On May 29 the Ebell Club of Oakland gave them a breakfast at 11:30; at 2 p. m. they addressed the Alameda County Auxiliary of the Woman's Congress, Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, president. The audience filled every inch of space in the Unitarian church, the most prominent ladies of Oakland occupied seats on the platform, and a large reception in the parlors followed the speaking. The evening session was held in the Congregational church, an enthusiastic crowd in attendance. The next afternoon they started for the Yosemite Valley, having for companions Dr. Elizabeth Sargent and Dr. Henry A. Baker, Miss Anthony's grand-nephew. There Miss Anthony, at the age of seventy-five, made the usual trips on the back of a mule. She relates that the name of her steed was Moses and Anna Shaw's Ephraim, and they had great sport over them. They enjoyed to the full all the beauties of that wonderful region, which never pall, no matter how often one visits them or how long one remains among them. During this trip Miss Shaw went with one of the Yosemite commissioners, George B. Sperry, to the Mariposa Big Trees. Two, in a group of the largest three, were christened George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and he offered her the privilege of naming the third. She gave it the title of Susan B. Anthony, it was appropriately marked, and thus it will be known to future generations.
At San Jose they were the guests of Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, who gave a dinner for them, and over a hundred called during the evening. Sunday afternoon Miss Anthony spoke in the Unitarian church, and Monday morning addressed the students of the Normal School. At noon Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson gave a luncheon party under the great trees at her lovely home, Sunny Brae, where the ladies spoke in the afternoon to several hundred people from neighboring ranches. In the evening they lectured at San Jose and, although fifty cents admission was charged, not nearly all who had bought tickets could get into the building. When they left for Los Angeles Mrs. Goodrich slipped into the hand of each $50 in gold, as a present; just as Mrs. Sargent had done when they left San Francisco.
Long before Miss Anthony had started for California, cordial invitations had been received from the southern part of the State, from old friends and new. It was of course impossible to accept more than a small fraction of these, but from the time the twain reached Los Angeles, there was one continuous ovation. On the evening of their arrival, June 12, they addressed an audience of over 2,000 in Simpson tabernacle, which had been transformed into a bower of choicest blossoms. While in the city they were the guests of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, with whom Miss Anthony had worked for suffrage in Ohio forty years before.
In Riverside a reception was given them at the Glenwood by Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Richardson, relatives of Miss Anthony. The beautiful drives for which that place is famous were greatly enjoyed, and they went into raptures over the oranges, which they never before had seen in such quantities. They spoke to a large audience in the handsomely decorated Methodist tabernacle at Pasadena. While here they were the guests of Mrs. P. C. Baker, on Orange Avenue, and received many social attentions from the people of this lovely little city. Thence they went to Pomona, where they were met at the station by a delegation of ladies, escorted to the Palomares Hotel, and found the committee had adorned their rooms with flowers in a profusion which would be impossible outside of California. They spoke here also in the Methodist church. The next day Miss Shaw preached in Los Angeles and Miss Anthony spent the Sunday at Whittier with Mrs. Harriet R. Strong at her ranche, so widely noted for its walnut groves and pampas fields.
Monday morning they journeyed to San Diego where they were the guests of Miss Anthony's niece, Mrs. George L. Baker. Elaborate preparations had been made to receive them and they addressed a large audience in the evening. The next afternoon a reception was given at the Hotel Florence by all the woman's clubs of the city. The Union said: "The two guests of honor were simply loaded and garlanded with flowers. They were presented with baskets of sweet peas by the Y. W. C. A., yellow blossoms by the suffrage club, red, white and blue by the Datus Coon corps; bouquets of white roses by the W. C. T. U., of red and white carnations in a holder of blue satin by Heintzelman W. R. C., of red roses by the Woman's League, of pink roses by the Jewish women. There was music by an orchestra as an accompaniment to the sociability of the occasion, in which some 700 women participated during the afternoon."
The following day a picnic was given by the Woman's Club at "Olivewood," the home of Mrs. Flora M. Kimball, near National City, where tables were spread on the lawn for the 200 guests who came by train and carriage. That same evening, by request of many who could not be present at the first meeting, the two ladies lectured again in San Diego. The next day they returned to Los Angeles, laden with souvenirs of their delightful visit; and that evening, without an hour's rest, addressed a mass meeting there.
The following day the Los Angeles Herald gave an excursion to Santa Monica in their honor. The ladies of that pretty seaside resort, under the leadership of Mrs. C. H. Ivens, met them with carriages and conducted them to the Hotel Arcadia. After luncheon, as they started for the hall where they were to speak, twelve little girls strewed flowers in their pathway, and after the addresses twelve large bouquets of choice blossoms were laid at their feet. They were taken for a long drive by Mrs. E. J. Gorham, then to the residence of her brother, Senator John P. Jones; and at the close of a lovely day, returned to Los Angeles. That evening a reception was given them by Mrs. Mark Sibley Severance, which Miss Anthony always remembered as one of the handsomest in her long experience. The next morning they met a committee from the suffrage club and had a conference on the broad piazza of their hostess in regard to the work of the coming campaign; and in the afternoon took the train for San Francisco, after two of the most delightful weeks in all their recollection. An especially gratifying feature was the attitude of the press of Southern California. There had been scarcely a discordant note in the extended reports of the public meetings and social entertainments, and the editorial comments on the two ladies and the cause of which they were leading representatives, were dignified, fair and friendly.[113]
They reached San Francisco June 24 and were welcomed at the ferry by a number of friends from the two cities. The next day they were entertained at an elaborate dinner-party of ladies and gentlemen in the artistic home of Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard, of Oakland. From the table they went at once to the evening meeting. The Enquirer said: "It needed no preliminary brass band or blare of trumpets to pack the Congregational church with a live Oakland audience. The simple announcement that Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna H. Shaw were to speak was sufficient, and the chairman, Colonel John P. Irish, looked out over an animated sea of faces."
The following evening the San Francisco farewell meeting was held in Metropolitan Temple. Friday and Saturday were filled with social engagements, sight-seeing and shopping. On Sunday Miss Shaw preached in the California street Methodist church in the morning and the Second Congregational in the evening, while Miss Anthony addressed a union meeting of all the colored congregations in the city at the M. E. Zion church, the historic building in which Starr King preached before the war. Monday they spoke again at the Ministers' Meeting. The fact that they would be present had been announced in the papers, and ministers of all denominations were there from most of the towns within a radius of forty miles. Miss Anthony told them in vigorous language: "The reason why they, as a class, had so little influence with men of business and political affairs was because the vast majority of the people they represented had neither money nor votes; that if four or five hundred ministers of the State should go up to Sacramento to ask for any legislation, they would be treated politely and bowed out precisely as would so many of their women church members. Whereas, on the other hand, one manufacturer, one railroad official, one brewer or distiller, could go before the same body and get whatever he asked, because every member would know that behind this request were not only thousands of dollars but thousands of votes." The ministers seemed to realize fully the force of this statement and many expressed themselves thoroughly in favor of the enfranchisement of women.
The State Suffrage Association, with a good delegate representation, met in Golden Gate Hall, July 3, for their annual convention. There had been heretofore some dissensions in this organization and, at this critical time, co-operation was so vitally necessary that the friendly offices of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw were requested in the interests of harmony. In view of the arduous campaign approaching, all desired that Mrs. A. A. Sargent should accept the presidency, and the close of the convention found the forces united and ready for work.