The Leon reporter., 1900-05-31
Frances Willard" |"
OLIVE ROBERTS.

manity and of right as has Frances
Willard. She sought to destroy the
most bitter enemy of our country-Ihe
Liquor Traffic, and entered into SER
vice for "GOd, and Home. and Native
Land" She was honored in this cOun-
try as suppose no other reformer has
ever been.
All We'd to do her reverence, and
wherever she went, her clear, incisive
thought, the pathos and power of her
words, and perhaps most of all the
sweet, gentle woman won the heart as
we'll as intellect of all who met to greet
her words.
There was no trait in Miss Willard g
character that was more prominent
than her generous power of help.
Taking her student life all in all, we
find her brave and modest, merry and
wise, winsome and gentle, generous
and good, gracious in her dignity,
dainty in attire, superb in her friend
illness and remarkable in scholarship.
Her school days, she has told us, were
q blessed time full of happiness and
aspiration, having in them the charm
of success and the witchery of friend
ship, deepening in her heart the love
of humanity and exalting her spirit to
the worship of God. She was essential
ly harmonizer, loving peace with a
love SO deep that she would make any
concession, except one of principle, to
maintain it.
Her power to organize was pre-emi-
nent, for the organizer, the construc-
Zionist must always be man or woman
of peace.
Yet her love of peace was never cow
ardly inertia. She could wage most
vigorous warfare, and prove herself a
sternly uncompromising foe whenever
war seemed necessary. With nature
strong, yet gentle, uncompromising yet
pliable, we understand why she effect
ed the largest organization of women
the world has ever known.
She often said 'sAlone we can do
little, separated we are the units of
weakness; but aggregated we become
batteries OF power. Agitate, educate,
organize these are the deathless
watch words of success" M
Let us not be Disconnected, but
stand bravely by that blessed trinity OF
movements, Prohibition, WOman's g
Libarati0n and LAbor's Uplift. = Every
thing IA not ~ the ~ temperance Reform
hl1t tho erapce Refprm should hA
In eyeryth1t :. s.
Hers was the genius which n6t UnfJ1
sees new light and invents new
methods, hut which recognizes all that
Is true in the old light and uses the old
methods in such a way as to make them
seem perennially new.
AS presiding officer she was with
put peer and her whole life bore
never failing testimony that no word of
faith in God, or love toward man was
alien to her sympathy. 1t would be
to say how many lives
which have touched hers, have been
inspired to nobler purposes; for in
deed the circumference of her friendly
has included the human race.
The secret of her success has perhaps
lain in this-that she set herself to-
ward her aim and nothing would tempt
her from that goal.
Having organized work for woman
through women, her brain conceived
the new thought, her heart lending it
her will executing the
vast conception.
For years she was misunderstood;
was often cruelty criticised, despised
and scorned, but at last with unlimited
faith, and hope making the future rad
liant, she fulfilled her career. Though
she has passed from life, she yet lives
in thousands of lives, lives in the
thoughts, the affections and the aspir-
ations of many.