Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-11-26
TEMPERANCE WOMEN.
White Ribboa Leaders Gather at
St Louis.
Frances =. willard. the organization's
Famous President. Delivers an Inter
esting Address-Proceedings
of the Meeting.

fnlrd time III tie history OF the or
ganization the Women's Christian Tenn
perance union met in annual conven-
ton Friday morning. The delegates to
the number of nearly 500 assembled in
Schuyler Memorial house at eight
o'clock and attended devotional eNer-
cises led by Miss Elizabeth VI. Green
wood. of New York Shortly after
wards the audience adjourned TO the
music hall in the Exposition building.
which had been deliberately decorated
IN honor of the conference.
Tho Convention Opened.
When Miss Willard appeared on the
platform, the audience rendered the
Chautauqua salute. The proceedings
began with the reading Of the Crusade
Psalm, after which Mrs. Henrietta l.
Monroe, president of the W. c. I. Z. of
Ohio. delivered the opening prayer.
Miss Wizards Informal Address.
Miss Willard said that her annual adj
dress was partly prepared when the call
came TO work for the refugees in Mar
settles and since that time il had been
impossible for her to complete her
message, and she therefore gave a IA
miliar talk to the delegates. of which
the following is an outline:
She expressed the warnest annreciatfon
of the White Ribbon women OF St Louis
who. undeterred by the calamity Of the
cyclone, invited the convention and had
made generous and elaborate provision for
its entertainment. In 1854. only a few days
previous to the presidential election the
w. c. T. Z. met here and ventured on
the high seas Of political contention; they
had espoused the cause of the prohibition
party and called down curses on their de-
voted heads.
She spoke Of the heroines of the rank and
file who had borne and lahored and had
patience when The w. c T. L. passed
under the rod al a nations criticism"
we have marched far since then and
the alignments OF parties have changed.
The labor movement has taken on pro-
portions so vast that no one speaks lightly
of 1t any more. The people are forging
their way to the front, misguided often.
making pitiful paths in the wilderness. fol-
lowing false lights and relegating the
fight for clear brain to the Spartan band
of prohibitionists, when II labor would win
Ii must make the temperance reform the
ark of God to be borne in the very van of
its swift gathering army.
when we were in st. Louis u years ago
we declared for the only party that was
pledged to prohibition and the home pro-
lection ballot but as there are now two
parties so pledged, we cannot in con-
science declare for either, but we are,
hope, the earnest friends of both, and shall
in this convention make it plain that we
will lend our influence to any party that
incorporates our principles into Its plat
form. l do not mean that we shall indorse
all the planks In that platform, but only
those that embody our principles"
She gave notice that the National w. G.
T. u. would call upon all temperance and
philanthropic societies throughout the
world to set apart March 20. the birthday
of Gen. Neal Dow. as prohibition day"
The convention then took q recess I'm
til twop. M.
The Afternoon Session.
The reports of Treasurer Helen NJ.
Barker. of Illinois, and Corresponding
Secretary Mrs. Katherine l.. Stevenson.
Of Massachusetts, were presented and
adopted.
Then followed a report from each Of
the department superintendent These
reports occupied nearly the entire
afternoon session.
a Plea for Armenia.
ST Louis. Nov 16.-The pulpits of 66
churches in this city were occupied
Yesterday by delegates to the w. G. r.
II convention in the afternoon mass
meeting was held TO consider the Ar
menian massacres, and message was
sent to President Cleveland, urging
him TO cooperate in ending the reign
of boodshed Miss Willard in her adj
dress said:
IAN ancient nation Is being slowly slaugh.
tered at the foot of Mount Ararat Fifty
thousand victims stretched out under God 5
sky H. the slow circle of year: women.
pure devout and comely, suffering two
deaths-a living and a dying death; little
children poised on the bayonets of Mos
lem soldiers villages burned. and starva I
ton the common lot. On the other hand.
! Christian Europe, with 100000 soldiers,
| who take their rations and their sacra =
| ment regularly: statesmen who kneel on
| velvet cushions in beautiful cathedrals a nd
/ pray We beseech Thee to hear us. God
1 cur Lord diplomats who can shape the
! whisper of a throne and shade the mean
1 ing of an ultimatum: but neither states
man. diplomat nor soldier has wit, wis
! dom nor will TO save single life shelter
/ a single tortured babe or supply a single
/ loaf Of bread to the starving Christians on
! the Armenian hillsides.
Vested interests are against it, the
/ balance of power does not permit it, The
/ will Of the sultan is the only will in the
empire Of Turkey. and all the Wills of all
the Christian nations cannot move it one
i hair The Turk is a savage. while the
statesmen are over-civilized: he is a ty-
/ rant while they are craven towards
I Meanwhile a star moves toward the east
| it caught its light from the star of Bethle-
hem. one Clara Barton, a woman we'll
nigh 70 years Of age. took her life Ia her
! hands and moved forward to the rescue.
/ She went TO bind up wounds, 10 give out
bread. 70 light the fires on the blackeued
/ hearthstones, to put hope into broken
hearts. She Is a greater power to-day
I for God and brotherhood than all the
I statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers The
worlds eyes followed her with love they
could not see her plainly for tears. Did
I our Heavenly Father wish 70 put before
humanity an object lesson on the broadest
scale Of the futility Of force and the om-
1 Impotence Of loye2"