The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-11-07
Temperance Work For Girls.

J. G. Holland wrote in Mrs. Hayes's al
bum these words, women only can make
wine-drinking Questionable, and heal the
nation of this curse"
What did DR.. Houand mean by women
, only?" Is it true that only women can
make wine-drinking Questionable and heal
the nation of this curse? You and need
. to know this first; because if only we
women can do this thing, why. it is an aw-
full responsibility upon us, each one of us.
! And il some one else can do it, we like all
else the job Mrs. Hayes became mis-
tress of the White House, and it was for
her to say what the social atmosphere
should be which surrounded her guests,
and how they should be entertained at her
house Well. she did an unheard Of
thing. She banished wine from all her en-
tertainments, with just one exception.
Secretary Evarts made fuss. He was
mortified. lie could not endure to have
Lord and Lady English, Count and Coun
tess French, Baron and Baroness German
come to the White House dinners and
have nothing fit for them to drink-not
drop of poison. 1t was too utterly Queer!
So Mrs. HAYES made one exception in ia.
vor of those great foreign highnesses, and
only for. once. Her conscience high
that one little cowardly compromise with
wrong. She could better endure to have
Secretary Evarts and the Smiths ashamed
of her than to be ashamed Of herself. So
she quietly and forever after prohibited
wine from her table. and cheerfully en-
dured the lifted eyebrows and shrugged
shoulders of the diplomats, British, French,
Russian, ALL and the little short-lived hiss
of fashionable" society until that hiss
turned to a cheer, and fashionable society
turned round, like the spaniel it is, and
trotted on behind its mistress. 1t be.
came questionable to serve wine and to
offer wine in fashionable society while
Mrs. Hayes was in the White House.
House every woman can do in her own
home if she will. If the girls who read
these words will each of them, altogether,
use their influence on the side of temper.
ance they can make: temperance fashion
able where they are. Will you do it?
General Grant did a manly thing in re.
fusing to drink wine everywhere and in all
society. 1t is only a strong man who can
keep his wine glass upside down-in this
case right side up, too-while all the grand
people around him are slipping champagne
and toasting each other in sparkling drinks.
No one can tell how "far this little candle
sheds it's light But no man can do for
fashion in society what woman can. 1t
is women only, as DR.. Holland said.
I wish some, strong, bright angel stood
before you just now while you read, girls,
to flash before you, as no words of mine
can, the power you possess to help or to
hinder the cause Of temperance; to make
you feel your responsibility, because you
are girls, in this matter; to shudder at its
weight, and to never cease trying to full
fiji it! Doubtless you have heard great
deal about the value of your smiles, but
do you know the value Of your frowns?
I wish I could make you feel the value Of
your frowns and the Importance Of know
ing just what to ofrown upon. What a
man must do by blow, a woman can. do
by frown. When the time comes sthat
the young man who now shares his TINS,
in your society and the saloon. who jokes
about temperance in your presence and
takes a glass socially now and then, is
made to feel that these things cannot be
if you are to be his companion at party,
ride or church; that good society cannot
tolerate these things in its members; in
short that this kind of a man is unfash-
,ionable and unpopular, then alcohol will
tremble on its throne, and the liquor
traffic will hide its cancerous face.-Rose
Elizabeth Cleveland, in Presbyterian Ban