“Once she was sent to a town called Friendship to put in a word for suffrage at an Old Home Week celebration. Friendship was a strong antisuffrage village and the invitation probably had been extended to the suffragists in order to provide some extra fun for the holiday. At least it looked that way from the greeting the speaker got. Miss Thompson arrived at the height of a street carnival. A farmer’s wagon was backed up against the bandstand, and the mayor and the guest stood up in the back of it, using it for a platform.

“’There’s a young lady here from Buffalo—’ the mayor started to say, when the band struck up a march and drowned him out. The mayor hopped to the ground, leaving the emissary of woman suffrage to face a laughing, jeering crowd.

“Miss Thompson took a stance and tried to make herself heard above the noise of the band. She shouted and the bandleader put on more steam. She appealed to the crowd for a fair hearing, using gestures. No one paid any attention and the brassy music went on.

“Directly across the street was a furniture store in whose window display was a child’s blackboard mounted on an easel. Miss Thompson vaulted down off the wagon, bought the blackboard for a dollar and carried it back to the platform. Setting up her board, she began to write out her speech with a piece of chalk.

“When the crowd had time to read a paragraph, she erased it and wrote another. People began to applaud and the band stopped playing. Miss Thompson slapped the chalk dust off the front of her suit and continued orally with the speech.”