Women torch-bearers : the story of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Front matter

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Foreword

A Bible seer must have included The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in his prophetic utterance when he declared, “The women that publish the tidings are a great host.” For fifty years a multitude of American white ribbon women have proclaimed the gospel of total abstinence, purity, peace and prohibition and are now sending to the ends of the earth the glad tidings of national victory over the thraldom of the liquor traffic.

In writing “The Story of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” the historian could include only such names and statistics as are needed to make the account graphic and helpful. Principles and facts are emphasized that the oncoming generation may catch the spirit of the marching mothers of the Crusade and realize the high historic points of the national and international growth of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. One of the outstanding results of the education, agitation and organization of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, from Crusade to Jubilee days, is the steady growth of public opinion in support of the fundamental principles of total abstinence for the individual and prohibition for the state and nation. Hence, it is essential to the history of the W. C. T. U. that high authorities in science, social economy, the church and the government should be cited. This is as joyous a feature of the story of fifty years as is the victorious culmination in the writing of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments.

The phenomenal history of fifty years cannot be compressed into one volume. A chronological summary given in the Appendix furnishes dates and data for handy reference. Fortunately the names of hundreds of noteworthy white ribboners who nobly and ably laid the foundations of the National W. C. T. U. are given in state histories, in state and national annual reports, The Union Signal, and in The Brief History prepared by Katharine Lent Stevenson. May we not reverently say that they are also recorded in “The Manuscript of God.”

The book is published under the direction of a sub-committee of the National W. C. T. U. Jubilee Committee.

E. PG.

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Contents Chapter Page I—The Woman’s Crusade..............0.2000es p25 s by oe 1 Ine Ge! TERRAIN oo aca os cbs s Sea o's pe woe acu Bee Gee 1 Frances E. Willard’s Crusade Classic........... batt sis ‘ 2 Mother Thompson’s Crusade Story..........ssceeccees 5 Mother Stewart an Outstanding Coabéaae: je weal s 8 Anna A. Gordon’s Story of the Marching Mothers..... 8 Il—Mobilization and Organization....... 5 ape ee Call for ae oe vies te Sent Out from “Chautauqua. re 15 National W. C. U. Organized..... 6 /.nais vans cee 15 Declaration of Principles EP RET Py EL eee 16 First President, Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer.............. 17 Frances E. Willard Elected President.............+.00% 18 Frances E. Willard in Boston with Dwight L. Moody.. 19 Hirat Bouthern. THI: occ ss ssa s a0 asec baees bb ea eee 21 Incidents of Trip in the West and Northwest......... 23 IllI—The Fight for a Clear Brain.............. ro ree 35 Frances Willard’s Do Everything Policy..............- 35 Loyal Temperance Legion Organized............+eee08 35 Scientific Temperance Instruction in the acheee ‘ana si oe Mary Hanchett Hunt Elected National W. yf ERY i 5 SupnerintenGont i. 69: se'ees-04 ee nes sk awn's thaw eae 41 State and Federal “Mandatory Scientific Temperance L898. S6CUrOGs.. 2... cbdkis se 6 os tesa be ess 41 Edith Smith Davis Elected National Superintendent. . 44 States Having Temperance Day in the Public Schools. 47 Temperance Activities of Captain Richmond Pearson Hobson, Dr. Lemuel H. Murlin, Dr. ne Dr. Se.

