The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-03-14 00:00:00

THE WOMEN'S WHISKY WAR.

lhe folhwing letter Is from the American Correspondent
of The Times, under date Palladelphla, Feb. 24 :

. _
The female anti-whisky moral imasion crusade is
spreading over the country with extraordinary
energy. When I Lot wrote about it a week ago it
was mainly located in Southern Ohio, with some
symptoms in Southern Indiana, and at Louisville,
in Kentucky. Now, however, it has not only
greatly extended its limits in t:hote localities, but it
has also appeared in Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey, the district of Columbia. lowa, Illinois,
and Nebraska. At Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, the
women have alteady held a number of meetings to
inaugurate the crusade, and there are premonitory
signs of a similar trove client in Philadelphia. At
Manchester, in lowa, the praying bands of women
have been at work for nearly a week among the
saloons, and wiih considerable succese. At Lincoln,
Nebraska, a femele party of thirty began their pil-
grimage on the rth of February, and at one saloon
which they •isPed the crowd was co great that the
floor was hr i ken down and all bands precipitated into
the cellar, a number being injured. The women are
also at work in Henry county, Illinois, and the Grand
Jury of that county have come to their aid by find-
ing indictments againet forty-eight salomPkeepers fier
selling liquor to minors, in violation of the law. In
Indiana the work goes on bravely, and the first large
town has been attacked, the crusade heretofore having
been confined only to small places. This town is Jeffer-
sonville, on the Ohio river. The women, to the number
of 100, on the 16th of February visited eight saloons, an
enormous crowd following them and blockading the
I streets, a strong police escort being required for the pro-
tection of the praying slater& The saloon-keepers re-
ceived them kindly, but none yielded. The next day
a deputation of 3,000 persons, mostly Germano, came
over from Louisville, on the Kentucky bank of the
river, to watch the proceedings, the women supple-
menting their barroom visits by temperance meetings
In churchee and public hallo. All the week the same
procees c nitinueo, but without perceptible results, the
latest telegram announcing that "thirsty mule ab-
sorbed their betz.ne just as usual." Yesterday the
orupade began at New Albany, ',Alma, and prepara-
tions for the movement are announced rom Prince-
ton, in the same S'ate. An innkeeper in the former
town threateno, if the praying women come to his
place, that he "will hold their husbands strictly re-
Isponsible, if they have any."
Toe movement was inaugurated yesterday in Brook-
lyn, New York. The Rey. Henry Ward Beecher, in
a sermon delivered the previous day, said that history
would not show a parallel to the off, .Imaking in the

