The vote was closer than close—didn’t pass, but they had to stay till the next day at two—we stayed too, and in the morning—of the last day—we got a majority petition from the Florida legislature which showed Trammell and Fletcher that Florida wanted their Suffrage votes.
When I heard that Senator Trammell was arriving in Lakeland, I wired Miss Paul I would stay—Such a hectic and great day. I saw him with four antis in the hotel lobby. He looked dumbfounded, shook hands, discussed the climate, and acted as though I were touristing because Florida was beautiful—but he knew.
Then I went out of his life—but sent others in—all day I got out little delegations to him—the State Senator from that district—his minister—president of the Bank—leading Labor man—his editor. Mr. Trammell’s one day in Lakeland was a Woman’s Party event. I asked Mr. Smailes—a strong Labor man—boyhood friend of Trammell’s, to see him. That night they all came to me at the hotel and each reported his achievement with Park Trammell.
Smailes said: “I looked at him and said, ‘Park—it’s funny you can’t see it and those you were brought up with all can,’ and Park looked at me, and he said, ‘Well, there’s one thing worrying me a little. I don’t want women to get more than their share of electors.’ I just looked at him, and I said: ‘Park, you know Mrs. Smailes don’t want more than her share, but she ain’t got her share yet; that’s what she’s asking for.’”
I said, “Mr. Smailes, what do you think that Senator Trammell will do?” He said, “I don’t know. I’ve known him since we were babies, but he’s a Senator now.”
Helen Hunt met Trammell in Jacksonville when he arrived—on his “one day” to Lakeland. He said, “Where is she?” (meaning me). “Is she still in the State?” (Miss Younger thinks this funny because it shows how scared they are of the Woman’s Party—even one of us.)
Virginia
I think our hotel experiences are so funny.
We had a terrible time getting any one to consider taking action on Suffrage ratification at the Special Session. Virginia legislature called just for good roads—I went to Roanoke to see floor-leader Willis (strongest Suffragist in the House) and he announced he was scheduled himself to introduce a bill saying that nothing but good roads would come up. After a morning’s work with Willis, he decided he would bring up Suffrage provided Senator Trinkle agreed. He promised to see Trinkle the next morning, so I decided I’d better see Trinkle that night. Fortunately a train was leaving in ten minutes. I arrived at Wytheville at nine p.m. It was black. Senator Trinkle was on the platform. I picked him out because he was the biggest man obviously and I asked where Senator Trinkle lived and he said, “I am Senator Trinkle.” When my interview was at an end and it was fixed, he said that the last train out had left, and that I should go to the hotel, and say to the owner that he said to give me the best room. To my great consternation, the hotel proprietor escorted me into a room the size of a young stable, which contained six beds, explaining, “This is our best room. I’ll call it a single room for tonight.” Never can I describe the creaks of the empty five beds all night long. It doesn’t sound funny, but it was—I and six beds, some of them double, and a box of Uneeda crackers and Hershey’s milk chocolate.
The way we got the University of Virginia mass-meeting was amusing. I taught art at the University of Virginia Summer School. We had just staged a big pageant at the University. Director Maphis was grateful and said he’d do anything I wanted. That afternoon, Senator Martin arrived in Charlottesville, his home, and so I went to see Mr. Maphis to tell him I wanted Cabell Hall, the real University of Virginia Hall, and he said, “Yes.” I phoned Miss Paul and she sent Lucy Branham—we advertised with huge sheets on the front of each of the eight street cars, in Charlottesville and hand-made slides at movies and posters that my Art classes all were given to do as a “problem.”