tterly awful is
the suspense these other women keep me in: first, they can't, then they
can, then they won't unless things are so and so; and when I think
everything is settled, it all has to be gone over again. The fact is I
am not fit to deal with anybody who is not terribly in earnest." To
this she replies: "Dear child, I'm sorry I can not help you, but pity a
poor married woman and forgive. The ordeal that I have been going
through, four sewingwomen each giving about two days, no end of little
garments to alter and to make, with a husband whose clothes as well as
himself have been neglected for three months, the garden to be covered
up from the frost, shrubs to transplant, winter provisions to lay in
and only one good-natured, stupid servant to help with all. This,
Susan, is 'woman's sphere.'"

As Miss Anthony never approved of a woman's neglecting her household
for any purpose, she urged no more but sought elsewhere for assistance.
There was not one unmarried woman except herself in all the corps of
available speakers and, while some of them could make a trip of a few
weeks, not one could be depended on for steady work. In October she
secured Mrs. Tracy Cutler for awhile, and later Frances D. Gage, J.
Elizabeth Jones and Lucy N. Coleman, but was obliged to hold many
meetings alone. These were continued at intervals through the fall of
1859 and the winter and spring of 1860, and numerous pages of foolscap
are still in existence containing a carefully kept account of the
expenses. Each meeting was made partly to pay for itself, the lecturers
received $12 a week, Miss Anthony herself taking only this sum, and it
may be believed that no more extended and effective propaganda work
ever was accomplished with the same amount of money. While this was
being done, she also assisted Clarina Howard Nichols and Susan E.
Wattles to plan an important campaign in Kansas with money furnished
from the Jackson fund.

She received the following characteristic letter from Rev. Thomas K.
Beecher when she asked for the use of his church in Elmira: "I will
answer for myself and afterwards append the decision of the trustees.
Anybody with good moral character and clean feet is welcome to use our
meeting house, if they like, but were I you I should prefer Holden's
Hall. But, lastly, I should shrink from holding such a meeting. I fear
that you will come to pain of disappointment when your enthusiasm is
chilled and bruised against the stone