Omaha daily bee., 1889-11-07
A woMANs' WAR.
Frances E. willard ct al Sued-W. @.
T.. u. Disruption Threatened.

FENuCcS ". NtttbTu ct nt Sucu-N W, ~.
I. U. Disruption Threatened.
CHICAGO, Nov. 6-[Special Telegram to
The BEE. That the coming session of tho
national w, G. L. u IN this city will be a
lively one there is no longer reason to doubt.
The dissensons among the well known
leaders have long been tho subject of regret,
but not untiluow have they reached the di-
meusions of a probable disruption.
AS q prelude to the national convention
which opens on the Sth DIR. Mary Weeks
Burnett to-day brought suit for $50, 900 dam
ages in the circuit court of the county against
Frances f., Willard, president OF tho Nation
al Womcn's Christian Temperance union,
Caroline Il. Buell., and Esther Pugh for cir
culating false and defamatory statements
concerning the management of the National
Womans Temperance hospital on Cottage
Grove avenue. This denouement was pre-
pared with most excellent care and the dis
senteesn have enlisted In their behalf the
services of n Chicago press bureau which
has undertaken the task of airing their
grievances to the sympathetic world. This
bureau, which is styled the central
literary bureau of Chicago" In
letter signed by Nj. X.
Pearce, the manager, made month ago the
following tempting offer to many OF the lead
ing papers eff the west:
1--WE have secured an article which gives
in a racy, good natured way an inside view
of the rising revolt within the national
Women's Christian Temperance union
against certain arbitraryland despotic acts OF
the leaders of that society. The writer of
the article is in a position to gather informa-
tion not easily obtained by an outsider. We
are informed that suit at law Will be begun
against Miss Frances e. Willard and other
officers of the Women's Christian Temper
ance sunon by some of the most highly re-
spected women IN the organization, and as
one article gives among other things, the
facts upon which the suit will be based
we will send out just in time to meet the pop
ular interest which the suit will excite.
Among the other matters treated OF are
the strange methods used lately to secur o
from the rank and file more hearty endorse
meut of the prohibition party"
AS tho proffered expose was to contain
1900 words and the remuneration requested
was merely nominal, there are many
unkind enough to suggest that Mrs Weeks
Burnett, the author of the sensational dam
age suit of to-day. is likewise the author of
this sensational attack on the Women's
Christian Temperance MON leaders, which
will tomorrow appear simultaneously In
half dozen guileless journals of tho west.
In an interview tonight Mrs. Burnett
claimed to have been wrongfully ousted
from the management of the hospital by q
conspiracy of Miss Willard and the latter's
lieutenants.
Miss Willard, when seen, said to the
reporter: "Recently our organization had
some trouble with Mrs j. Ellen Foster, and
Mrs. Burnett with others was led to believe
that and my friends determined to monop-
olize everything With this idea in her head
she had the misfortune to have a sister who
is a lawyer and we draw the inference that
the legal sister has got the medical sister to
q y,