intelligent voters we will offer four million to offset the votes of the
four million illiterate men in this country--and then we will still have
eight million intelligent votes to add to the other intelligent votes
which are cast." The audience seemed to enjoy this.

"The anti-suffragists are fairly safe," I ended, "as long as they remain
on the plane of prophecy. But as soon as they tackle mathematics they
get into trouble!"

Miss Anthony was much pleased by the wide publicity given to this
debate, but Senator Ingalls failed to share her enthusiasm.

It was shortly after this encounter that I had two traveling experiences
which nearly cost me my life. One of them occurred in Ohio at the time
of a spring freshet. I know of no state that can cover itself with water
as completely as Ohio can, and for no apparent reason. On this occasion
it was breaking its own record. We had driven twenty miles across
country in a buggy which was barely out of the water, and behind horses
that at times were almost forced to swim, and when we got near the town
where I was to lecture, though still on the opposite side of the river
from it, we discovered that the bridge was gone. We had a good view of
the town, situated high and dry on a steep bank; but the river which
rolled between us and that town was a roaring, boiling stream, and the
only possible way to cross it, I found, was to walk over a railroad
trestle, already trembling under the force of the water.

There were hundreds of men on the river-bank watching the flood, and
when they saw me start out on the empty trestle they set up a cheer that
nearly threw me off. The river was wide and the ties far apart, and
the roar of the stream below was far from reassuring; but in some way I
reached the other side, and was there helped off the trestle by what the
newspapers called "strong and willing hands."

Another time, in a desperate resolve to meet a lecture engagement, I
walked across the railroad trestle at Elmira, New York, and when I was
halfway over I heard shouts of warning to turn back, as a train was
coming. The trestle was very high at that point, and I realized that if
I turned and faced an oncoming train I would undoubtedly lose my nerve
and fall. So I kept on, as rapidly as I could, accompanied by the
shrieks of those who objected to witnessing a violent death, and I
reached the end of the trestle just as an express-train thundered on the
beginning of it. The next instan