Late as it was, he
immediately called together the trustees of his
church, and they responded. To them I made my
application for church membership, which they ac-
cepted within five minutes. I was now a member
of the Church, but it was too late to obtain any
further action from the Conference. The next day,
Sunday, all the men who had applied for ordination
were ordained, and I was left out.
On Monday morning, however, when the Con-
ference met in its final business session, my case was
reopened, and I was eventually called before the
members to answer questions. Some of these were
extremely interesting, and several of the episodes
that occurred were very amusing. One old gentle-
man I can see as I write. He was greatly excited,
and he led the opposition by racing up and down
the aisles, quoting from the Scriptures to prove his
case against women ministers. As he ran about he
had a trick of putting his arms under the back of
his coat, making his coat-tails stand out like wings
and incidentally revealing two long white tape-
strings belonging to a flannel undergarment. Even
in the painful stress of those hours I observed with
interest how beautifully those tape-strings were
ironed!
I was there to answer any questions that were
asked of me, and the questions came like hail-
stones in a sudden summer storm.
``Paul said, `Wives, obey your husbands,' '' shouted
my old man of the coat-tails.
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