The Portland daily press., 1877-04-23
Mrs. Livermore at Congress Square
Church,

Mrs. Mary A Livermore spoke at Congress
| Square church last evening upon the subject of
| temperance, under the auspices of the
Womans Temperance Association. As might
be expected the church was crowded and many
were turned away even before the lecture
began. Mrs. Livermore has not appeared
before Portland audience for several years,
but she has changed but little in the meantime.
She is still foremost among the women speakers
of the day, and her voice needs only to be heard
to command close attention throughout her
remarks. The lecture last evening was impas-
stoned and logical. 1t began with the remark
that those who wished to enter the temperance
work could choose their own field of labor for
in the words of general there is hard fighting
all along the line. Reference was then made
to the speakers experience of late in Michigan,
where DR.. Reynolds is doing such great
work, and to Ohio where Francis Murphy,
shat illiterate Irishman is raising men from
thu cutters by the thousand" In speaking of
| these men she said it was beyond her compre-
! hension where the power lay, but it was
somewhere and it was doing much good She
then referred to Mr. Moody's labors in Boston.
where men who had not been sober for years
were beginning new lives by thousands.
But In this great field OF battle where IS
woman's place. She has no power politically
for the lowest drunkard 10 the gutter is
stronger politically than the highest lady in the
land. When five hundred women backed by
sixteen hundred more of the women of Chicago
waited upon the Mayor and simply asked him
to enforce the law on the statute book requiring
the liquor shops to be closed on the Sabbath,
the Mayor told them that he was elected and
supported by men who did not want the
saloons closed and he did not dare to give the
order for their closing. Her place must be
then just where many women are to be found
in this and many other cities, at coffee houses,
free restaurants and holly inns. Here she is a
| power in deed. Reference was here made to
| the starting of the womens crusade in the
! West short time ago. She did not think that
the crusade did half the good that the coffee
houses are doing now. She thought that the
temperance question was of too much moment
for either of the sex to try to manage it alone.
A man or woman either is but half Of a
whole, and man might as we'll try to transact
his business with one arm and leg tied as to
try to accomplish any great end without the
aid of women Together they can accomplish
much in this work, and it can never be success
fully met until men and women are united in
the conflict. Mrs. Livermore closed her lecture
with few remarks upon the future work of
women. She is not always to stand at the
! foot of the Niagara to snatch the half dead
| men from the foaming abyss and nurse them
to keep them from desire to again return to
this obstruction. She has fought this field
field need not be neglected there is a chance
for the women to improve public opinion and
prepare the minds of the rulers of the land for
the great reform movement which is the order
of the day.
At the close of the lecture contribution was
taken for the benefit of the Temperance
Associ alton.