discussion. This was all we felt
ourselves competent to do, and the knowledge that nobody else in
our section of the country would do it, coupled with the
inspiration of the _National Citizen_, culminated, in November
1879, in sending to the _Saline Valley Register_, George W.
Anderson, editor and proprietor, a notice for a meeting of women
for the purpose of organizing a suffrage society. In response to
the call, Mrs. Emily J. Biggs, Mrs. Sarah E. Lutes, and Mrs.
Wait, met November 11, 1879, at the house of A. T. Biggs, and
organized the Lincoln Auxiliary of the National Association. We
elected a full corps of officers from among ladies whom we
believed to be favorable, interviewed them for their approval,
and sent a full report of the meeting to be published as a matter
of news in the _Register_, which had given our call without
comment. The editor had a few weeks previously bought the paper,
and we were totally ignorant in regard to his position upon the
question. We were not long left in doubt, for the fact that we
had actually organized in a way which showed that we understood
ourselves, and meant business, had the effect to elicit from his
pen a scurrilous article, in which he called us "the three
noble-hearted women," classed us with "free-lovers," called us
"monstrosities, neither men nor women," and more of the same
sort. Of course, the effect of this upon the community was to
array all true friends of the cause on our side, to bring the
opposition, made bold by the championship of such a gallant
leader, to the front, and cause the faint-hearted to take to the
fence. And here we had the discussion opened up in a manner
which, had we foreseen, I fear our courage would have been
inadequate to the demand. But not for one moment did we entertain
a thought of retreating. Knowing that if we maintained silence,
the enemy would consider us vanquished, I wrote an article for
his paper, quoting largely from Walker's American Law, which he
published; and Mrs. Biggs also furnished him an article in which
she showed him up in a manner so ludicrous and sarcastic that he
got rid of printing it by setting it up full of mistakes which he
manufactured himself, and sending her the proof with the
information that if he published it at all, it would be in