382 FAMOUS LIVING AMBBICANS not seem to be a subject calculated to enkindle eloquence, but as the speaker proceeded there were tears in the eyes of near- ly all who listened. They saw little children in mills and f ac- torieSy for whom life was poisoned at its spring; they saw young girls hounded to destruction by the White Slave octo- pus ; they saw homes ruined by intemperance and want due to ignorance and unjust social conditions; they were also im- pressed anew with the noble efforts of club women all over the country to remedy these evils, and with the fact that much more might be accomplished if they but had the money need- ed to push the work. It is impossible to tell just how it was, but somehow as she spoke they felt that the women of the General Federation were a ' * chosen people ' * to whom the call had come to render a more valuable service than they had ever before performed, and that the only way to do this was to pro- cure the endowment. No wonder it was the universal ver- dict that if Mrs. Pennybacker could visit every state the amount would soon be secured: no wonder that when she made her appeal in Texas, the entire quota of that state's ap- portionment, two thousand dollars, was raised in twenty min- utes I But this little embodiment of zeal and determination could not go in person to every part of our country. So she care- fully planned a nation-wide campaign, naming an assistant in each state, and a considerable amount was in hand when, at the San Francisco Biennial of 1912, the prophecy made at Los Angeles ten years before was fulfilled and this favorite daughter of Texas was elected president of the General Fed- eration. Her life since that time has been a constant round of travel, letter-writing, and speech-making. She has jour- neyed more than thirty thousand miles and spoken in tMrty- seven states (in some of them several times), besides address- ing many men^s organizations of various kinds. One result of Mrs. Pennybacker *s visits to so many clubs and federations has been the unprecedented growth of the national organization, more than twice as many clubs having been admitted during the past two years as in any previous biennial period. Another tribute to her gifts of leadership
