The evening times., 1895-09-27
HER LIES WORK WELL DOIE
Eliza irlnbls n.npsal. de Founder d
the Y. c. III
Sketch OF the Nob.e Woman Who
Originated the SooIety Whose
Influence ls Everywhere.

The Woman's Christian Temperance
Union has attained Its ma jority, and short
| sketch of the woman to whom 1t owes its
origin may be OF more than ordinary in
| terest
| To the hundreds of thousands Of women
who make up the rank and file of the w
c. T. U. the name of Eliza TrinbIe Thomp-
son is household word, and her beautiful
old face In its frame Of soft, white hair
is familiar to the many who have attended
the national meetings Of the society through
the last two years.
But the writer knew her in the gone by
years, when the curls that framed the gentle,
lovely face were brown and the eyes that
now are dimmed by age were sparkling
and the step now feeble and slow was light
and quick as that of the handsome sons and
daughters growing up around her.
Those were the days when God was pre-
pairing Eliza Thompson for the heroic step
she was to take in after life. Her soul was
in His crucib,e, and the fires Of one heavy
affliction after another beat their white
heat upon her.
dainty In dress. speech and ways, and yet
che was even then leader. She was mod
est TO diffiCance, yet her earnestness car
ried her beyond herself and always Were
her friends astonisbed that Liza could
do such things.
A Methodist. she was orthodox in all
things. Her vitality was something won
derful, and that her frail body bore all its
has
that her mind seemed to expand and richen
under sorrows that would have broken a
lees staunch heart.
Mrs. Thompson has written sketch of
her life. which family depicts the strug-
giles of her early womanhood and the griefs
of her later years. but OF the agonies that
led up to that winter night, when she gath
cred little band of enthusiastic women
about her in the quiet Ohio village of Hills
boro, OF the almost more than mortal forti-
tudc with which she smiled and patiently
bore her heavy cross, she gives no sign.
Her life has been a sadly tragic one in
many respects, but through it all her
brave. trusting soul hGs never wayered inits
loyalty to its God nor her faith grown
dim. When she saw her daughter, just
budding into a beautiful, gracious woman
hood. carried out from the stately home
and laid 10 rest in the quiet city of the dead
her heart was well nigh broke, but her
spirit never quaiied.
When her first-born entered the ministry
of the Methodist Church. how humbiy proud
she was,
How many and many a time have l
seen her in her pew In the '.amcn corner"
her sweet. mild face turned upward to the
pulpit. where her boy stood and preached
the Word.
And when the day closed in that had
been his last on earth, and a fresh-made
grave lay beside that other, greeDed by
years. she bowed her whitening head and
took up anew the burden of life. And liv-
ing sorrows mingled with the dead, yet OF
each she made a benediction; out of each
she came forth gentler, more charitable,
more forgiving.
No desire for notoriety ever made Eliza
Jane Thompson. the Mother of the Cru
SADIE" but, like Joan of Arc. she saw
where duty led. and she would have fol-
lowed the path, had IL been to the stake.
Now, in the evening OF her life. she
calmly awaits the summons. For her there
is no Valley of the Shadow. but 10 her
simple childlike faith New Jerusalem,
where her children are and where she will,
in the fuliness of time, gather all of her
loved ones about her.
A woman of many accomplishments, the
daughter of Ohio's foremost statesman
born to luxury and reared in affiuence,
Possessed of a beauty and intellect that
made her b,.le in her girlhood she was
then what she is today, q plain, low
spoken, modest Methodist.
HAWTHORNE