THE WOMAN'S CRUSADE.
For every one saved through the agency of inebriate asylums and
reformatory homes, hundreds are lost and hundreds added yearly to the
great army of drunkards. Good and useful as such institutions are, they
do not meet the desperate exigencies of the case. Something of wider
reach and quicker application is demanded. What shall it be? In
prohibition many look for the means by which the curse of drunkenness is
to be abated. But, while we wait for a public sentiment strong enough to
determine legislation, sixty thousand unhappy beings are yearly
consigned to drunkards' graves.
What have temperance men accomplished in the fifty years during which
they have so earnestly opposed the drinking usages of society and the
traffic in alcoholic drinks? And what have they done for the prevention
and cure of drunkenness? In limiting the use of intoxicants, in
restricting the liquor traffic and in giving a right direction to public
sentiment, they have done a great and good work; but their efforts to
reclaim the fallen drunkard have met with sad discouragements. In the
work of prevention, much has been accomplished; in the work of cure,
alas! how little. The appetite once formed, and the unhappy victim finds
himself under the control of a power from which he can rarely get free.
Pledges, new associations, better and more favorable surroundings, all
are tried, and many are saved; but the number of the saved are few in
comparison with those who, after a season of sobriety, fall back into
their old ways.
In all these many years of untiring efforts to lift up and save the
fallen, what sad disappointments have met our earnest and devoted
temperance workers. From how many fields, which seemed full of a rich
promise, have they gathered only a meagre harvest. But still they have
worked on, gaining strength from defeat and disappointment; for they
knew that the cause in which they were engaged was the cause of God and
humanity, and that in the end it must prevail.
Meantime, the bitter, half-despairing cry, "O Lord, how long!" was going
up from the lips of brokenhearted wives and mothers all over the land,
and year by year this cry grew deeper and more desperate. All hope in
man was failing from their hearts. They saw restrictive legislation here
and there, and even prohibition; but, except in a few cases, no removal
of the curse; for behind law, usage, prejudice, interest and appetite
the traffic stood intrenched and held its seat of power.
At last, in the waning years of the first century of our nation's
existence, their failing hope in man died utterly, and with another and
deeper and more despairing cry, the women of our land sent up their
voices to God. Not now saying "O Lord, how long!" but "Lord, come to our
help against the mighty!"
What followed is history. The first result of this utter abandonment of
all hope in moral suasion or legal force, and of a turning to God in
prayer and faith, was that strange, intense, impulsive movement known as
the "Woman's Crusade."
BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADE.
Let us briefly give the story of its initiation late in the month of
December, 1873. Dr. Dio Lewis, in a lecture which he had been engaged to
deliver at Hillsboro, Ohio, related how, forty years before, his pious
mother, the wife of a drunkard, who was struggling to feed, clothe and
educate her five helpless children, went, with other women who had a
similar sorrow with her own, to the tavern-keeper who sold their
husbands drink, and, kneeling down in his bar-room, prayed with and for
him, and besought him to abandon a business that was cursing his
neighbors and bringing want and suffering into their homes. Their
prayers and entreaties prevailed. After telling this story of his
mother, the lecturer asked all the women present who were willing to
follow her example to rise, and in response, nearly the entire audience
arose. A meeting was then called for the next morning, to be held in the
Presbyterian church.
Dr. Lewis was a guest at the old mansion of Ex-Governor Trimble, father
of Mrs. E.J. Thompson, a most cultivated, devoted Christian woman,
mother of eight children. She was not present at the lecture, but
"prepared," as she writes, "as those who watch for the morning, for the
first gray light upon this dark night of sorrow. Few comments were made
in our house," she continues, "upon this new line of policy until after
breakfast the next morning, when, just as we gathered about the
hearth-stone, my daughter Mary said, very gently: 'Mother, will you go
the meeting this morning?' Hesitatingly I replied: 'I don't know yet
what I shall do.' My husband, fully appreciating the responsibility of
the moment, said: 'Children, let us leave your mother alone; for you
know where she goes with all vexed questions;' and pointing to the old
family Bible, left the room. The awful responsibility of the step that I
must needs next take was wonderfully relieved by thought of the 'cloudy
pillar' and 'parted waters' of the past; hence, with confidence, I was
about turning my eye of faith 'up to the hills,' from whence had come
my help, when, in response to a gentle tap at my door, I met my dear
Mary, who, with her Bible in hand and tearful eyes, said: 'Mother, I
opened to Psalm cxlvi., and I believe it is for you.' She withdrew and I
sat down to read the wonderful message from God. As I read what I had so
often read before, the Spirit so strangely 'took of the things of God,'
and showed me new meanings, I no longer hesitated, but, in the strength
thus imparted, started to the scene of action.