BPOODT:. ss sk4.0.0,s,000 6 65s ea ee ee er us Lillian M. N. Stevens’ Devoted Official Service. 50 Corroborating Total Abstinence Testimony of Scientists Gnd PRYSICIONG occ osek aces eecees + eens as eee 62 General Neal Dow, General Frederick Dent Grant, John B. Gough, Andrew Carnegie, Dr. Nathan S. Davi s, Hon, John D. Long, Hon. Seaborn Wright, Judge Ben B. Lindsey, Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, Mrs. Zillah Foster Stevens, William Jennings Bryan, Advocate Total Abstinence...........5. Seo sain IV—The World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union..... 69 Founded by Frances B. Willard........ccesceeecses ot oe Polyglot Petition for World Prohibition........... 70 Mary Clement Leavitt First World’s W. C. T. U. “Or- AMICON 6 5i0:k'v i vib oe s be 4h ee ters 65 on wee DAES ee .. 4s World’s W. C. T. U. Convention Held in Boston. oe Lady Henry 9 ar Honored Guest... . ssi. sicceces 74 World’s W. C. U. Convention, Brooklyn, New York. 76 World’s W. C. Cy U. Convention, Wonton vciss 76 Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, Blected President “of Words We S25 Go ee ote eee ieee 78 Dame Margarei. Lloyd George Visits United States. 79 biter A Bt Cc. T. U. Organizers and Resident Mission- - World-wide Tours’ of Prominent American W. C. T. U. PCOMION is So's ciate de a Kaw Ned thei bes es MONS N Ee CE 85 How the Jubilee Dollars Helped the World’s W.C. T. U. 85 The Little Cola 'Water Gitlin eis. a ea tha deta 88 Miss Agnes E. Slack Helping the “Puropean Work: 3.03 91 World’s W. Cc. T. U. European Survey. Anna A. Gordon, Accompanied by Julia Freeman Deane....... 93 Miss Gordon’s Survey of the Work in Old Mexico..... 95 The World League Against Alcoholism.............0- 96 Madame Kaji Yajima in Washington, for the Limitation of Armaments Conference.............ceee0: ie | 4

Chapter Page

V—tLegislative Achievements . wlateictdigveietele ee ae) Oe Huge Prohibition Petition Sent ‘to ‘Congress. . wataens 102 Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis Appointed National Ww. ron 2 ees 3

Legislative Superintendent and Headquarters Opened in Washington, D. Co-ed occ new 103 Sale of Liquor in Capitol Restaurants Prohibited..... 106 Age of Consent Raised; Girls in Philippines Protected 108 Co-operation with American Anti-Saloon League...... 110 Liquor Saloon in Army Post Exchanges Removed..... 112 Campaigns for Prohibition in Indian Territory, Oklahoma and New Mexico....... 115 Mrs. Ellis and Mrs, Edith Smith “Davis "Delegates | to International Congress Against Alcoholism........ 118 Cablegram Sent 4 Lillian M. N. Stevens, Presiden Maine W. C. U.and National W. Cc. BisGen es. 118 Tribute to Mrs. PE cn pee CY February 8, 1913, Interstate Commerce Bill "Passed. 121 Successful Campaigns for Prohibition in Porto Rico, Ha waliamd: Algae iss oie cieiticccdiis 122 Mrs. Lenna Lowe Yost of West Virginia, Blectea ‘National Legislative Superintendent and Legislative Representative at Mancow aenennarere in Wash- PIR LOR: : Ds Cee oa td Wis We eine 0 5 He Sle OE Hema lew le 126 Remarkable Record of "Federal “Legislation During Twenty-three Years Against the Legalized Liquor

PROM OG Ge ae ee REN bo Sie. 08 Tbe e/8'S woe Bieiee Wes PS SP lace kigreieies eae Vi—Patriotism and War Prohibition.............-..cccccees 132 The Solid South, Solid for Prohibition ‘and Patriotism. 132 Every White Ribboner a Prohibition Patriot......... 135

Co-operation with Government Plans for War Service. 135 Activities of Mrs. Frances P. Parks, Mrs. Margaret C.

Munns and Six National Superintendents....... 136 Medal Presented by the French Government to Miss Lella ERED ea cadig Ban Sao See aes ae RR TiS Sta ls 141 Memorial in Favor of Food ‘Conservation ‘Sent to Presi- TRC UNV STEONE. FCirwia coe nie U ue) Oe Rae Se Cele eRe RS 145 Hon. 7 a ls Daniels Issued "Famous Wine Mess Or- ne Mattenal ‘and State Work ‘in “Reconstruction "Hospitals 153 alt £ PORTDILLON INNA CTOG « 6 0)<:0 00:5 ane 66 6 eho eae Maks a elesecave 7 eee Summary of Magnificent Patriotic Work. pata eee waceie wie bis OO Viil—The ee Amendment; Allegiance to the Constitu- ae on A ehateteda Wi6, mo BNOray eiea te a tale CUO EEN List'c of Prohibition States............. aaah arin: upabade 158 Proclamation for Prohibition ‘Issued by “Mrs. Lillian Reet REY GUND piace a 25: o'la'w: do: 6,0 ain o\0 4 Mace ace w elaaiwie oie 159

M.