West to suppress the "scourge of the houeehold—
dram drinking ; " he described it as an evil which de-
fied legislation, but now, under the providence of God,
there was a moral cyclone, a fearful tempest of M.
fluence, against it A large number of women are said
to be ready to enlist for the campaign in Brooklyn,
and they yeeterday held a very epirited msetieg in
one of the Methodist churches On Long Island
some ef the women invented the plan of fighting
alcon 1 by persuading the railwoy managers not to
tremport it. Wiih this view a deputation had
appealed to the directors of the South-Side
running from Brooklyn along the south coast of se •
island, The directors did not -at ' the reqneet. com-
pletely, but they raised the tor ff from carryteg lemore
to foul times the charge for other goods, There is cot
any perceptible decrease in the amount transported,
but the mdtive of the railway mansgere ought not to
be questioned when they thus adopt • plan to prevent ,
the Bale of liquor which quadruples their revenue-.
In Jersey oity,,New Jersey, the crusade began last week,
but the crusaders are not yet very strong 11l numbers,
there being only 16 of them, led by a veteran Methodiet
exhorter, " Mother " Adams Attacks on the saloons
are about to begin in Newark and Orange.
In New York city there are oceans of rum sold.
and any one acquainted with the Metropolis will
readily admit that it will be the last to yield to
Teetotal influences. Yet the fair crusaders do not
yet despair of Sodom, but, on the contrary, are
ehowing unmistakable indications of a contemplated
devotional skirmish along the Bowery. Two large
temperance meetings were held in New York
churches on Sunday night. The liquor-dealers are
very much frightened at the symptoms, and they are
already combining for protective measures. They
have held a meeting, at whieh addressee were made
denouncing the women's] crusade and claiming that
they, like any other tradesmen, have a right to ply !
their vocation in peace. They inteed to orgisMae a ,
protective Union in every ward to guard their
iuterests. The resolutions they have adopted de- ,
dare that history has shown that the use of the
gifts of Nature and the products of human ingenuity
cannot be successfully interdicted by the enactment
of laws ; that every article of solid or liquid food ie
to a certain extent poisonous ; that the policy of
prohieition by law, in place of the regulation of the
traffic in liquors, is as clearly against the Bills of
Rights and the Constitutimm of the States and of the
United States as would b. an interference with any
other trade or licensed business ; and yet, rotwitti.
standing this reasoning, the crusaders are at work once
more. Tne campaign has opened on Staten Inland,
south of New York City, though with poor success.
The Trinity Church Corporation in New York has
decided not to renew any leases of real estates need
for liquor saloons, and this will close 40 bar-roome.
In Ohio, where the movement began and has won
its greatest victories, it still progresses with amazing
energy. It has received the stroeg support of the
State Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, who are
very numerutte in Ohio, and who have passed a resolu-
tion at their meeting in Xenia, endorsing the woman's
crusade. At Ripley every saloon but one has been
closed, and this will soon yield, as 150 women are be- I
ideating it. At Athens, nine out of 14 saloons had stir. '
rendered when I last wrote; now but one isleft. It took '
four amanita to bring one of the most obdurate of the '
others to terms, but the power of prayer was ultimately
shown by the proprietor bringing out his ale and
beer-kegs and emptying their contents into the road.
The only remairdeg saloonist in Frankfort surrendered
on February 18. The crusade began in MX onnellseille
on that day, with 140 women in the praying bands, and
one innkeeper out of eight has yielded. It also opened
at the same time in Mount Vernon. the Bowlingmlleye,
billiard-rooms, and gaming-houses im-ing visited as well
as the bar-rooms. At Morrow a desperate innkeeper
has shown fight, and has filed his declaration sgalost
160 women, setting forth that be haa been damaged
to the extent of 1,000 dola by the obstruction of his
I business, and the Court has granted an injunction.
Eighty womea are going the rounds at Millersburg,
and have shut up two saloone, the proprietors of which
are now anxious to sell out to the praying sitters at
cost price. At Piqua 40 ladies are carrying on the
war. One man offered to pour his liquor into the
getter if the ladies would give him 1,000 d. Is., but the
telegram says this was "mildly, though firmly, re-
jected." Another claims that the excitement caused
is making his }Magee 50 per cent, better, and he
"wants the women to keep it up lively," F.que has
abut 50 saloons. The last saloon has been closed in
Jamextown, and at several other small towns the move-
ment is energetically conducted.
In the lareer cities of Ohio very little progress is
made. Thus, in Devton enthusiastic temperance
meetings are held, with Van Pelt, the "reformed ealoor-
keeper," as a prominent feature, but no bar-rooms are
closed. 11l Xenia it is maid that almost every woman in
town is in the crusade, but it dots not generally succeed.
The saloon-keepers have ceased to resist, however, and
allow the women to hold their prayer meetings inside the
bar-rooms. Four bands of about 50 each go the
rounds, while a number of little girls pass through the
stretts singing temperance songs In Xenia one saloon
hate yit lded,—the 'Shades of Death,--the proprietor
of which has poured his ruin into the street, while
an excited multitude earg hymns of probe. In
Columbus, the State capitol, enormous temperatce
meetings are held, but, though the feeling rues high,
no women have yet perambulated the streets, In Cin-
cinnati, the largest Ohio city, the crusade has not yet
broken out, but the saloon-keepers are loud in their
threats of insult to the women if they annoy them.
The Cincinnati brewers are holding meetings for pro-
tection. Tbey report aerioue damage to their business
600 kegs of beer having been consumed daily at the
saloons closed in Ohio. It is quite probable that con.
ctrttd action will be taken to stay the crusade, if it is
within the power of legal measures to do it.
The preliminar y movement in the district of Colnmbla
was made on Sunday, the •22nd of February, when the
" Congreesional Temperance Society" met and decided
ti open a vigorous campaign against liquor sellieg in
the district. A large number of members and others
attended, Representative Cessna, of Pennsylvania,
being chairman in the afterno xn, and Representative
Hazelton, of Wisconsin, in the evening. When the
suggestion was made that the women's movement ought
to begin in Washington, it was received with hearty
applauee, and it was decided that the praying bands
should commence operations on the 28th of February.
These things show how the feeling is spreading; and
the entire crusade is looked upon as one of the most
remarkable developments of the time.