Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/46

32 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE attendance at the annual convention of the National American Suffrage Association in Portland, Ore., in June. On the way from Portland Miss Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and sev- eral other eastern delegates stopped at Chico, the home of Mrs. Bidwell, vice-president of the State association, where Miss Anthony spoke at the dedication of a magnificent park of 2,200 acres which she was presenting to the town. They were royally entertained in California, beginning with a public reception at the Sequoia Hotel in San Francisco. This was followed by others in Oakland, East Oakland and Berkeley, attended by hun- dreds. A mass meeting of 1,500 was arranged by the Equal Suffrage League in the Alhambra Theater, San Francisco. 1 Similar meetings and receptions awaited them in Southern Cali- fornia and they addressed an audience of 10,000 at Venice, the noted seaside resort. The State convention met in Wheeler's Auditorium, San Fran- cisco, in October. Deep interest had been felt in the campaign for a woman suffrage amendment carried on in Oregon during the summer and the association had wished to assist with money, organizers and speakers. For this purpose the entire contents of the treasury, about $500, were contributed and clubs and indi- viduals sent more than that amount. Mrs. Keith gave $1,000 in the name of the State the following year. The year 1906 opened auspiciously. In all parts of the State the clubs were holding public meetings, supplying columns of suffrage matter to the newspapers, now largely willing to publish them, and preparing for a siege of the next Legislature. In April the city was almost destroyed by fire and earthquake. One month afterwards the State board of officers met with a full quorum, ready to begin the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the political parties at the approaching State conventions. This was accomplished in all but that of the 1 While in San Francisco Miss Anthony found time to give one sitting for a large oil portrait by William Keith, which was completed after her death in the spring of 1906 and looked down upon the audience from the chancel of the Unitarian church in San Francisco at the memorial services for her on Palm Sunday, April 8. It was shipped to her home in Rochester, N. Y., the day before the earthquake of April 18, but it escaped destruction by fire only to meet with mishap after the death of Miss Mary S. Anthony, to whom it had been presented by the wife of the artist. Miss Anthony was shown seated near an open window from which a beautiful sunset was seen; a lavender robe and a crimson curtain background set off the face and figure in fine relief.