Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-09-08
THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE.


lbs Frances =; Willard, President National wo
mans Christian Temperance Union.I
"Thrt, thousand maj jcrity in seventy
| five out OF ninety-nine counties OF Iowa
for an amendment to the Constitution
prohibiting the manufacture and sale o;
intoxicating liquors, including wine,
beer, and ale, as a lrnk.'
What an elastic sentence Duly ex.
pmndcd, it would reach high as the faith
uI saint, and deep as the depths of II
drunkard's despair What tears and
smiles, what argument and pathos, what
tender faith and honest hard work, what
mighty marvel of Gods Spirit in man s
heart, are all condensed into this briei
but pregnant telegram 1t was four.
years battle and called into service all
the ennobling elements of our grandest
Western State; for Iowa has n lower rate
of illiteracy and crime than any of her
sisters. The very word "Iowa" means
''clean, and was used by the aborgines
to distinguish themselves from the un.
kempt Indians of other tribes, even as
now there is poetic justice in the name
of the greatest Commonwealth that has
thus far outlawed the liquor traffic.
The Ua,ckcye State, it is, indeed, which
had the keen vision to see its ambusled
enemy, the courage to make a swift de.
scent, and the intrepid skill to vanquisli
him.
As our bright Anna Gordon, of Boston
said i'll her brief address at the Des
MONIES jubilee the night after the victory,
''Old Massachusetts, drinks the health OF
your brave young State in its most pop.
ular beverage-cold water, Offering as q
toast "And now abideth Maine, Kan
sas, Iowa. these three ; but the greatest
of these is Iowa r
/ The history of the movement which
eliminated the 9th of June, stretches
back to the Crusade. Let us here gather
up the fragments, the incidents floating
toward us on all sides !; for thus do we
often get the truest pulse-beat of u great
reform.
/ personal Liberty" was the watch-cry
Of the opposition, but the emptiness of
their arguments was apparent from the
TACT that while the brewers were willing
to have law prohibiting the sale OF
{ fiery drinks, the distillers saw no inius-
! tice in one that should outlaw the "frothy
slops' of their rivals
One hundred temperance speakers
were on the field, besides IN army of To-
cal workers, including most of the minis
ters, and goodly percentage of the law
yers, besides "honorable women not II
iew The saloon mustered but seven
speakers on the stump; four with the
title "Hou. and three (heaven save the
mark with that Of "Reverend Mrs.
Henrietta SHELTON was our chief speaker
to the Germans. She spent nine weeks
IN the canvass, giving seventy-eight lee
lures. Sometimes she had to ring the
bell for her meeting and light the lamps.
Once shsspoke from lumber pile to
three hundred Germans, whose employ
er was temperance man, and afterwards
heard this amusing comment from one
Of the "Antis" ~ declare, there is no
one SO much to be dreaded as that Mrs.
Shelton. She goes about worming her
self III among the people with her pious
trash, and this lumbermau who wouldn't
give his men ten minutes to hear our
speakers will let them have an hour and
II half to listen to this temperance vira-
go; and there they stood with open
mouths because they like to hear the
'sprechcn Sic Deutsch," ! wish she'd
blister her tongue"
'Iah," growled bcerv saloon keeper,
''and zey do say, znt wen We vote, dat
vOmans will stun on de l,Oie." And so
she working all day at the polls
with the German minister's wife beside
her.
Mrs. Skelton is the daughter of n for,
mer Professor in Darmstadt and after.
ward III Heidelberg University She
came to this country many years ago t.
study our language, and later married
! the superintendent OF Canadian rail
way, whose death left her to pursue m
] individual career. Her father was to-
tul abstinence man, and she says there ar,