Litchfield enquirer., 1874-07-16
WE CARRY BULLETIN BOARDS
The Moral Power ot women.

Nothing in American history has moro
 nobly illustrated the moral power of wo- men, than the past and current crusade against the vice of drinking, and the traf- fic upon which it feeds. Tho exhibition
 and demonstration of this power are so full of suggestion and instruction, both to men and women, that they demand more
 than passing consideration, especially
 in their bearing upon some of the most stirring questions of the time.
 Why is it that the hardened rum-selleg who behind his bar has dealt out the liquid death to his victims for years, quails before band of praying, beseech- ing women-women who, coming from their comfortable retirement, brave wind and storm and mud-brave obloquy and
 misrepresentation and curses, and nil the
 harsh obstacles that brutality can throw III their path, to compass a reform that shall keep their natural supporters and protectors pure and properous? Why is
 it that men looking on form new resolu-
 fl9na o1 sohEG.S WRg is t F'e2Rmfs t2Rmafs
 changes which involve the destruction of
 brutal business, and of habits to which
 hundreds of thousands are welded with
 all the power of burning appetite, awake
 no more violence than they do2 Why is
 1t that so many good men, whose souls
 protest against the sacrifice of ease and
 privacy which these women make, bow to
 the movement as something supremely
 Christian, and therefore, veritablY divine?
 First, of course, because there is no
 man, however brutal, who does not know
 that the women are right-that whisky is
 a curse. not only to those who drink it,
 but to the unoffending who do not drink
 1t. Eyery man feels that the action of the
 women Is an embodiment and expression
 of the dictates of his own conscience. Ap-
 proached in way which disarms all vio-
 lent opposition, with an appeal to God and
 to all the manliness which. he possesses,
 the vllest panderer to debased appetite
 trembles not only before tho pure embod-
 jed conscience without, but before the
 answering conscience within. He hears
 God 8 voice i'll tho souls which approach
 him, and the same voice in his own soul.
 There is something terrible in this A mob which would tear his house down, n descent of the officers of the law, the threats of outraged fathers and brothers,
 would only stimulate his opposition; and give him an apology for continuing his crime; but this quiet appeal to his con- science, by those whose conscience, he @AAO"c SO OO POAOS Ao c~S4tA AO HILL
 Second, the mind of man is so consti- tuted as to feel most sensitively the praise and the blame of women. It is hard for any man to feel that he rest under the censure of all the good women by whom he IS surrounded. The harshest words that have been spoken against the crusad- CTS have been spoken by the women whom they have found behind the bars they have visited; and these poor creatures were speaking to win the approval of the brutal men they loved A man who has not some woman somewhere who believes ln him, trusts him and loves him, has reached point where self-respect is gone All men, who deserve the name of men, desire the respect of women; and when a man finds himself in a business which fixes upon him the disapproval of whole community of women, power IS brought to bear upon him which he certainly can not ignore, and which he finds it difficult to resist. The power of woman, simply as woman, has had too many illustrations in history to need further discussion here. A mans self-respect can only be nursed to it's best estate m the approval of the finer sense and quicker conscience of the women who know him.
 The third reason is that the end which these women seek is purely and benef- gently moral one. They are not after money, they do not pursue revenge, they do not seek political power or preferment, the work in the interest of no party. All l they desire, and all they labor for is the l reform and safety of their husbands, l brothers, fathers and sons, and the extinc- l tlon of those temptations and sources of | temptation which endanger them. They l bsar a8 ie ihe Hall HFaa ia thh ifs trac, they cover him with their kindness and sym pathy. They not only do not have the sympathy of party men, as such, but they are denied the sympathy of portions of the Christian church. They pursue much desired moral end by purely moral means. They seek nothing for themselves, but everything for the men they love, and for the men that other women love. The element of self sacrifice is in it all. They go from peaceful home pursuits. from the retirement which is most congenial to them. from prayers where they have beg ged for the blessing of heaven upon their enterprise, into the street, into foul dens
 of debauchery, into private approximations
 with brutal men, into atomspheres reek-
 ing with ribaldrY, and all to save others.
 No man with spark of manliness III nm which, after all, is only godllness ex-
 pressed in human character regard such a spectacle AS this without Deing
 moved to admiration and reverence.
 And now for the lesson which thls cru
 sade teaches us. It will be nara one for some women to learn, but Q desire for tbe Conservation of the best forces of soc ;etv demands that it shall not only be stated but needed. The ballot. even 1vFen exercised in the right direction, has