"Upon entering the church, I was startled to find myself chosen as
leader. The old Bible was taken down from the desk, and Psalm cxlvi.
read. Mrs. General McDowell, by request, led in prayer, and, although
she had never before heard her own voice in a public prayer, on this
occasion 'the tongue of fire' sat upon her, and all were deeply
affected. Mrs. Cowden, our Methodist minister's wife, was then requested
to sing to a familiar air--
"'Give to the winds thy fears!
Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears:
He will lift up thy head.'
"And while thus engaged, the women (seventy-five in number) fell in line,
two and two, and proceeded first to the drug stores and then to the
hotels and saloons."
Thus began this memorable Crusade, which was maintained in Hillsboro for
over six months, during which time the saloons were visited almost
daily.
Within two days, the women of Washington Court-House, a neighboring
town, felt the inspiration of their sisters, and inaugurated the
movement there. A description of what was done at this place will afford
the reader a clear impression of the way in which the "Crusaders"
worked, and the results that followed their efforts. We quote from the
account given by Mrs. M.V. Ustick:
"After an hour of prayer, forty-four women filed slowly and solemnly
down the aisle and started forth upon their strange mission, with fear
and trembling, while the male portion of the audience remained at church
to pray from the success of this new undertaking; the tolling of the
church-bell keeping time to the solemn march of the women, as they
wended their way to the first drug store on the list (the number of
places within the city limits where intoxicating drinks were sold was
fourteen--eleven saloons and three drug stores). Here, as in every
place, they entered singing, every woman taking up the sacred strain as
she crossed the threshold. This was followed by the reading of the
appeal and prayer, and then earnest pleading to desist from their
soul-destroying traffic and to sign the dealers' pledge. Thus, all the
day long, going from place to place, without stopping even for dinner or
lunch, till five o'clock, meeting with no marked success; but invariably
courtesy was extended to them.
"The next day an increased number of women went forth, leaving the men
in the church to pray all day long. On this day the contest really
began, and at the first place the doors were found locked. With hearts
full of compassion, the women knelt in the snow upon the pavement to
plead for the Divine influence upon the heart of the liquor-dealer, and
there held their first street prayer-meeting. The Sabbath was devoted to
a union mass-meeting. Monday, December 29th, is one long to be
remembered in Washington as the day on which occurred the first
surrender ever made by a liquor-dealer of his stock of liquors of every
kind and variety to the women, in answer to their prayers and
entreaties, and by them poured into the street. Nearly a thousand men,
women and children witnessed the mingling of beer, ale, wine and whisky,
as they filled the gutters and were drunk up by the earth, while bells
were ringing, men and boys shouting, and women singing and praying to
God, who had given the victory.
"On the fourth day, the campaign reached its height; the town being
filled with visitors from all parts of the country and adjoining
villages. Another public surrender and another pouring into the street
of a larger stock of liquors than on the day before, and more intense
excitement and enthusiasm. In eight days all the saloons, eleven in
number, had been closed, and the three drug stores pledged to sell only
on prescription.
"Early in the third week the discouraging intelligence came that a new
man had taken out license to sell liquor in one of the deserted saloons,
and that he was backed by a whisky house in Cincinnati to the amount of
five thousand dollars to break down this movement. On Wednesday, 14th of
January, the whisky was unloaded at his room. About forty women were on
the ground and followed the liquor in, and remained holding an
uninterrupted prayer-meeting all day and until eleven o'clock at night.
