The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1898-05-07
A WORTHY TRIBUTE
Tc THE GREAT TEMPERANCE
LEADER, MISS WILLARD,
Written and Read by rIrs. j. p. Drake,
at the Late rlemoriaI Service
Held In This City.

The following tribute to the great
temperance leader, Miss +, E.
Willard, was written and read by
Mrs. j. p. Drake at the late mem
oral service in the Methodist
church, and furnished for publica-
/ ton by request:
! The wonderful life of this wo-
Ruan of the centuries was lived
\ cut on this planet in less than fif-
/ ty-nine years, and yet it was so
many-sided in its aims and SO
marvellous in its achievements
that those years might count as
decades. AS the panorama of
her brilliant and.checkered career
passes before our mental vision we
scarcely know which pictures to
arrest and hold up to your rever-
ent and admlring gaze.
First let Us look upon the child,
since the woman is but the child
grown up, and the freshness and
quaint simplicity of childhood like
the down upon the peach or the
calyX on the rose clung to our
Frances through all the storm and
stress of later years.
| ] think it was Oliver Wendall
Holmes who said that the train
ing of a child should begin with
its great grand parents. In this
truest sense she was we'll born,
descended for generations back
from the old Puritan stock and
Revolutionary heroes Of New En-
| gland, ,.whose rock-ribbed intergri-
lty and strong convictions were
woven into the warp of her being.
What heritage had bestowed was
stimulated and wisely directed by
parents of great force of charac-
ter, unusual intellectual endow-
ment and deep religious faith.
The companionship of a cherish
ed brother and sister who preced-
ed her many years to the Better
Land made her childhood happy
and blest. The freedom and sim
plicity of n country life wrought
an cleyating influence on her char
acter. She put her ear down
close to nature, listened and
heard" the music of it's many
voices while her eye was ever open
to see its beautiful unfoIdings.
From mothers lips she learned
tenderness for every swect-faced
flower and piping bird" and was
"madc to love the Heart that is at
natures heart" Earth with its
thousand voices praises God as
always a truth upspringing IKE a
prayer from her soul.
Thomson's immortal lines often
voiced the feelings of her heart:
These as they change Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God; the rolling year
Is fun OF Thee; forth in the blessing Spring
Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
But we may not lingor about
the rose-embowered farmhouse,
nor longer roam the broad prairieS
where the green of earth blends at
the horizon with the blue of heav-
en-; but follow the young girl into
college halls and see her in the
early bloom of maidenhood, bear
ing off the honors of her Alma
Mater, admired alike by teacher
Tand classmate. Then we watch
her rapidly achieving reputation
in the honorable and exalted but
oft times difficult and trying call
ing of the teacher; resting from
her high employ for two golden
years of travel in Europe, Egypt,
and the Holy Land. From all
these varied climes and scenes she
brought back large mental and
spiritual enrichment. Scarcely
was cher foot once more upon its
native heath" after her first ex-
cursion into the wide, wide world.
which yet was too cramped for her
soaring spirit, when she was called
to be dean of her own Alma Ma
ter, now become an annex to the
great North-Wester University
and known as the Woman's Col
lege of Evanston. This ositior
was the greatest within the Gift
of her church and she dis
charged its high rcsponsibillt,
with distinguished success. But
grave difference of opinion aros,
between the president of the Uni
versity and the dean of the CoIleg,
as to the relation of the College t,
the University, and although
"elected to life position as pro
fessor of those branches she like,
best and knew most about" anc
with an adequate income assured
she determined to resign. Thi
result met with strenuous opposi
tion from relatives and friend
and cost her the greatest sacrific
, of her life; but duty seemed clear
. and "none of these things move,
her" from its path. She MouI
not waste her life in friction whe
! it might be turned into momer
tum. When she looked back upo
/ this tear-stained page of her hi:
tory in the light Of later years, ST
could read its hidden meaning an
t say,
"biy bark IS waited to the shore
y BY breath divine,
/. And on the helm there rest Hand
Other than mine"
God had greater things in stoI
! for her and for the world throuo
1 her than could be achieved cvC
q ~ thea scnooiroOm, and after Ii
: teen years apprenticeship With