The Newtown bee., 1889-03-15
FRIDAY, MARCH Is, 1889.
FRIENDS OF TEMPERANCE AND
 FRIENDS OF HUMANITY.

NA wy SSVAiPosieiOu uilu uuOjeu Dy Rev Dr Burton in his ''Yale Lectures, '' that
 "It is rather difficult and pretty impossible to impart to other people ideas which you are notyourself possessed of"
 Parallel with this thought was the suggestion of we'll known professor in Wesleyan University, who told class oi young men in the recitation room that.
 "In order to be successful in your preaching it will be necessary to have some knowledge of your subject"
 confess that, as l stand here before you and think of the cause that has call ed into existence an army of the noblest, purest, most self-sacrificing, humanity loving aud God-fearing women that the world ever saw; of the work they have accomplished, are now doing and, by the blessing of God, are destined to do, feel that my knowledge of this subject is too limited to do it justice. Yet, if there is anything l can do to aid those who are engaged in spreading the gospel of re- form and encourage noble women, who would environ their own homes with the highest forms of a Christian civilization and extend their influence throughout the land and the world, that all homes may receive that protection and moral sup port that shall forever bar from their sa- cred precincts the curse of intemperance and it's attendant evils, I am willing to do 1t. l not only feel q willingness to do something to further the cause of the W. C. T. U., but esteem 1t an honor to be allotted place of recognition among the workers and to feel that have part in this glorious movement, whose influence and power is encircling the globe.
 The W. c. Y. U. is no cunningly devis- cd fable. It's no visionary scheme of a few adventurers, but Is the offspring of a dire necessity; the result of long ages of cruel wrong and increasing evil. It was wrung. out of hearts and lives of the noblest, the fairest, the purest and best of the land. It is not the child of the period only, but the child of all periods yet to come, as long as the cry of the in- nocent is heard, or the moans of helpless womanhood are borne heavenward in earnest breathings to God for that help which is denied her here.
 For 6oO0 years, the race has been grooming under this awful burden of wrong and every movement that has been made toward meeting and staying the evil has been made to rescue men, either by legislation or moral suasion. But a legislation that does not legislate and q suasion that does not sway is as ''sound- ing brass or tinkling cymbal:" and though the law, both civil and ecelesias- tical, hurled it's anathemas against the evil, with the hope of elevating manhood and thereby restoring the sanctity of the Home, yet the fires of hell burned on, fed my merciless souls, whose heartless pas sion was gain and who would trample under foot the fairest gems of childhood and the purest sympathies and holiest love of motherhood, to satisfy an avarice as insatiate as the grave. To the 18th century is given, in the providence of God, by the instrumentality of Woman, the crowning excellency of His glory and He "hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" With all the agencies that are brought to bear upon this awful evil, that seeks to wrong and only to wrong society, consecrated womanhood is doing more to-day in accomplishing the over throw of the foe of man, putting safe guard about the youth of the nation and preserving the purity and sanctity of the home, than all others combined. You, who have never known the blighting, whitening, blasting influence of the curse of intemperance in your homes, can have but faint idea of the fiendish cruelty of the demon that takes possession of the husband and father or leads captive at his will the son or brother. He scoffs at the holiest petitions to God, casts aside the purest love and crushes out the most devoted lives in his demoniacal fury.
 Whatever value you, ,or the great world without, may set upon this work of the W. c. T. IT., let me say in the language of Mary T. Lathrop,
 ''The womanhood of this nation never laid such tribute at the feet of its manhood"
 If you want to find out what boy is worth, go and ask his mother. By the time she goes down into the jaws of death to give him birth, then gives him her days of love and nights of care and he stands before her, strong, clean and tall at 2l, she can tell you what he is worth from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet and, when the legalized dram shop takes hold of him and tears him down fiber by fiber and puts oaths on his lips that she used to kiss and crushes out his mothers hopes, it's no wonder she makes an outcry. If you want to know what home is worth, go and ask loving woman, who has kept herself pure as Gods lilies for her mar riage day, when, with great luster in her eyes, she puts herself over into the hands of one man for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, until Life's end And when the dram shop, with it's fear. ful curse, crosses the threshold of the home they built together, takes down hei strong tower of hope, stone by stone and degrades the father of her children, it's no wonder Woman makes an outcry. The beginning of this movement was the long smothered sob breaking into cry. It was midnight prayer coming abroad at monday.
 People say to women, "HGme is your kingdom That is true .snd none are more convinced of that truth than wo- men. They know it better than anyone else Bnt it is their kingdom that has been invaded. It is their kingdom that has been outraged. The world, aye, ,civi-