The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-10-05
Woman's Temperance Column.
The Lord of Hosts IS acith as, the God
ofJaco6 is oar refuge"

NOilin thIlsllan temperance l mons
of Vermont assembled at st. Albams.
September 2G. The delegates were
welcomed by Mrs. Albert Clarke, pres
ident of the 81. Adams Union, as fol-
lows:
Mrs. President, Delegafes ami
Friends.-Wc welcome YOU TO st. Al
bans. Many of you have come from
communities not unlike ours. and all of
you from experiences with the same
human frailties that we meet. You
have come to counsel together how best
to promote the good of society in the
most important field that ever invited
the thought and labor of woman-a
field that lies at the very centre of do
nestle, social and religious influences,
and involves the happiness or misery,
now and hereafter, of so many human
beings. You come, and we meet you,
not as specialists or class separate
from the rest of society, but rather as
those so closely identified with every
phase of society, with family, with
church, with neighborhood, town and
state, that your deliberations will have
for all others the wisdom of experience.
and deserve the sympathy of common
lni'itSls hHd NNlt NOu tdil, uO UOuDt.
relate how you have encountered not
merely the hostility of those whose
work of destruction YOU oppose, but
the ingratitude of some whom YOU up
lift, and the Indifference if not the cold
ness of many who need your aid and
whose influence and cooperation you
deserve. Although some of YOU may
stand at the head of society, possessing
! the advantages of wealth, culture, and
honOred name, yet you have seen the
avertcd eye of fashion, heard the prom
isc made to the ear only to be broken to
! the hope, and felt the chill of respect
ability too careful of its fragile mould
} TO fill it even with the milk of human
kindness. Perhaps you have encount-
cred that most unnatural, that most in
conceivable wOmanhood, which, though
being drawn daily nearer to the grave
of hope by drunken husbands or sons,
can still hold aloof from your saving
: work, affect to despisc it, and even dis
courage their erring ones in their el-
forts to enter upon that better life that
you have endeavored to persuade them
to try 10 lead.
, or course you are familiar with all
the conflicting theories of temperance
reform you have met the stern prohi-
bitionist, who would trust all TO law:
; You have listened to the eloquent ora
> tor, who believes alone in suasion; YOU
D.; have heard one divine preach total alb
l stinencc as the only safe and whole
some rule, and known another to write
about the freedom from excessive in
diligence, and the absence of intoxica-
ton in the wine-drinking populations
. of Europe; you have been told ON the
| 80 A.
. groggeries while toleratin9 bars in ho-
t tells, and on the other of the impossible
l ity of keeping hotel without the bar;
L you have been asked, aye, by those
]. having the stature of men, to leave
$ your homes and make your presence
Il felt in the courts, in order that the
e judges might be gallant enough to stand
1 upright, and jurors have courage to
0 convict; and if you have felt impelled
!. by the love of Him who died to redeem
the world, and by the belief that before
the presence of women filled with pli-
II rity and zeal the vilencss of the world
will steal away, to go down into the
n dark alleys and carry the light of life,
a have you not been told that prayer will
: be wasted if not desecrated there, and
that you will return with soil upon
your sandals? All, my sisters, YOU
know all this. You have seen and
3 heard and felt the clash of interests and
C the conflicts of Opinionss and your wo-
C mans hearts have ached to see that the
+ world grew no better. And so you
VI have asked yourselves, have asked each
IS other, have asked God, What can we,
II what ought we to do? We can make
r tatting; can we not make public opin-
|, ion? We can make new garments
c from old; can we not make hope from
k despair? We can contrive ways to
a keep the wolf from the door; can we
l. not bring home our loved ones so that
le the wolves will come no more? We
!, can shingle the church; can we not fill
d it?
IS Accordingly we have prayed we
n have organized and we have worked.
E. We have said, Let men differ as they
IL will; we do not know nor are we like
A. ly TO agree as to what is and wha. is
S, not the best method: we are not OF
m one idea: we are not blind enthusiasts
D. we have no hope of Utopia. But the
l. evil is great, and inactivity is ineXcusa-
E. BILE. We will do what we can. And
Is ont of this resolution has grown, not
4 only this great society, but multitude
l. of influences, that have filled thousands
Vi iOiNo Nitii BNt'ts w iiOtNti WIZ
n look over the field of three short year.
s will see saloon after saloon closed, OIL
Ks put to better uses, almost countless de
IL scending footsteps turned to the climb
s. ing paths of industry and happiness
er homes frightened, children clothed ant
lg educated, taxes paid, neighborly ac
&c quaintance cultivated and public sen
n timent rapidly becoming established
G. that it is disreputablc to drink. Max,
H. that sentiment universal and the victo
I'd ry will be more than half won. Who
ne can do this so well as women?
ID Does any one who will reflect for
to moment doubt that if all the womel
sd of the village-much more of the stat,
IN should unite in n solemn compac
he that they would do all in their powe
III to discourage drinking, and that the,
h would in no manner smile upon, ignor,
H. or tolerate vice which is not only
he personal, domestic and social danger
m but is the quintessence of seltishness
IL and in almost its meanest form-doc
IL any one doubt that they would SWEEP
to away the last vestige of ii in a singl'
III year? OF course we do not expect L
h see this fully done. but have we not +;
'n right to hope that there will be grad
ed ual accretion of the number of thos'
OF who have the courage TO thus asser
IN their self respect? We have all hear,
as of the civilizing and refining influence
OF of the presence of women in the from
es tier settlements and camps of miners
h shall il be said that in the very heart o
- civilization woman allows her power o
restraint and refinement TO become les
than there? Is it possible that th
more numerous we are the less goo,
III we can do? O, let every woman wh'
lg has lived long enough TO know that sh,
v is not mere toy, nor mere adorn
re ment, but sentient being, with right
p and obligations in the world, ask hcrsel
" if she has not too long neglected to eX