That Mrs. Schlesinger desires to put me into her book as one of the workers in the vineyard of reform, is of itself sufficient honor, and as I desire to live more in my work than in my personality, and further, as I shrink from having my name go to posterity coupled with the too partial estimate of friends who are inclined to enlarge virtues and forget faults, I will myself say what needs to be said, but it will necessarily be more of my general than of my California work.

As to myself, I made my entrance into this life on the 1st day of February, 1826, in the town of Catharine, Schuyler County (then a part of Tioga), N. Y., as the first of seven children born to Caroline and Grandisen Nichols.

My mother's maiden name was Reed, and though their children were all Methodists, her father and mother were among the first Universalists of the country. It was my talks with my grandfather the summer of his eighty-first year, which helped to break me from the bondage of church teachings.

The death of a brother-in-law, with the circumstances attending, had prepared the way for his words to take effect. This brother-in-law, who was a good husband, son and brother, died believing he was going to hell, because he had never been converted.

The first links broken, the investigation of Spiritualism in 1856 completed the work so well begun. Among the first evidences received was a communication from that brother-in-law.

My parents were poor, uneducated, hard-working people, my father supporting his family as a day laborer—a wage slave—and as a matter of course my advantages were but few. It is the memory of my father's unrequited toil, of how much he did and how little he received, which intensifies my opposition to an economic system which so robs the toiler.

My parents gave me the name of Adeline Eliza, but when at twenty-eight years of age I began to write over the signature of "Lois," my friends commenced calling me that, and I soon adopted it; so it is now nearly forty years since I discarded my baptismal name, as I have since discarded Christianity in all its forms. The good connected with it belongs to universal humanity, not to a sect of people who have shed rivers of blood to enforce their propaganda.

I was always called peculiar. How much of that peculiarity belongs to myself, and how much of it comes from the influence of those who were once denizens of earth, and who now hold me to the work for which they have helped to prepare me, I cannol say, but I have always wanted to write. The school composition, as it was called, while a terror to many, was a pleasure to me.

My second book, "Alice Vale," was written to illustrate Spiritualism. It is now out of print, as is "Mayweed Blossoms," a collection of fugitive pieces, of which I thought more than did others, as the meagreness of its sale proved, and also, as is "Nothing Like It; or, Steps to the Kingdom," an earnest but somewhat crude effort to give a glimpse of purity in freedom, in the relation of the sexes.

Those will probably never be reissued.

"Helen Harlow's Vow" was written to show that woman should refuse to submit to the injustice which condemns her, and accepts the man for the same act—the heroine determining that she will not sink because she has foolishly trusted; that she will be just to herself if others are unjust to her. She maintains her self-respect, and in the end commands the respect of all who know her.

"Perfect Motherhood; or, Mabel Raymond's Resolve," does not trench upon the province of the physician, but takes up the conditions of society which make it impossible that mothers shall transmit, through the law of heredity, the elements of character which, unfolded, would give the world a superior race of men and women.

"The Occult Forces of Sex" is a work which is more valued each year, in proof of which I will state that the year after the last part was written, something over five years since, there were less than 200 sold with my personal effort, added to what was done by others; but during the last two years the sales have been encouraging in the extreme.

This little book consists of three pamphlets—one written in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1873, and called "The Sex Question and the Money Power;" the second at Riverside, California, in 1880, and called "From Generation to Regeneration," (and really the most valuable of my California work), and the third at Milwaukee, Oregon, in 1889, and called "The Tree of Life Between Two Thieves."

I have good evidence that Alexander von Humboldt, his brother William, Mrs. Hemans, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and two or three others whose names I have forgotten, assisted me, not only in writing the work prepared at Riverside, but they are still with me when I attempt to get clearer, purer views of the finer forces of the sex. I received the communication with the names given through Dr. J. V. Mansfield, and signed by Von Humboldt. Permission was given to use the names in connection with the work, but the letter being lost in my attempt to send it to Dr. J. Rodes Buchanan for psychometrization, I have never before given the name to the public. This second pamphlet is put first in the book.

"A Sex Revolution" was written in 1862. It puts motherhood to the front, demands that "women take the lead" till the conditions for a higher grade of motherhood are obtained.

Another work issued recently is the "Fountain of Life, or the Threefold Power of Sex."

I have also essayed the newspaper business or method of scattering thought. "Our Age, Ours—the Peoples'," was issued at Battle Creek, Michigan, till forty-two numbers were sent out. Then the financial crisis of 1873-4 forced a suspension.

"Foundation Principles," issued from Clinton, Ia., in 1884, and afterwards removed to Antioch, California, was carried into the fourth volume, when it suspended for a time, but was finally resumed after I had located in Topeka, Kansas.

I do not know what the future of this life has for me, but this I do know—that I shall never consider my work done so long as I have the strength to do, and the privilege of doing more—and—

Whenever I'm called, I gladly will go,
My lessons of wisdom to learn over there;
Then back I will hasten, to help lift this earth
Out of its ignorance, sorrow and care—
Will aid it to cast off its sorrow and care,
For I could not remain in a world filled with bliss
While rivers of sorrow were rolling thro' this.

Yours, for the Work,
LOIS WAISBROOKER.

P. S.—I have forgotten one thing. So many will ask: Was she ever married? I have been twice married, have two children and six grandchildren, but I have lived so long alone, and there is so much questioning if marriage be not a failure, that married or single scarcely ever enters my thought.

L. W.