not one in the group. "But," I insisted, "if you really
believe in polygamy, why is it that some of your husbands have not taken
more than one wife?"

There was a moment of silence, while each woman looked around as if
waiting for another to answer. At last one of them said, slowly:

"In my case, I alone was to blame. For years I could not force myself to
consent to my husband's taking another wife, though I tried hard. By
the time I had overcome my objection the law was passed prohibiting
polygamy."

A second member of the group hastened to tell her story. She had had a
similar spiritual struggle, and just as she reached the point where she
was willing to have her husband take another wife, he died. And now the
room was filled with eager voices. Four or five women were telling at
once that they, too, had been reluctant in the beginning, and that when
they had reached the point of consent this, that, or another cause had
kept the husbands from marrying again. They were all so passionately in
earnest that they stared at me in puzzled wonder when I broke into the
sudden laughter I could not restrain.

"What fortunate women you all were!" I exclaimed, teasingly. "Not one of
you arrived at the point of consenting to the presence of a second wife
in your home until it was impossible for your husband to take her."

They flushed a little at that, and then laughed with me; but they
did not defend themselves against the tacit charge, and I turned the
conversation into less personal channels. I learned that many of the
Mormon young men were marrying girls outside of the Church, and that two
sons of a leading Mormon elder had married and were living very happily
with Catholic girls.

At this time the Mormon candidate for Congress (a man named Roberts)
was a bitter opponent of woman suffrage. The Mormon women begged me to
challenge him to a debate on the subject, which I did, but Mr. Roberts
declined the challenge. The ground of his refusal, which he made public
through the newspapers, was chastening to my spirit. He explained that
he would not debate with me because he was not willing to lower himself
to the intellectual plane of a woman.

XIII. PRESIDENT OF "THE NATIONAL"

In 1900 Miss Anthony, then over eighty, decided that she must resign
the presidency of our National Association, and the question of the
successor she would choose became an important one. It was conceded that
there were only two candidates in he