The next day--bitterly cold--was spent in the same place and manner,
without fire or chairs, two hours of that time the women being locked
in, while the proprietor was off attending a trial. On the following
day, the coldest of the winter of 1874, the women were locked out, and
remained on the street holding religious services all day long. Next
morning a tabernacle was built in the street just in front of the house,
and was occupied for the double purpose of watching and praying through
the day; but before night the sheriff closed the saloon, and the
proprietor surrendered. A short time afterwards, on a dying bed, this
four-day's liquor-dealer sent for some of these women, telling them
their songs and prayers had never ceased to ring in his ears, and urging
them to pray again in his behalf; so he passed away."
From this beginning the new temperance movement increased and spread
with a marvelous rapidity. The incidents attendant on the progress of
the "Crusade" were often of a novel and exciting character. Such an
interference with their business was not to be tolerated by the liquor
men; and they soon began to organize for defense and retaliation. They
not only had the law on their side, but in many cases, the
administrators of the law. Yet it often happened, in consequence of
their reckless violations of statutes made to limit and regulate the
traffic, that dealers found themselves without standing in the courts,
or entangled in the meshes of the very laws they had invoked for
protection.
In the smaller towns the movement was, for a time, almost irresistible;
and in many of them the drink traffic ceased altogether. But when it
struck the larger cities, it met with impediments, against which it beat
violently for awhile, but without the force to bear them down. Our space
will not permit us to more than glance at some of the incidents
attendant on this singular crusade. The excitement that followed its
inauguration in the large city of Cleveland was intense. It is thus
described by Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton in her history of the Woman's Crusade,
to which we have already referred:
HOW THE CRUSADERS WERE TREATED.
"The question was constantly asked: 'Will the women of a conservative
city of one hundred and fifty thousand go upon the street as a
praying-band?' The liquor-dealers said: 'Send committees of two or three
and we will talk with them; but coming in a body to pray with us brands
our business as disreputable.' The time came when the Master seemed to
call for a mightier power to bear upon the liquor traffic, and a company
of heroic women, many of them the wives of prominent clergymen, led by
Mrs. W.A. Ingham, said: 'Here am I; the Lord's will be done.'
"On the third day of the street work, the whisky and beer interest
seemed to have awakened to a full consciousness of the situation.
Drinkers, dealers and roughs gathered in large numbers on the street to
wait for the praying women. A mob, headed by an organization of brewers,
rushed upon them, kicking them, striking them with their fists and
hitting them with brickbats. The women were locked in a store away from
the infuriated mob, who, on the arrival of a stronger body of police,
were dispersed, cursing and yelling as they went. The next day, taking
their lives in their hands, a larger company of women went out, and
somewhat similar scenes were enacted. Meantime, public meetings, called
in the churches, were so crowded that standing room could not be found.
The clergy, as one man, came to the front. Business men left their
stores and shops, ministers their studies, and a thousand manly men went
out to defend the praying women. The military companies were ordered to
be in readiness, resting on their arms; the police force was increased,
and the liquor interest soon made to feel that the city was not under
its control. The mob never again tried its power. For three months, with
scarcely a day's exception, the praying-bands, sometimes with twenty in
each, working in various parts of the city; sometimes with five hundred,
quietly and silently, two by two, forming a procession over a quarter of
a mile in length, followed by scores in carriages, who could not bear
the long walks, went from saloon to saloon, holding services where the
proprietors were willing, and in warehouses which were thrown open to
them, or in vacant lots near by, when they were unwilling. Men took off
their hats, and often wept as the long procession went by. Little
children gathered close to the singers, and catching the words, sang
them months afterwards in their dingy hovels. Haggard women bent their
heads as they murmured with unutterable sadness, 'You've come too late
to save my boy or my husband.' Many saloon-keepers gave up their
business and never resumed it. Many who had lost all hope because of the
appetite which bound them, heard from woman's lips the glad tidings of
freedom in Christ, and accepted the liberty of the Gospel."
