n the diary at midnight is recorded: "Fiftieth birthday! One
half-century done, one score years of it hard labor for bettering
humanity--temperance--emancipation--enfranchisement--oh, such a
struggle! Terribly stormy night, but a goodly company and many, many
splendid tributes to my work. Really, if I had been dead and these the
last words, neither press nor friends could have been more generous and
appreciative."

This beautiful anniversary was a sweet oasis in the severe monotony of
a life which had been filled always with hard work, criticism and
misrepresentation, although it was only a public expression of the
numerous and strong friendships which had been many times manifested in
private. The birthday celebration served also to disprove the
oft-repeated assertion that all women conceal their age, but though
Miss Anthony made this frank avowal of her fifty years, there was
scarcely a newspaper which did not introduce its comments with the
usual silly and threadbare remarks.

After the people began to recover in a social, intellectual and
financial way from the effects of the Civil War, the lyceum bureau
became a marked feature in literary life. The principal bureaus were in
New York, Boston and Chicago. Their managers engaged the best speakers
and each season marked out a route, made the appointments, advertised
extensively and sent them throughout the country. They paid excellent
prices, assuming all responsibility, and engagements with them were
considered very desirable. Under the management of the New York bureau,
Mrs. Stanton began a tour in November, 1869. Miss Anthony at this time,
while well-known from one end of the country to the other, had not
gained a reputation as a platform orator. She thoroughly distrusted her
own power to make a sustained speech of an entire evening, and at all
conventions had placed others on the program for the principal
addresses, presided herself, if necessary, and kept everything in
motion.

By the winter of 1870, however, the bureau began to receive
applications from all parts of the United States for lectures from her,
and Mrs. Stanton being ill for a month, Miss Anthony went as her
substitute. She proved so acceptable that in February, March and April
she was engaged by the bureau for many places in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and received a considerable sum for her
services, besides securing a number of subscribers and some liberal
donations for