fornia welcome, receiving flowers, fruit, calls and invitations in
abundance. Mrs. Stanton made her first speech in Platt's Hall to an
audience of 1,200; all seemed delighted and the papers were very
complimentary. At that time the whole coast was much excited over the
murder of A.P. Crittenden by Laura D. Fair, and the entire weight of
opinion was against her. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, always ready to
defend their sex, determined to hear the story from her own lips,
hoping for the sake of womanhood to learn some mitigating
circumstances. The afternoon papers came out with an attack upon them
for making this visit to the jail, and in the evening at Miss Anthony's
first lecture there was an immense audience, including many friends of
Crittenden, determined that there should be no justification of the
woman who killed him.

Miss Anthony made a strong speech on "The Power of the Ballot," which
was well received until she came to the peroration. Her purpose had
been to prove false the theory that all women are supported and
protected by men. She had demonstrated clearly the fact that in the
life of nearly every woman there came a time when she must rely on
herself alone. She asserted that while she might grant, for the sake of
the argument, that every man protected his own wife and daughter, his
own mother and sister, the columns of the daily papers gave ample
evidence that man did not protect woman as woman. She gave sundry facts
to illustrate this point, among them the experience of Sister Irene,
who had established a foundling hospital in New York two years before,
and at the close of the first year reported 1,300 little waifs laid in
the basket at the door. These figures, she said, proved that there were
at least 1,300 women in that city who had not been protected by men.
She continued impressively: "If all men had protected all women as they
would have their own wives and daughters protected, you would have no
Laura Fair in your jail tonight."

Then burst forth a tremendous hissing, seemingly from every part of the
house! She had heard that sound in the old anti-slavery days and
quietly stood until there came a lull, when she repeated the sentence.
Again came a storm of hisses, but this time they were mingled with
cheers. Again she waited for a pause, and then made the same assertion
for the third time. Her courage challenged the admiration of the
audience, which broke out into a roar of applause, and she closed