Resolution for National “Constitutional Prohibition Introduced Into Congress by Hon, Richmond Pearson PROS OER cic ono doa 6, 86. dc als'G Biele Sis bo FS Owe Ree A oR RIES 160

Sunday monack Petition for National ‘Constitutional Prohibition Sponsored by Mrs, tes B. Irvine, Sent

RN ON an oka ace ag b:e.s Sik bs Bin Keke sais bie y sialaP iain’ S 162 Referendum Bill Passes. the House; ‘Senate Concurs. 163 Text of the Eighteenth Amendment..... aia aver einai ete os 260 States that Ratified the Amendment....... ae ar ratte The Enforcement Code, the Volstead Act..... aware wel REL President Coolidge Strong for Enforcement......... 174 Commissioner Roy A, Haynes Summarizes Benefits ot

HAiSntOGUEN AMIONGMONE :,:).0'\6 s+ a016 9)es 6e-s'e wieie ee 176 Woman’s National Committee for Law Serree womens: sheet ee Noted Women Speak in Washington............ vicwee ee

VilI—The Nineteenth Amendment................. wrateandalavni sien ke Text %, GAG! PEP IIG INGE Ceo 56 stds os wiciceine alg Seat as 192 Ww. C. U. Campaign for Amendment.. ae areeie 192

Ea Asking That in the Territories” and ‘District of Columbia, Women by Their Signatures Could Vote on the Sale of Liquor, Sent to Congress..... 194 Franchise Department Adopted........cccccceeesecvess 196

Chapter Page

Mary Allen West, Susanna’ M. D. “Fry, Jane “Addams, Deborah Knox Livingston, Early Leaders........- 198

Leaders, of. Today. <s'.ssiseeses Perr ri Fee ey

IX—Our Golden Jubilee..............00006- So ah

The Five Year Drive for Members and “Money... sags 5s

The Continent-wide Celebration........ resent £ ssSd-w en

National We Gi GU. Spemkerei ns so. i4. 2 sh tee eeeen 216 Messages of Directors of Departments and Branch Sec-

List of Organizers and Evangelists. dwere's <'é'é bia 9 ibeatio ne ae

How the Jubilee Dollars Aided ao ‘Departments. = 60

X—A Golden History; A Golden ee BO ey: stk tba eee

White Ribbon qe a Bond of re etc édale bea eee eee

History of Affiliated Interests............ Mie h aie satko be

Administrative Building Erected.... ...... a lop wae 6 wet na

The Frances Willard Memorial Fund..... silks eee ee

The Lillian 4g Lepisiative Fund... ois a66sse088 - 262

Editorial Staff of The Union Signal..... osevibbb ces 264

Co-operation with Chautauqua Assemblies; Celebration of Fiftieth Anniversary at Chautauqua, New bebsnins 267

Work for Peace and Arbitration.... “< 270 ae Peace Petition of Women Initiated by ‘Ww.

U3: Sent: to: President Bardings... .6<i05 fiaaakes ” 274 The Youth and the Boys and Girls—-'The Golden ‘Proph- ors

BOF 6 S01 ON is he cde TS ee Fh ahs eae REE He Sree pee

Me acon At to Frances Willard.......... ere yer ee Program for the Next Fifty Years........ o's he we Sawin Hold en: the Torch ss sie sh. 0058 ev bbe pus ae eae ee

Appendix: Chronological Summary..... ea 0% die wete-otieha nae

Esther Pugh, Lillian M. N. Stevens, Caroline B. Buell, Frances E. Willard, Mary A. Woodbridge................05:

Campaigning in Colorado, in 1924 eeomecring in Montana, in 1883. .oo....ds ccnsicecess cavsecvs

Mrs. Hannah J. Bailey, Mrs. Anna S. Benjamin, Mrs. Edith Smith Davis, Mrs. Adelia E. Carman, Mrs. J. K. Barney, Mrs, Sallie Chapin, Mrs. Emilie D. Martin, Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, Miss Elizabeth W. Greenwood...............

