Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-08-03
w. C. T. U. COLUMN.
A PRESBYTERIAN ESTIMATE OF THE
w. C. t. U.


A pREsBYTERIAN's ESTIMATE OF THE
w. c. T. U.
REV. GEORGE P. HAYS, D. D..
Extract from Fourth of July address at Lake
Bluff.
No one force has done so much for
building up pure public sentiment,
which every body agrees is essential,
as the Woman'S Christian Temper
aLce Union Some ofmy solemn ola
Presbyteriaus friends are profoundly
distressed for fear these women Will
get "out of their sphere" and d"
something desperate. Until they ae-
tually do something desperate | have
refused to 90 into commissions and
stav awake at night. So far l have
not been profoundly shocked by what
they have done. They are shocked
TO hear q woman pray in meeting. i
have been 80 often shocked TO bear
men swear, that | rather enjoy being
shocked by hearing woman pray. !
advise political parties, and especial
ly our enemies, carefully to investi-
gate what sost of a human being
woman is.
Ia the first place woman never
knows when she is whipped her
husband may come home and mal-
treat her, but she goes on with her
work mending his clothes and darn
ing his stockings precisely as before.
SO al election may come, and every.
body else may think that it Is hnal
and everlasting defeat to everything
this Woman's Christian Temperance
Union has sought for, but without
waiting to get rested you viii hnd
them holding meeting the next
week locking after tsose same voters,
mcnding the holes and Garning the
worn place politically just as before.
Moreover, woman never knows
when she is tired. Her husband will
come and 20 to bed and go sorndly
to sleep, bat she will sit up, WITH &C.
casional maps, and nurse tie sick
baby, keep away from it the mos
quiioes, and be up the next morning
with the breakfast ell smoking hot
when her husband is ready to come
down stairs.
So these political parties, after an
election is over, will quietly take
rest and sound sleep, and leave the
devil 10 browbeat cfiicers and hood
wink Judges by fine criticisms on the
phraseology okhws, and evil runs IN
checked.
But these Women's Christian Tenn
perance Unions are at work through
that night of other peoples indiiter-
cnce, driving the mosquitoes (blg
devils and little imps) away from all
that is geod, aud before the next eiec-
tion comes round they will have the
whole dish OF prohibition resolutions
smoking hot and ready for the next
political convf 1'ion Men want some
variety in the, employment, bat
woman will go oyer the same duties
every dsy of her life, get the break
fast, wash the dishes, make the beds,
get the dinner, shop awhile or sew
some, get the supper, wash the dishes,
and put the family to bed, 1t is ex
actly so in politics. She will keep on
doing precisely the same thing, speak
ing the same speeches, singing the
same songs. pleading the same plea
before Judges, legislatures, governors,
religious assemblies. political conven-
tions, candidates in Office and candi-
dates out Of Office, with absolutely un-
tagging enthusiasm and zeal. She
never hesitates TO undert axe to do
everything. She organized the Wo
mans Christian Temperance Union,
and not having enough temperance
work to keep her busy, she has added
on some allied departments-as he
redity, health, day nurseries, scientific
instruction, temperance instruction in
schools of higher education, kinder
garten work, industrial training, Sun
day-school work, work in prisons,
among railroad employees, among sol
diers and sailors, among lumbermen,
among miners, among Mormon wom-
en-, with departments on social purity
Sabbath Observance, unfermented
wine at the Lords table, parlor meet
ings, training schools, the flower mis-
sion, state and county fairs, legisla-
tion, the franchise, associated chart
ties, the Bible in the public schools,
on narcotics, on labor, or impure 1T
erature, on the press, on education .of
high caste Hindu women, and this
after dividing up their own work into
sections, such as the Southern States.
forcign-speaking populations, the col
orcd people, special work in cities,
juvenile work. young women's work,
and finally, evaagelistic work, which
we Understand TO include everything
not otherwise provided for.
II any organization OF men had
undertaken any such variety and ex-
tent of overwhelming work. You
would be absolutely certain that none
OF it would be well done. The spec
tacle on which thoughtful people are
now looking with unlimited amaze
ment is, that this Woman'5 Christian
Temperance Union has undertaken
all this work, and is absolutely doing
it, and, if measured by results, doing
it wonderfully well. Surely for them
may ask this much (and nobody
could ask less), il you arc not willing
to help them, get cut Of the road, and
do not make a stumbling block in
their way. They are making public
sentiment, and making an aggressive
public sentiment, which, you may be
perfectly sure, will ere long crystal
lize into legislation, and concentrate
itself into constitutional amendments,
and be enforced by officers nominated
and elected because by conviction.
and party necessity, they want to see
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