious documents. She completed her lecture engagements
and the first of June, 1885, found the two women once more hard at work.

"I really think of you with pity these hot midsummer days," wrote Mrs.
Sewall to Mrs. Stanton, "under the lash of blessed Susan's relentless
energy; but the reflection that she applies it with the most vigor to
her own back enables one to regard that instrument, after all, with more
admiration than terror." It was indeed true that Mrs. Stanton's luxury
and ease-loving nature required much urging,[27] and while Miss Anthony
took upon herself all the drudgery possible and all the financial
anxiety and burden, she was compelled to keep Mrs. Stanton keyed up to
do a great portion of the literary work. "It is the one drawback at
every turn," she writes, "that I have not the faculty to frame easy,
polished sentences. If I could but do this, I would finish up the
History without asking aid of anyone." And again: "It has been the bane
of my life that I am powerless to put on paper the glimpses of thoughts
which come and go like flashes of lightning." As has been said before in
these pages, she is a perfect critic and delightful letter-writer, but
finds difficulty in doing what is called "literary work." Practice
undoubtedly would have enabled her to overcome this, but she felt
always that her chief strength lay in executive ability.

[Illustration: MISS ANTHONY AND MRS. STANTON.

WRITING TH