`` No , Mr. Craig . You know if a woman is n't fit to speak in the church she ca n't be fit to sing in it either . '' Eben Craig looked exceedingly foolish . He tiptoed gingerly back to his place . The minister , with an unusual flush on his thin , ascetic face , rose suddenly and gave out the opening hymn . Nobody who heard the singing in Putney church that day ever forgot it . Untrained basses and tenors , unrelieved by a single female voice , are not inspiring . There were no announcements of society meetings for the forthcoming week . On the way home from church that day irate husbands and fathers scolded , argued , or pleaded , according to their several dispositions . One and all met with the same calm statement that if a noble , self-sacrificing woman like Mrs. Cotterell were not good enough to speak in the Putney church , ordinary , everyday women could not be fit to take any part whatever in its work . Sunday School that afternoon was a harrowing failure . Out of all the corps of teachers only one was a man , and he alone was at his post . In the Christian Endeavour meeting on Tuesday night the feminine element sat dumb and unresponsive . The Putney women never did things by halves . The men held out for two weeks . At the end of that time they `` happened '' to meet at the manse and talked the matter over with the harassed minister . Elder Knox said gloomily , `` It 's this way . Nothing can move them women . I know , for I 've tried . My authority has been set at naught in my own household .
And I 'm laughed at if I show my XXXXX in any of the other settlements . ''
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