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^ 135 2. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jr., (1882–1909), Robert, or Robert Livingston, Stanton (1885–1974), and Hélène Stanton (1889–1925). (Genealogical notes of Robert and Francis Stanton, Mazamet, France.) 3. “The Woman’s Bible, Part II: The Book of Ruth,” Boston Investigator, 27 February 1897,Film,36:906.In this second installment on the Book of Ruth,ECS commented on chapters two and four; emended and shortened, the text became Woman’s Bible, Part II, 40–43. ••••••••• 57 • SBA to Frances E. Willard Rochester, N.Y., April 8, 1897. My Dear Friend:— Yours of the 6th inst. came duly. You will have seen in yesterday morning ’s “Democrat and Chronicle,”or in last night’s “Post Express,”my reply to poor Phoebe’s insane pronunciamento. 1 I think it would be wicked in me to have a public combat with the poor,unjointed body and mind of that once-brilliant girl. As to her advice to young women to marry, they will all do exactly what she would have done—i.e., marry the first man whom they really love and think really loves them.Phoebe never failed to manifest her desire to marry. “Barkis is willin’,” 2 was always written on her face whenever she was with Senators So-and-So,and I don’t think it was her devotion to oratory,to the law,to her home,or to any sort of public work,that held her back from marrying ; nor does any such thing hold back any woman, not even F. E. W. or S.B.A.Had either of us,in our young womanhood,made the acquaintance of a man we loved so much that we couldn’t live without him, and made ourselves believe that he loved us so much that he couldn’t live without us, we should have been Willard-Jones and Anthony-Smith all these years, instead of plain little Willard and Anthony. So I don’t think that anything Phoebe, or you, or I, or all the other wise heads put together, can say about girls marrying will have one particle of effect. Human nature, like bird and animal nature, runs in the direction of marrying, and Phoebe might as well attempt to stem the tide as to turn the current of girl-nature from its bent towards marriage. Yes, I shall be at home on May 30th, so far as I know, and I shall be most happy to have you and your dear Anna under my roof. 3 Let me know what 27 march 1897 136 & train you will arrive by, and I will have a corner ready for you. I hope your “springhalt” 4 will pass away in this beautiful, sunny weather. With love to all your family, I remain, Affectionately yours, U Susan B. Anthony Y TLS,on NAWSA letterhead,IEWT,from Temperance and Prohibition Papers. 1. On 5 April 1897,the New York World and the New York Herald carried a wire service report from St.Louis headed “Phoebe Couzins Recants”in the first named and “Phoebe Couzins Deserts” in the second about her turn against woman suffrage . From her invalid’s bed, “racked with pain,” she advised “all young women to marry and become housekeepers.” That, she insisted, was her natural role, and any attempt at public life “will never prove satisfactory.” In the longer Herald version, Couzins also denounced “the Anthony-Shaw ring” in the suffrage movement , “beside which the rankest tyranny of Tammany Hall would pale.” Although someone from among SBA’s friends in Rochester answered Couzins at length, SBA herself said little. Her final words to the reporter were, “It is simply the difference between Phoebe Couzins in her younger days,when she was recognized as one of the most prominent women of the country, and Phoebe Couzins of to-day, in ill-health, disappointed and, I think, irresponsible.” With SBA’s permission, Frances Willard sent the humorous part of SBA’s comments about Couzins in this letter for publication in the Union Signal, 17 June 1897. (Film, 36:1007, 1010.) 2. The phrase comes from Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, wherein the message “Barkis is willin’” indicated a desire to marry. 3. After Frances Willard collapsed in November 1896,she settled into a cottage at the sanitorium of Dr. Cordelia A. Greene in Castile, New York. She and SBA began corresponding about a month after her arrival, and SBA made an overnight visit in early January. Willard had suffered for several...

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