eaker was rudely interrupted
several times by a fellow from Texas who was in Rochester attending the
theological school. She answered him politely but at length he asked:
"If the negroes don't like it in the South, why don't they leave and go
North?" At this Miss Anthony, who had been growing more indignant every
moment, sprung to her feet and, with flashing eyes and ringing voice,
said: "I will tell you why; it is because they are treated no better in
the North than they are in the South." She then related a number of
instances, which had come to her own knowledge, of the cruel
discrimination made against colored people, to the utter amazement of
the audience who did not believe such things possible.[111]

She took Miss Wells home with her for the rest of her stay. She had
employed a young woman stenographer for a few weeks to clear up her
accumulated correspondence and, having to go away the next day, she told
Miss Wells the girl might help her with her pile of letters. When she
returned in the evening she found her scribbling away industriously and
the stenographer at leisure. In answer to her inquiry the latter
replied: "I don't choose to write for a colored person." "If you can not
oblige me by assisting a guest in my house," said Miss Anthony, "you can
not remain in my employ." The girl, although in destitute circumstances,
gave up her situation.

Miss Anthony had been feeling for a long time that, in justice to
herself and to the State Industrial School, she should resign her
position on the board of managers. When she accepted it she had intended
to give up the greater part of her travelling and direct her forces from
the seat of government in her own home, but she had found this
practically impossible. The demands for her actual presence and personal
work were too strong to be resisted. There were very few women in the
country who could draw so large an audience as herself, or who knew so
well how to manage a convention or carry on a campaign, and the women of
the different States, who had one or the other of these in hand, were
unwilling to accept a substitute. She was as well and vigorous as at
fifty, and there seemed to be no adequate reason why she should refuse
the many opportunities to advance the cause for which she had given the
active service of nearly half a century. The several years since she
began housekeeping, therefore, had found her at home no more of the time
than those which had preceded.