First verse of “Saloons Must Go”

A facsimile of Frances E. Willard’s original copy......

Clara C. Hoffman, Susanna M. D. Fry, Helen M. Barker, Louise S. Rounds, Katharine Lent Stevenson, Frances E, Beauchamp, Elizabeth P. Hutchinson, Mary Clement een, Me FL AUNEED, 00S sav é oesa cc's weed eens eras

The Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. Margaret Bright Lucas, Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle.

World’s W. C. T. U. Petition to the Governments of the a ca a i ee

Miss A. Amy Spalding, Miss Christine I. Tinling, Madame

Kaji Yajima, Miss Hardynia K. Norville, Miss Flora E. Strout, Mrs. Frances Willard, Wang Liu....... <aheess

Margaret Dye Ellis.

Part of the National W. C. T. U. Legislative Headquarters, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Lenna Lowe Yost placing a W. C. T. U. Allegiance Enrollment Card in one of the

46 63

Medal presented by the French government, in gratitude for distinguished W. C. T. U. war relief service, to Miss Lella M. Sewall.

The Georgia W. C. T. U. War Service Flag. The Stars represent sons, husbands and brothers of white ribboners.

National W. C. T. U. Ambulance used in war service in Pramee OW 0 die 4 eye ARS Seb eb bce Peer bacsaeue te Te

W. C. T. U. Mother-Child Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Children of W. C. T. U. Americanization Center, St. Louis, SEBEL i ods pooh 0d said 5 i 0e REN eae ee eee Re 174

Mrs. Culla J. Vayhinger, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, Mrs. Frances W. Graham, Mrs. Mary Harris Armor, Catharine. Waugh MCCalloch .).s.a000se ens skacneneee 191

General Officers National W. C. T. U., 1924-1925— Anna A. Gordon, President; Ella A. Boole, Vice-President; Frances P. Parks, Corresponding Secretary; Elizabeth P. Anderson, Recording Secretary; Sara H. Hoge, Assistant Recording Secretary; Margaret C. Munns, CCKOUTOR i5'. o xin'gabaswyccd'e v6s 0 hoe eee ih anaes See 210

Distribution of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the United States; each dot represents a local union.. 219

Willard Fountain, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois; W. C. T.

U.. Float, Waterbury, Connecticut.........ssecssssssse 254 Historic Rest Cottage, The Willard, National W. C. T. U. Adminstration Building’: :... 0000 355.4 Ss20 Ss Fe ee 258

Editors of The Union Signal: Harriet B. Kells, Julia F. Deane, Clara C. Chapin, Mary Bannister Willard, Margaret Sudduth, Julia A. Ames, Mary Allen West, CoreRe Ts Bathe aids cols:s ante chewtijork osGasicd 5386 ee evita

Mary B. Ervin and The Loyal Temperance Legion........ 270 Frances J. Barnes, Maude B. Perkins, Grace Leigh Scott,

Charlotte B. Fraser; Young People’s Branch Field Day box er Worke oos ois 5 sve eca cca cls sneer . 287

Statue of Frances E. Willard in Statuary Hall, Washington, Dice's shay ota d « Galen 0'o oa dives s oad se <cas aks pee 292

CHAPTER I THE WoMAN’s CRUSADE

N the annals of history, December 17, 1917, is an epochal I victory date. There was enacted that day in the Capital City of the United States one of the greatest moral, economic and legislative triumphs of the world. By a more than two-thirds vote the House of Representatives of the Sixty-fifth Congress passed a resolution submitting to the states a National Constitutional Prohibition Amendment— the Eighteenth. The Senate concurred. Ratification by three-fourths of the states occurred. On January 29, 1919, the Acting Secretary of State, Hon. Frank Lyon Polk, issued a proclamation declaring prohibition of the liquor traffic a part of the fundamental and organic law of the land. The law went into effect on January 16, 1920.

