ious illness in seventy-five years.

She is quoted as saying that if she "had pinched herself right hard she
would not have fainted." One of the papers remarked that "then she never
would have known how much the American people thought of her." Every
newspaper had something pleasant to say,[114] many friends wrote letters
of sympathy, and scores whom she had not known personally sent their
words of admiration. Only her body was weak, her mind was abnormally
alert; she appreciated all that was said and done for her, and remarked
often that this was the only real _rest_ of her lifetime. A number of
relatives came to visit her, and a little later Mrs. Coonley and Mrs.
Sewall. Mr. and Mrs. Gross also stopped on their way home, the latter
leaving $50 for "the very prettiest wrapper that could be had." From her
old anti-slavery co-worker, Samuel May, now eighty-five, came the words:

I suppose there is hardly another person in the United States, man
or woman, who has been engaged in actual hard public labor so long
as yourself; and is it not a part of your business and a part of
your duty--in view of the unattained results--to allow yourself
larger spaces of rest and to put upon yourself more moderate and
less exhausting tasks? We would not willingly see you retire from
the field altogether; therefore we want you to do less of the
common soldier's work and take charge of the reserves, keeping
watch from your tower of experience, and personally appearing only
when and where the enemy rallies in unusual numbers or with unusual
craftiness. This does not imply a lessening of your usefulness but
an increase, being a wiser application of your strength and
resources.

From Parker Pillsbury, the old comrade, aged eighty-six: "We have heard
of your late illness, a warning to constant prudence and care for your
health as you come down to 'life's latest stage.' Hold on, my
dear--_our_ dear--Susan, hold on to the last hour possible. You have
seen great and glorious changes, almost revolutions, but yet how much
remains to be encountered and accomplished.... We shall hope you may
live to see the one grand achievement--the equal civil and political
rights of all women before the law. Then you may well say: 'Lord, now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation.'"

Mrs. Stanton wrote: "I never realized how desolate the world would be to
m