Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-03-23
w. c. T. U.
Francis Wizards Heavenly Birthday An
niyersary.

Francis Wizards Heavenly Birthday An.
Diyersary.
February 18th was the anniversary
of Frances e. Wizards heavenly
birthday. A fine program was arrang.
ed by the local w. C. T. U. and the
meeting was held at the home of Mrs
j. p. Cheever. The following is a
portion Of the program, published by
request of the members:
Just one year ago the White Ribbon
household was personally bereaved
and the whole Christian world made
to sorrow at the death Of the widest
known and most dearly beloved woman
the world has ever seen. On February
II, 1898; the immortal Frances Eliza,
beth Willard was translated to that
final rest, promised In the word OF
God to his people. Some one said,
There was very little of Frances
Willard that could die" and so it
seems when after the pure, white hui
manity-loving soul had taken its flight
the part we call mortal was, accord
ing to her own request, in most Or
derly and beautiful way returned to
the sources from whence each alone
came. Yes, even the lovely temple
which held our inimitable leader,
went up by the bright path into i'm
mortality. How fitting it all seems
now as we see it more from her own
broad angle Of vision. In spite of the
united prayers of saints, in spite of
the strong tie of interviewer heart
strings of the White Ribbon host,
amid the lamentations Of Christian
dom, our sainted one escaped beyond
our sight-out from the cares and tolls
OF life inte the heavenly city, the New
Jerusalem, where she may enjoy the
heaven she gave her life to bring to
earth.
For nearly 25 years she labored thro'
the Womans' Christian Temper
ance Union to bring her ideal Of light
and liberty into this world where she
saw so much Of misery, because of ig-
norance and sin. She was not, how
ever, one who saw only the darkness
and consequent woe. Few have had
the keen capability to penetrate both
the joys and the sorrows. She made
friends with all classes. She could
stoop to sympathize with the lowest
and in all that goes to make up true
greatness cope with the highest.
Who Can tell at what period or by
what event in her life The divine ray
Of Gods own glory entered into the
soul of this wonderful woman and
sent every faculty and emotion out
into full development? May it not
have been when when with her sainted
mother she read so eagerly the news
of the crusade or whiskey war, "whose
sacred fire flowed out and on to every
hamlet town and village of the west"
and which was said took the strongest
hold on her Of anything she had ever
heard or thought OF up to that time.
In the autumn Of 1874, when the w.
G. T. u, which was the outgrowth or
"more sober thought"-as Miss Will
lard puts it--of the crusade, was Or
ganizsd she became its secretary and
a year later official head. From that
date till the day when "God took her"
she has been the ruling spirit of the
great organization which has been and
still continues to be felt throughout
the Christianized world. In her last
book--''Do Everything"-Miss Will
lard says, in speaking of the modern
temperance movement, "The differ
ence between it and the earlier plans
is like the difference between
straight line and circle" John b.
Cough said, "We'll work for total abb