On that memorable day of decision, December 17, 1917, the friends and foes of prohibition crowded the galleries of the House of Representatives. Mother-hearted women and women masterly in leadership were there. From Maine to California, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, they had come. What had been their part in the setting of such a marvelous scene—a picture worthy to be etched on a Heavenly canvas? Who were these womanly women representative of all that is best in the home and church? They were the members of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union organized in every state and territory, an organization that for over forty years had been waging a peaceful war against the most relentless enemy of the home, the legalized liquor traffic. :

“In the beginning,” in the winter of 1873-1874, there were brave, home-loving Crusaders, the mothers and grandmothers of these present-day white ribboners assembled December 17, 1917, in Washington, D. C. God heard the sorrowful, appealing cry of suffering. women and children that went up from countless homes. He called to the defense of helpless humanity His last reserves—the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. With mighty power the Crusade swept over the land. How little the women realized that it was the genesis of the Federal protection of the home and the Federal emancipation of women. This revolt of American womanhood against the legalized liquor traffic was one of the greatest moral upheavals of the nineteenth century.

In her Crusade classic, written in 1895, Frances E. Willard gives this pen picture of the leader of the Crusade:

“Every whirlwind has its first leaf; for the laws of motion oblige it to begin somewhere in particular. Other leaves are gathered in so rapidly that it is usually impossible to tell which one stirred first; but whichever that one was, with it the whirlwind began. The ‘Ohio Crusade’ has passed into history; the ‘Ohio Crusaders’ have won an inextinguishable fame. The ‘Women of the West,’ who led the ‘Whisky War,’ as it is called through the British Empire, gained for themselves, without intending it, the pioneer place in that great Woman’s Temperance Movement that now belts the globe. The whirlwind of the Lord began in the little town of Hillsboro, on the twenty-third of December, 1873. There the pentecost of God descended, and seventy women, without the slightest preconcerted plan, lifted their hands as silent witnesses, when asked by the good ministers and the famous lecturer, Dr. Dio Lewis, if they were willing to go out from their homes and pray in the places where their husbands, sons, and brothers were tempted to their ruin. There the Crusade Psalm was read; ‘a rallying cry, ‘Give to the Winds thy Fears,’ was sung; and the first silent, prayerful procession of wives and mothers moved along Ohio streets. The gentle-hearted woman whom they chose as their leader by spontaneous acclamation, was one whose heart had been chastened by glorious discipline and sorrow. Away back in 1836, she had accompanied her — father, then an Ohio delegate to the National Temperance Convention held in Saratoga, New York, and when, at his request, she went with him to the door of the hotel diningroom, which afforded ample accommodation for all the delegates in that rudimentary period of the movement, and

THE WoMAN’S CRUSADE he asked her to enter with him, Elizabeth Thompson, who was a girl of but twenty years, naturally hesitated, saying to her stout-hearted sire: ‘Why, father, I am afraid to go in. I looked through the door, and there were no women present, only men.’ Upon this the governor exclaimed: ‘Come right along with me; my daughter must never be afraid to be alone in a good cause!’ And taking her by the arm, he introduced the first woman who ever entered a National Temperance Convention. Who shall say that in this scene— how much more worthy of a painter than most of the subjects that they choose!—we have not a prophecy of what was to transpire nearly forty years later in the town of that sweet girl’s nativity? Ancestry counts for much, and it should never be forgotten, in our study of heredity, that the leader of the Crusade came of a long line of devout Christidn ancestors, whose earlier history dated back to Virginia, that famous state which was the home of George Washington, and is known in history as the ‘Mother of Presidents.’

“Hillsboro is the cradle, even as Washington Courthouse is the crown of the Crusade. So far as I can learn, the women of Hillsboro put forward no claim, nor did their leader. Perhaps, this was because there was no need for them to do so; and to my mind, the strongest confirmation of their deserved pre-eminence is the quiet, gentle, peacemaking spirit that they have shown from the beginning. For my part, I can testify that it has only been ‘by the hardest’ that her comrades have been able to induce Mrs. Thompson to come forward and gently take her place as ‘leader of the first Praying Band.’ On some notable occasions, this typical woman of the home, the church and school has stood forth as a historic figure. Who of us, whose lot has been cast as an officer or delegate to the National Convention since the beginning, can forget the genial, smiling presence and piquant words of that Crusade mother whom we all love so much? To hear her tell the story of the way in which the movement broke out in Hillsboro is an experience to be cherished for a lifetime. Her quaint, refined presence; her mild, motherly face, framed in its little cap;