In many other places the crusaders met with violence from exasperated
liquor-dealers and their brutish associates. A pail of cold water was
thrown into the face of a woman in Clyde, Ohio, as she knelt praying in
front of a saloon. Dirty water was thrown by pailfuls over the women at
Norwalk. At Columbus, a saloon-keeper assaulted one of the praying-band,
injuring her seriously. In Cincinnati, forty-three women were arrested
by the authorities for praying in the street and lodged in jail. In
Bellefontaine, a large liquor-dealer declared that if the praying-band
visited him he would use powder and lead; but the women, undeterred by
his threat, sang and prayed in front of his saloon every day for a week,
in spite of the insults and noisy interferences of himself and
customers. At the end of that time the man made his appearance at a
mass-meeting and signed the pledge; and on the following Sunday
attended church for the first time in five years.
DECLINE OF THE CRUSADING SPIRIT.
From Ohio the excitement soon spread to other Western States, and then
passed east and south, until it was felt in nearly every State in the
Union; but it did not gain force by extension. To the sober,
second-thought of those who had, in singleness of heart,
self-consecration and trust in God, thrown themselves into this work
because they believed that they were drawn of the Spirit, came the
perception of other, better and more orderly ways of accomplishing the
good they sought. If God were, indeed, with them--if it was His Divine
work of saving human souls upon which they had entered, He would lead
them into the right ways, if they were but willing to walk therein. Of
this there came to them a deep assurance; and in the great calm that
fell after the rush and excitement and wild confusion of that first
movement against the enemy, they heard the voice of God calling to them
still. And, as they hearkened, waiting to be led, and willing to obey,
light came, and they saw more clearly. Not by swift, impetuous impulse,
but through organization and slow progression was the victory to be won.
In the language of Frances E. Willard, in her history of "The Woman's
National Christian Temperance Union," to be found in the Centennial
temperance volume: "The women who went forth by an impulse sudden,
irresistible, divine, to pray in the saloons, became convinced, as weeks
and months passed by, that theirs was to be no easily-won victory. The
enemy was rich beyond their power to comprehend. He had upon his side
the majesty of the law, the trickery of politics and the leagued
strength of that almost invincible pair--appetite, avarice. He was
persistent, too, as fate; determined to fight it out on that line to the
last dollar of his enormous treasure-house and the last ounce of his
power. But these women of the Crusade believed in God, and in themselves
as among His appointed instruments to destroy the rum-power in America.
They loved Christ's cause; they loved the native land that had been so
mindful of them; they loved their sweet and sacred homes; and so it came
about that, though, they had gone forth only as skirmishers, they soon
fell into line of battle; though they had ignorantly hoped to take the
enemy by a sudden assault, they buckled on the armor for the long
campaign. The woman's praying-bands, earnest, impetuous, inspired,
became the woman's temperance unions, firm, patient, persevering. The
praying-bands were without leadership, save that which inevitably
results from 'the survival of the fittest;' the woman's unions are
regularly officered in the usual way. They first wrought their grand
pioneer work in sublime indifference to prescribed forms of
procedure--'so say we all of us' being the spirit of 'motions' often
made, seconded and carried by the chair, while the assembled women
nodded their earnest acquiescence; the second are possessed of good,
strong constitutions (with by-laws annexed), and follow the order of
business with a dutiful regard to parliamentary usage. In the first,
women who had never lifted up their voices in their own church
prayer-meetings stood before thousands and 'spoke as they were moved;'
in the second, these same women with added experience, and a host of
others who have since enlisted, impress the public thought and
conscience by utterances carefully considered. The praying-bands, hoping
for immediate victory, pressed their members into incessant service; the
woman's unions, aware that the battle is to be a long one, ask only for
such help as can be given consistently with other duties."
As the result of this intelligent effort at effective organization by
the women who inaugurated and were prominent in the "Crusade," we have
"The Woman's National Christian Temperance Union," with its auxiliary
and local unions in nearly every State; one of the most efficient
agencies in the practical work of temperance reform which the country
has yet seen.