Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-11-02
Temperance.
WHY THE w. G. It. u. SEEKS
THE BALLOT.


time nine years ago. when Miss
Willard was president of the Central
w. G. T. U. of Chicago, and was
holding daily Gospel meetings in
Lower Farwell Hall, her mind be-
came greatly disturbed by a con-
stantly recurring mental question to
which she could ge. no satisfactory
reply. Men were daily coming into
those meetings in various stages Of
INVESTIGATION. were overshadowed by
the Spirit, brought to sign the pledge
and led from the pledge to the cross.
And yet, untaught in the way of
faith. and weakened in moral force
by long courses of sin, they went out
on the saloon-lined streets and fell
again and again under the fire of
temptation. Watching with painful
solictude those repeated experiences,
she said to herself-''In the kingdom
of nature there is an antidote to ev-
cry poison, in the kingdom of grace
a compensation for every loss there
must be somewhere in the realm of
society force that may be set over
against the appetite of the drinker
h. Of tho co1nnn- lynonnr
What is it," Over and over
again this question was asked, but
no answer came. After several
weeks had passed, one Sunday morn
ing she went to her room to study
the Bible preparatory to a Gospel
meeting she was to conduct in the
afternoon. She laid her Bible open
on the bed and knelt down by its
side, asking God for some message
from His word to the hungry souls
she should meet that day. An an
swer came. but she could interpret it
at once. 1t was not the one she was
seeking, but a voice whispered to
her spirit just as clearly as ever her
mothers voice fell on her ear:
'Set OUer against the appetite Of
the drinker and the dUa1jce ofthe So
loon-keeper the annoying mother-love
of the home"
Out of that prayerful question and
it's answer came the famous Home
Protection petition of 1888, which,
denied us by two sessions of the leg
islature, is now stored away in the
rooms of the Historical Society at
Chicago labelled, "Not to be unrolled
till the prayer of the petitioners be
granted"
Then all we asked for was vote
by signature. We only pleaded that
before saloon should be licensed in
any community, the would-be saloon
keeper should secure the signatures
of a majority of the men and women
of the community, asking that the
saloon be licensed. We were sure
of the woman on such test as this.
A bill in the legislature embodying
this plan was voted down at two
consecutive sessions. Then, like the
women of persistence, ingenuity and
patience that we are, we set about
"climbing up some other way
And right here I was betrayed into
a little bit of philosophical reverie.
Sometimes cit is borne in upon me-
as the friendly Friends would say,
that away back in the counsels of
eternity it was ordained that women
should take up and carry on to its
successful issue, the temperance re-
form. And that all through the ages
God has been preparing us for it in
the quiet, uneventful and seemingly
unheroic lives we have led. For in
stance, how better could the grace of
persistence which is the keynote OF
our endeavor, have been secured
than the routine which began for our
own countrywoman that famous
Monday on Cape Cod when our fore
mothers waded out from the May
flower to the low-lying strip of LAND
and there inaugurated the first wash
day? Ever since, women have beer
washing on Monday, ironing OF
Tuesday, baking on Wednesday
cleaning on Thursday, sweeping OIL
Friday, baking again on Saturday,
and so fifty-two weeks every year
to lifetime. No wonder our legis
lators looked aghast as we appeared
on the scene each session, saying
scarcely under their breath, "What
those women again? Why, the.
never know when they are whipped.
And so too, for the ingenuity, wha
training could have been bette
adapted than the housewives careful
turning this way and that to brin
new garments out of old, the chang
ing back to front, upper side to low
er. inside TO outside, and so o
through the category that most VIC
men know so we'll, and which &C
counts for so much of the goo
appearance of households and il
mates.
Then too the endowment Of pc
tience-nay, the working of patlenc
which mothers know who have lai
all night in position of torture
catching sleep as they could, f(
fear of waking the fretful and wor
little sufferer at their breasts-wh
have wakened morning after mornin
as weary as when they lay down
rest, only to hush the turbulel
household into quietness in the ear
morniuU. still for the loved sufferer