Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-01-10
W. c. T. U.

| Is the case, we beg fer 1t the sym
patty of those devout souls who
would love to attend the prayer
meetings, bat the dreadful weather
don't you know"
December 23 we celebrate as the
day OF our beginnings. On that
day twenty-nine ysars ago the first
crusading band went forth from
the old Presbyterian church In
Hillsboro, Ohio. to pray and to
plead with saloonkeepers, and thus
to iuaugurate a movement which,
with home protection as Its basis
idea, was to grow and expand into
"a do every thing and 60 every
where organized warfare against
the rum power
THE story of "Mother" Thomp-
sons call to leadership, In which
her son, her daughter, and the
I46th P aim figure so conspuicous.
ly, Is familiar 10 Us all We thank
God that she and her Crusade
mothers are still among US to see
with eyes of the fish the marvel
Gus things He has wrought
through their fatthtulness, their
ODE dienoe to His Voice.
The Crusade marked the close OF
The old diSpensatlon to temperance
fort and prepared the way f'r a
new order OF things L signal d
the beginning OF actual comba' on
the home against the qlCr Jafh
and It's attendant evils, and tine
women OF Hill Shore on thai
December morning Fl ed the Shot
heard round the world" Pfeviou,
to this time the a Il ude of temper
ance people towards the saloon pow
er had been for the most part
merely defensive. There had been
no organized aggressive effort
to withstand It's entertainments
The drink traffic was popularity
regarded as i-remed able evil only
to be met and dea with on
moral suasion grounds. Women
endured 1t bs cause It did not occur
to them that It could be cured
But step by step the great Leader
had been preparing them for the
mighty work which He had for
them 10 do. The hour had come
for Christian motherhood to go
forth as the divine instrument In
turning the "way Of the wicked
upside down." All one winter the
Crusade fire burned fierce and high,
affecting more or less every state
In the Union, even crossing the
Atlantic and carrying warmth
and inspiration to the wo-
men of EogIand and Scotland,
When its intensity is abatcd, 1t was
not to leave scattered heaps OF
whitened ashes to mark Its path
way, but the leaping, IRE gular II anne
substituted into a steady glow
which dummies the world today
aud which as time COS on becomes
more brilliant, more Effective. The
crusade spirit did not die or even
sleep; 1t TOOK On new and higher
| form.
Men must work and women
must weep" was the ancient de
cree, but the "whirlwind of the
Lord" changed all thai. That great
eternal push which Is the cause OF
all growth, worked through the sa
loon, as 1t often words through
other evils, to awaken Christian
women to greater knowledge OF
their own responsibilities and pow
ers, aud forced them to step from
the weeping to the working stage
The same ceaseleSs energy directed
their forts through the saloon to
the power behind the saloon, and
today instead of weeping and wait.
Ing while men are working women
are still persistently crusading.
They do no, these days, march
and sing In he street or kneel upon
the fl oor of the saloon, but an or
ganized army, they are praying and
working and fighting in forty diff
ferent departments for the protec.
ton of their homes. even to the
storming Of the strougholds OF gov,
eminent itself. And this work Is
a1l-"of God-Ye cannot overthrow
it."-Union Signal.
Avariee or Appetite.
At recent Temperance meeting
this subject wss discussed: Re
solved, That avarice rather than
appetite Is the strongest bulwark OF
the drink evil" The rum sellers
contend that their business Is legit.