Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-11-26


lean Volunteers; Mrs. Gwyneth Vaughan
of Wales: Miss Rebecca Kirkorian, OF
Armenia, and Rev. II. ID. Greene, secre-
tary of the Armenian relief committee,
New York. Three sessions n day fOr
| FIVE days will be held during the con-
yention.
Exercises were begun at 8 o'clock, a
prayer meeting being held in Schuyler
Memorial Home. Music Hall, in which
the convention met, was appropriately
decorated with the cOlors of the order,
white. Festoons of these cOlors hung
from the balcony, interspersed with the
stars and stripes. Over the immense
stage, between two immense United
States flags, hung British flag, above
which was a large sign with the word
"Welcome" upon it. Below these was
huge banner bearing the words 'The
Star of Hope of the Temperance Re
form Stands Over the Schoolhouse."
1t was considerably after 8 O'Clock
when Miss Frances +. Willard, National
President. called the gathering to order
Previous to this all the women identified
with the "original crusade" were called
to the platform. As Miss Willard step
ped TO the front she was received with q
salute of waving hankerchiefs. The ex-
ercises began with the reading, respons-
lively. of the crusade psalm, the one hun
dred and forty-sixth.
The report of the executive committee
was in effect a report OF what had been
done at the meeting of the committee the
day before and related to the work of the
convention and the national union. ID
a., ln h;rtl
day of General Neal Dow, a prohibition
| rally day.
Miss Willard then made an address.
She said her annual address was partly
prepared when the call came to work foI
the Armenian refugees in Marseilles. and
since that time it has been impossible
for her to complete her message. She
therefore gave Il familiar talk TO the dele
gates.
The speaker said that prohibition in pol
itics has been. Is now and is TO be the
embodied protest of the home against
the saloon. When the white ribbon wom-
en- planted their faith TO the movement
it had pollcd only 10000 votes. In 1884
the number rose to 10000, and had
gone on slowly increasing until 30, 600
had been gathered, but owing to the
great controversy concerning the free
coinage of silver this party, like every
other, had split in twain in the memor-
able year Of 1896 and the vote had fallen
off to about 100000 out of Il, ,0O0, 900 bal
lots.
Miss Willard touched on the work done
for temperance in the several States and
spoke at length Of the Armepians and
on the excellent work done by Mrs. Ste
vens. of Maine, Mr.. Fessenden and Miss
Blackwell, of massachusetts, in finding
homes for the refugees sent over by her
self and Lady Henry Somerset. She
praised the Armenian relief committee
and the Salvation Army for the admir-
able work done by them. so that nearly
400 friendless men had found friends and
occupation. She stated that the Worlds
Women's Christian Temperance Union
intended to take up the work for the Ar
menians as an important part of it's en-
dcavor; they would probably found a col
ony in Cyprus for the women and chill
dren.
A letter from Lady Somerset. of En-
gland, was read. The reading of the va
rious reports was listened to with mark
ed attention. Helen NJ. Baker, of ILL.,
nois. gave the total receipts for the year
AS S21.I0S; expenditures, $24,115; bal
nnce on hand, S3,502. The report of the
corresponding secretary. Mrs. Catherine
Stevenson, of Massachusetts, showed
that during the year 1,175 new unions
had been organized, the gain i'm member
ship being 15.SSS. The gain, however,
had been offset by corresponding loss. A
gain in membership had been made in
New Jersey. Maryland, Michigan. Mas
sachusetts. Kentucky. Virginia. Louisi-
ana. Colorado, Missis sippi. Iowa, Mis-
souri,. Tennessee, New Hampshire. Tex
as, District Of Columbia. South Dakota,
North Dakota. Eastern Washington,
Connecticut. Georgia No. ., Florida,
Utah, Arkansas, Wyoming, Indian Ter
ritory, Alabama, Oregon. Maine and
Rhode Island--thc order of the States in
dicnting the relative gain. There were
losses in Illinois. Kansas, Nebraska,
Pennsylvania. Ohio, Wisconsin. South
crn California. Minnesota. New York,
California. Vermont. Georgia, West Vir-
ginia, Idaho. New Mexico. Nevada. Okla
homa, Arizona, Indiana. Western Wash
ington, Delaware. Montana, North Caro-
lima and South Carolina.