her soft voice; her peculiar manner of utterance, combining remarkable originality with the utmost gentleness and good breeding; her inimitable humor; and, most characteristic of all, her deep, abiding faith in God and in humanity—all these have made an indelible impression, and helped, beyond what we can at all estimate, to form the character of the White Ribbon Movement. Naturally of a conservative disposition, Mrs. Thompson has, nevertheless, kept time to the company’s music; she has taken every wave of the onrolling tide of impulse that we believe to be from God, as a strong swimmer breasts the incoming waves of the sea. It was no trifle for a woman with the traditions of ‘Old Virginia’ to accept our woman’s suffrage resolution away back in 1877; and the beauty of it was, that her manner of announcing the faith that was within her lent so much of quiet strength to the decision of the Convention.

“It was my good fortune, as far back as 1876, to make a tour among the Crusaders of Ohio, visiting well-nigh forty of their towns and villages. I could write a volume on the history, experience, and inspiration of that memorable pilgrimage. It was one of the few times in my life that I ever went forth alone; and I was mothered in the homes of those devoted women with a tenderness that will never be forgotten. My own stipulation in making the trip was that I should go to Hillsboro, the home of Mrs. Thompson, and to Springfield, the home of Mother Stewart, in both of which we took sweet counsel together.

“Mrs. Thompson’s home is the old family mansion where the governor spent all his days, and which he bequeathed to his beloved only daughter. It stands on a slight ascent and in a wooded grove, at the edge of a well-built town of four thousand inhabitants, and is as roomy and hospitable as heart could wish. Here I met Judge Thompson, the genial, witty lawyer, and the husband of our leader; Mrs. Marie Thompson Rives, the accomplished elder daughter; and Henry Thompson, the youth who brought the tidings to his mother that she was expected at the church on that memorable morning. I longed to see that lovely younger

THE WomMANnN’s CRUSADE daughter, who from her pocket Bible brought to her mother the Crusade Psalm that is the Magna Charta of the White Ribbon Movement; but she was gone, having been married to Herbert Tuttle, the distinguished professor in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.”

Mother Thompson’s own account of her Crusade call is a valuable record. She tells of the lecture given by Dr. Dio Lewis of Boston, in Hillsboro, Ohio, December, 1873. She did not attend the meeting, but her sixteen-year-old son, much excited, ran home to tell the thrilling incidents of the evening. This is her story:

“My son related how Dr. Lewis told of his own mother and several of her good Christian friends uniting in prayer with and for the liquor-sellers of his native town, until they gave up their soul-destroying business, and then said: ‘Ladies, you might do the same thing in Hillsboro if you had the same faith’; and turning to the ministers and temperance men who were upon the platform, he added: ‘Suppose I ask the ladies of this audience to signify their opinions upon the subject.’ They all bowed their consent, and fifty or more women stood up in token of approval. He then asked the gentlemen how many of them would stand as backers, should the ladies undertake the work, and sixty or seventy arose. ‘And now, mother,’ said my boy, ‘they have got you into business, for you are on a committee to do some work at the Presbyterian Church in the morning at nine o’clock, and then the ladies want you to go with them to the saloons.’

“My husband seemed asleep as he rested upon the couch, while my son, in an undertone, had given me all the above facts, but as the last sentence was uttered, he raised himself upon his elbow, and said, ‘What tomfoolery is that?’ My son slipped out of the room quietly, and I betook myself to the task of consoling my husband with the promise that I should not be led into any foolish act by Dio Lewis or any association of human beings. But after he had relaxed into a milder mood, continuing to call the whole thing, as he understood it, ‘tomfoolery,’ I ventured to remind him that the men had been in the ‘tomfoolery’ business a long time, and suggested that it might be God’s will that the women should now take their part. Nothing further was said upon the subject that had created such interest the night before, until after breakfast, when we gathered in the family room. First my son approached me, and placing his hand gently upon my shoulder, in a very subdued tone said, ‘Mother, are you not going over to the church this morning?’ As I hesitated, and doubtless showed in my countenance the burden upon my spirit, he emphatically said, ‘But, my dear mother, you know you have to go.’ Then my daughter, who was sitting on a stool by my side, leaning over in a most tender manner, and looking up in my face, said, ‘Don’t you think you will go?’ All this time my husband had been walking the floor, uttering not a word. He stopped, and placing his hand on the family Bible, that lay upon my work-table, said, emphatically, ‘Children, you know where your mother goes to settle all vexed questions; let us leave her alone’; withdrawing as he spoke, and the dear children following him. I turned the key, and was in the act of kneeling before God and His Holy Word, to see what would be sent me, when I heard a gentle tap at my door; upon opening it I saw my dear daughter, with her little Bible open, and the tears coursing down her young cheeks, as she said, ‘I opened to this, mother. It must be for you.’

