West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1883-01-24
"We Girls.
BY LYDIA .sTRAMN.
(asctrdctS from Paper read at Young
Ladies Meeting, Lake Bluff

Ladies Meeting, Lake Bluff
ghe American girl, as rule, be-
lieIes in Temperance with her
whole heart. Pledged or unpledged,
she is not nearly so prone as her
bra.her to "look upon the wine
when it is red, when it moveth it.
SEX Alright" The reason is appar-
emit. Education, home, society,
threw around her restraints which
they do not throw around him.
A woman dares not became a
drunkard, for well she knows that,
if God can forgive her, society will
not Over the terrible abyss of her
fall, Ran will throw no bridge of
pardon.
Now, average American girls,
not those born to the purple, nor
vet those surrounded by terrible
temptations and dragged down by
the irresistible force of circum-
stances over which they have no
control, but the many who consti-
tute our great middle-class; girls
who think over the great questions
of the day, who read intelligently
and to purpose, who write and use
good English, who fashion their
own dainty apparel, and if neces
sity calls for it, can prepare good
dlnner-these girls who do not
touch, taste or handle the wine cup
think that because they believe ia
temperance for themselves and for
their fathers, brothers, and possibly
somebody else, their duty is done
They look out from their safe, hap
ply sheltered home, and then look
back to find in them and in the
rich fullness of the opening future
their work. They want their moth
ers and older friends to aid in the
work, and they will help them in
a silent, passive way. They love
their land, but it is not a love "far
brought from out the stored land"
They want the right to triumph,
but they shrink from the sharp an
tagonism which conflict of opini-
on always calls forth. So it is the
exception and not the rule, when
they organize into societies; and
it is equally the exception and not
the rule when such societies, if or
ganized, live. l am aware that we
have a number Of lively working
girls unions in this State, and | am
glad:to say one in my own city. Yet
/ believe that the officers of this
association will tell you that it is
difficult to start society composed
of girls, and equally difficult to
make it live.
Yet the girls are not asleep on
this question. They are thinking,
and by and by they will move.
They are thinking, too, in quart
ers where we never suspected they
had any thoughts on this particu-
lar sabject. A year ago last ChIist-
mas | sat III my own class in a
German Methodist Sunday School,
and listened to temperance reel
tation from the lips of a young Ger
man lady, who was the daughter
of a saloon-keeper, was also grad
uate of our high school, and is now
teacher in our public schools.
That young lady remembered the
loyalty due to a kind father, and
would doubtless have been panied
by any harsh allusion to his bust
ness; but | verify believe that in
the future when she shall take her
place as mistress of her own home,
she will see that temperance rules
at it's alter fires. | am acquainted
with another young lady whose
father, now dead, was a lead
ing saloonkeeper in Ottawa. That
girl is as firm temperance wom-
en- as I am, and her influence over
her pupils in the school-room is all
on the right side. I have known
still other fair young ladies, lead
ers in their respective sets, educat-
ed, accomplished, influential, who
from homes where wine stood on
their own sideboards, and viands
were favored with brandy by a |
mothers hand, have bravely taken
the pledge and bravely stood by it.
Dear friends, the girls are NOV
ing in their own impulsive girlish