She had made a speech at Lakeside, Ohio, during
which, for the first time in her long experience, she
fainted on the platform. I was not with her at the
time, and in the excitement following her collapse
it was rumored that she had died. Immediately
the news was telegraphed to the Associated Press
of New York, and from there flashed over the
country. At Miss Anthony's home in Rochester a
reporter rang the bell and abruptly informed her
sister, Miss Mary Anthony, who came to the door,
that ``Aunt Susan'' was dead. Fortunately Miss
Mary had a cool head.
``I think,'' she said, ``that if my sister had died
I would have heard about it. Please have your
editors telegraph to Lakeside.''
The reporter departed, but came back an hour
later to say that his newspaper had sent the tele-
gram and the reply was that Susan B. Anthony was
dead.
``I have just received a better telegram than that,''
remarked Mary Anthony. `` Mine is from my
sister; she tells me that she fainted to-night, but
soon recovered and will be home to-morrow.''
Nevertheless, the next morning the American
newspapers gave much space to Miss Anthony's
obituary notices, and ``Aunt Susan'' spent some in-
teresting hours reading them. One that pleased her
vastly was printed in the Wichita Eagle, whose editor,
Mr. Murdock, had been almost her bitterest op-
ponent. He had often exhausted his brilliant vo-
cabulary in editorial denunciations of suffrage and
suffragists, and Miss Anthony had been the special
target of his scorn.
Pages:
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233