“She immediately left the room, and I sat down to read the wonderful message of the great ‘I am’ contained in the one hundred forty-sixth Psalm. No longer doubting, I at once repaired to the Presbyterian Church, where quite a large assembly of earnest workers had gathered. I was at once unanimously chosen as the president, Mrs. (General) Joseph J. McDowell as vice-president, and Mrs. D. K. Fenner, secretary of the strange work that was to follow. Appeals were drawn up to druggists, saloon-keepers, and hotel proprietors. Then the Presbyterian minister (Rev. W. J. McSurely, D. D.), who had up to this time occupied the chair, called upon the chairman-elect to come forward to the ‘post of honor,’ but I could not; my limbs refused to

THE WomMAN’S CRUSADE bear me. So Dr. McSurely remarked, as he looked around upon the gentlemen: ‘Brethren, I see that the ladies will do nothing while we remain; let us adjourn, leaving this new work with God and the women.’

“As the last man closed the door after him, strength before unknown came to me, and without any hesitation or consultation, I walked forward to the minister’s table, took the large Bible, and opening it, explained the incidents of the morning; then read the Psalm, and briefly (as my tears would allow) commented upon its new meaning to me. I then called upon Mrs. McDowell to lead in prayer—and such a prayer! It seemed as if the angel had brought down ‘live coal’ from off the altar and touched her lips—she who had never before heard her own voice in prayer! As we rose from our knees (for there were none sitting on that morning), I asked Mrs. Cowden (our Methodist minister’s wife), to start the good old hymn, ‘Give to the Winds Thy Fears,’ and turning to the dear women, I said, ‘As we all join in singing this hymn, let us form in line, two and two, the small women in front, leaving the tall ones to bring up the rear, and let us at once proceed to our sacred mission, trusting alone in the God of Jacob.’ .

“Tt was all done in less time than it takes to write it, every heart was throbbing, and every woman’s countenance betrayed her solemn realization of the fact that she was going ‘about her Father’s business.’ As this band of ‘mysterious beings’ first encountered the outside gaze, and as they passed from the door of the old church, and reached the street beyond the large churchyard, they were singing these prophetic words:

‘Far, far above thy thought, His counsel shall appear,

When fully He the work hath wrought That caused thy needless fear.’

“On they marched, in solemn silence, up to Main street. After calling at all the drug-stores, four in number, their pledge being signed by all the dealers save one, they entered saloons and hotels, on this and subsequent days, with varied success, until by continuous daily visitations, with persuasion, prayer, and song, and Scripture readings, the drinking places of the town were reduced from thirteen to one drug store, one hotel, and two saloons, and they sold ‘very cautiously.’ Prayer-meetings were held during the entire winter and spring, every morning (except Sunday), and massmeetings in the evenings, at the Methodist Church one week and at the Presbyterian the next. This is, in brief, the story.”

There were scores of prominent leaders whose names might well be mentioned, but Mother Stewart (Mrs. E. D.) of Ohio, was one of the outstanding Crusaders in the state and nation. Her personality and work were unique. In the south, as well as throughout the north, she thrilled her audiences as she pictured the adventures and power of the marvelous Crusade. Her fervent appeals awakened public sentiment for total abstinence and the closing of the saloons by law. She was the first American woman to carry the Crusade impulse across the sea; and her enthusiasm greatly helped in the formation of the British Women’s Temperance Association.