The Republican journal., 1912-12-12
Frances E. Willard.
The Biography Of Maker for Riahteous.

Inc geography OF Maker for Righteous
The Life OF Frances E. Willard, Bv Ann.
Adams Gordon. Evanston, ILL.,; National WON
ans Christian Temperance Union.
The hastily written biography of Miss
Willard issued Immediately after her
death in 1898, has now been revised
abridged and perfected by it's author.
The Mountain Seen too near" has re-.
ceded, and In the perspective of fifteen
years, a noble human figure is distinctly
outlined against the sky Features once
blurred are now clear cut, and life-like.
Miss Gordon has so held the mirror up to
this glowing personality that it lives and
breathes.
How has she achieved this result?
First, by keeping out of sight. Self eff
facement during life proved the finest
preparation for writing the Life"
Second, by the selection of essentials
from mass of materials. Miss Cor
don's discrimination appears in such mat
tiers as Miss Wizards severance of rela.
lions with the Northwestern University.
The essential fact is that the hour had
struck. Elsewhere she shows a lively
sense of proportion, as when she touches
lightly the early romance" which,
lacking the grace of sentiment was no
romance; and omits altogether those
pages of heart history which Miss Will
lard-with all her phenomenal frankness
so sedulously guarded. The essential
facts are that Miss Willard made not one
spot, but the whole world more home.
like; that she had the mother-heart be-
yond all women of her time.
Again Miss Gordon has recreated this
great life from the vantage point of in
innate friendship. 1t has the atmos-
phere of Kingsley's Life and Alice
freeman Palmer's. Love has thrown
its magical aura about the subject. And
why not? The landscape is no less truth
full because softened by the autumn
haze. The many pictures that adorn the
book are revelation of endowment and
growth. The daguerreotype of Frances
at the age of eight with her pretty sister
Mary is quaint 'presentment, the
resolute little figure reminding one of
her name Willard-"one who wills.
Miss Willard has told the fascinating
story of her childhood in "Glimpsss of
Fifty Years" Her student life was the
natural unfolding. On her eighteenth
birthday she illustrated her ancestral
motto, Truth for authority, not au-
thorlty for truth" thus: She took 'Ivan-
hoe" seated herself on the porch and
began to read it. Her father CHANGED
up the steps. What have you there?'
Zone of Scott's novels 'Have not
forbidden you to read any novels?"
You forget what day 1t is, father.
''What difference does the day make in
the deed?" "a great deal. | am eigh-
teen today, and do not have to obey
any laws but those of God hereafter. In
my judgment Ivanhoe' is good to be
read The father laughed and the case
was won.
Though naturally religious, it was not
until her graduating year from college
that Miss Willard, during critical ILL
ness, resolved, eff God let's me get well,
teacher, she achieved eminence; but it
was as organizer and leader of the ma
tional and the worlds Woman's Chris
tian Temperance Union that Frances E.
Willard fulfilled her destiny.
1t quickens ones faith in Gods hand
upon individual lives to note the very
narrow gate of opportunity through
which she passed to her great career
Amid universal opposition to her es-
pousal of weak and unpopular reform
she held tenaciously to her purpose, en-
couraged by one solitary voice, Mary A.
Livermore's. All related reforms were
aided by her. The woman question,
broadening into the human question, was
ever in her thought. No one will deny
that she did much to hasten the ringing
answer to this question that has just
come from four sovereign States. The
w. c. T. U. today, educated by expert
ence, is practically solid for ''votes for
womeG." But in 1876, when Frances
Willard said to herself, Woe is me, if l
declare not this gospel" and at the an
nual convention spoke her convictions,
the presiding officer disclaimed RESPONSE
bility for her sentiments on the part of
the organization, declaring, eve have
no mind to trail our skirts in the mire of
politics." Three years later, so rapidly
did she mould the organization, it not
only elected her president, but declared
for the ballot for woman, and from that
hour has worked to hasten the "far-off
divine event.
The more forlorn and desperate a
cause, the more eagerly she espoused it,
provided only it had God on its side.
That she wore herself out prematurely
and died at fifty-eight, is scarcely cause
for regret to those who hold her faith in
''the body celestial in which the potent
human soul shall move right onward in
it's growth toward perfectness. "-E. G.
7 in tho Rostop TrapSnript