It was my hope when I arrived in New York, a few weeks afterwards, to find ten women to subscribe ten thousand dollars each for the purchase of a gramme of radium, and in this way to enable Madame Curie to go on with her work, without the publicity of a general campaign. That hope was soon dashed. I found one or two such women, but not ten. There were not ten to buy that gramme of radium but there were a hundred thousand women and a group of men to help, who determined the money must be raised. My first direct and substantial support came from Mrs. William Vaughn Moody, widow of the American poet and playwright. When we found it would be necessary to launch a national campaign, Mrs. Robert G. Mead, a doctor's daughter, and one who had been a standby in cancer prevention work, became secretary, and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady an executive member of the committee. Behind these women stood a group of scientific men, who knew what radium had meant to humanity, among them Dr. Robert Abbe, the first American surgeon to use radium, and Dr. Francis Carter Wood. In less than a year the fund had been raised. Stéphane Lauzanne describes a second impressive moment in the life of Madame Curie. It was nearly a year after my talk with her. It was fifteen years since that scene at the University of Paris. These years had been spent in her laboratory; she had made no public appearance. It was in March, 1921, that Monsieur Lauzanne heard her voice again. "I lifted the telephone receiver," he relates, "and heard these words: 'Madame Curie wishes to speak to you.' What extraordinary event--what tragedy, perhaps, might this not mean? And suddenly, over the wire came the sound of the voice which I had heard only once before, but which had stayed in my memory--the same voice which had once pronounced the words, 'When we consider the progress made by the theories of radio-activity since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century----' "'I wanted to tell you that I am going to America,' she said. 'It was very hard for me to decide to go, because America is so far and so big. If some one did not come for me, I should probably never have made the trip. I should have been too frightened. But to this fear is added a great joy. I have devoted my life to the science of radio-activity and I know all we owe to America in the field of science. I am told you are among those who strongly favor this distant trip, so I wanted to tell you I have decided to go, but please don't let any one know about it.' "This great woman--the greatest woman in France--was speaking haltingly, tremblingly, almost like a little girl. She, who handles daily a particle of radium more dangerous than lightning, was afraid when confronted by the necessity of appearing before the public."