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Therefore, upon a partial announcement of my mission they interrupted me, and took the laboring oar entirely out of my hands, and did the talking themselves.

I concluded quietly and patiently to "bide my time," and let them have a fair opportunity to let off their superabundant steam so concentrated against the cause of woman. Now, when I had reason to think they had fired off all their own artillery, and thus exhausted their own ammunition, I asked for the floor, by saying:

"Gentlemen, I have listened to you without interrupting you, now will you please allow me to talk a little also?"

"Oh, yes, certainly, we will now allow you the floor!"

I then denned my mission as I had before attempted to do, and this time was not interrupted. Therefore, I had a fair opportunity to make myself understood.

This being done, these combatants began to apologize for their rudeness in ranking me with the "Woman's Rights" defenders, and for this reason mistreating me as they had, by saying:

"It is of no use for you to attempt anything with this body, for we have been button-holed already by the women longer than our patience can bear. There is no chance for you to succeed at all. It is a dead-lock for this session. Certainly no woman can introduce a reform so radical, with the least chance of succeeding!"

Among them, was one physician, who had been a Trustee of an Insane Asylum in Wisconsin, and he was especially down upon me, assuring me that Dr. Ranney would defeat such a bill summarily, and he would do so himself were he in his place. That no intelligent body would think of passing such a bill!

But now, after hearing my defense of the bill, he, together with the others, changed their tone of remark by saying:

"We see, you, Mrs. Packard, are not of this offensive class. You are reasonable and sensible on the subject of 'Woman's Rights.' Coming with such views as yours, there is more hope, at least of your making it a success. Still, we think the opposition will be more than you can withstand, for the asylum influences will be concentrated against you."

Yes, they certainly were concentrated against me, and so also was the influence of these four members that evening secured as a concentrated force, with which to meet and repel it! Yes, this very physician became one of the ablest defenders I had, in the help he rendered me by suggesting some very important features in the bill to adapt it to meet the emergencies of the case.

And another learned Judge of this party, who, I noticed was moved to tears before I had finished my appeal, volunteered his very important assistance in helping me put my bill into a suitable legal form for action.

Thus these, at first, apparently antagonistic powers were thus impressed into most important service for the cause, the proof of which they that evening gave, by each laying upon the table before me the price of my book, which I gave them in exchange.

After about three weeks of this kind of lobbying in connection with that done at the State-House, before and after session hours, I felt fully confident that the popular current was in favor of the bill, when it was taken up, discussed, and the vote taken upon it. The House vote was seventy-eight in its favor and one against it.

But in the Senate it had a hard contested battle. Dr. Ranney had determined the bill should be defeated if possible, and had therefore engaged his agents to work for him in the Senate.

They did strive most strenuously to "kill the bill," but it could not be done. The intrinsic merits of the bill secured for it a triumphant passage in defiance of this persistent on. position.

The vote in the Senate was thirty-two in its favor and sixteen against it -- being two to one.

The congratulations I received at this important crisis of the bill from the state officers, members, and others of distinguished influence in the community almost compensated me for all the toil and expense I had incurred in working for this issue.

Meeting the Speaker of the House on the street on my return from the State-House, after hearing the result of this fierce battle in the Senate against it, he actually took off his hat, and while holding my hand in his, remarked:

"Permit me to congratulate you, Mrs. Packard, upon the triumph of your hill, for, that bill never would have been passed if you had not been here to work for it. It may truly be styled your bill."

Ex-Governor Merrill remarked:

"I congratulate you, Mrs. Packard, on the achievement of a great good, by the passage of your bill. It is a wonder no one has taken up this subject before. It has been an oversight in modern legislation which has excluded this class of American citizens from the protection of law for so long a time. While I was Governor, I often visited the institution at Mount Pleasant at irregular times for the express purpose of detecting evils if they did exist. But I found that this was no way to look into its secret workings. But your bill not only detects the evils but also applies the remedy of the laws to meet them -- I wonder I never thought of this plan myself, for it is simply the dictates of common philanthropy to protect the inmates of Insane Asylums by law. I do hope you will succeed in your avowed purpose of getting such a law through every Legislature in the United States. And I will buy your book not only because I would like to read it, but also to encourage you in your good work."