VERMONT.
As this State had a strong prohibitory law, there was not the demand
for temperance work as there was in most of the other States.
There were no open saloons to visit, and the jails were comparatively
empty, and the moral atmosphere healthy.
I have travelled extensively over Vermont, but have never seen an open
saloon, or a drunken man, or a squalid home.
In the spring of 1875 I visited Montpelier, the capital of the State.
At that time the jail was empty, there was no almshouse, and I could
hear of but one poor family who needed aid.
A few years ago, the county of which St. Johnsbury is the county-seat
had twenty-three distilleries. Now there is not a distillery or a
saloon in the county.
Mr. Hepworth Dixon, an English gentleman of repute, who travelled
and lectured extensively in this country in 1874, and who was not an
abstainer, paid a beautiful tribute to the Vermont prohibitory law,
after visiting St. Johnsbury and other parts of the State:
“Not a public house exists in all St. Johnsbury, nor can a mug of beer
or a glass of wine be purchased openly by a guest to whom wine and
beer are portions of his daily food. No citizen is allowed to vend
intoxicating drinks on any pretext, or to any person. In the village
we have two guest houses for the entertainment of such as come and go
our way. We avoid such words as tavern and hotel, as too much savoring
of the past old times, when every man might drink himself into a
mad-house, and his children into a jail.
“Our tavern is a house. No bar, no dram shop, no saloon defiles the
place, nor is there, I am told, a single gambling-hell or house of
ill-repute.
“Intoxicating drinks are classed with poisons, such as laudanum and
arsenic; but as poisons may be needed in a civilized country, under a
scientific system of medicine, laudanum and arsenic are permitted to be
sold in every civilized State. Such is here the case with brandy, beer
and wine. A public officer is appointed by public vote. The town lays
in its stock of brandy, beer and wine, which is carefully registered
in books, and kept under lock and key. These poisons are doled out at
the discretion of this officer in small quantities, very much as deadly
night-shade and nux vomica are doled out by a London druggist.
“In going through Fairbanks’ Scale Manufactory, I noticed the several
classes of artisans. Five hundred men are toiling in the various rooms.
“The work is mostly hard; in some departments, very hard. The heat
is very great. From seven o’clock till twelve, from one o’clock till
six--ten hours each day--these men are at their posts. Yet the men
engaged in these manufactories are said to drink no beer, or whiskey,
or gin. Drinking and smoking are not allowed on the premises. I am told
that these five hundred workmen really never taste a drop of either
beer or gin. Their drink is water, their delight is tea. Yet every
one assures me they work well, enjoy good health, and live as long
as persons of their class employed on farms. As year and year goes
by, more persons come to see the benefits of our rule. Said Colonel
Fairbanks: ‘The men who formerly drank most are now the staunchest
friends of reform. The men who used to dress in rags are now growing
rich. Many of them live in their own houses. They attend their
churches, and their children go to school.’”
Mrs. J. M. Haven, President of the W. C. T. Union of Vermont, gives the
following facts in connection with their work:
When the mighty wave of the Women’s Temperance Crusade came sweeping
over our land, our band of six hundred organized temperance women heard
more emphatically than ever before the Master’s call to the women of
America--yea, his trumpet call so loud and shrill that many who had
been comparatively deaf to His earlier calls were aroused.
When the Women’s Convention was called in Cleveland, in November, 1874,
which resulted in the formation of a National Union, Vermont responded,
and a full delegation from that State was present.
A State organization was effected February 17th, 1875.
We are working slowly, but I believe surely. We are a wonder unto many,
it being so unusual here for women to get up anything that looks like
thinking and acting for themselves. We met the greatest opposition from
our own sex.
Several juvenile societies have been organized.
The Reform Club movement, which is accredited to the women, is doing a
great work for inebriates and their families.
We were aroused to feel the importance of throwing our influence more
positively on the side of temperance, because of the violation and
disregard of the prohibitory law, which a wise Legislature had given
our State.
Though there is still a disposition to evade the law, there is not
one-eighth of the amount of liquor used there was twelve months ago;
indeed, some say, the reduction covers twice that time.
There is a hue and cry that “prohibition does not prohibit.” But I am
sure it does in a good degree: the sale is not openly and freely made.
I know some who have been obliged to abandon the traffic. One man
in Rutland, who had quite a capital in liquors, has gone out of the
business entirely, and goes to church every Sabbath. His partner has
also given up selling lager beer. I have heard that he says the women
killed him.
Numberless dodges have been resorted to by those who are determined to
sell.
One man had a tin can fitted to his body, in which he could carry a
quantity of liquor, supplying his customers (by a tube carried in his
pocket, connecting with the can) as he chanced to meet them.
Great secrecy is practised and brains are racked to the utmost, to
devise ingenious methods of concealment. A sink is an indispensable
piece of furniture in every saleroom, where the bottle, jug, or pitcher
can be emptied at a wink from some interested devotee, from without or
within; maybe by the prosecuting officer himself. Mind you, the vile
stuff is not lost after all--a pipe conveys it into an underground
cistern or tank, and it is dug out again in due time, just as pure and
palatable as ever.
At the last session of our Legislature a nuisance law was granted in
addition, but our people are unable to determine whether dens foul with
everything that would be perfectly revolting to any clean heart or
hand, can truthfully be pronounced a nuisance. It would be decided in a
moment by any sane man if money were not involved.
But I think Vermont will come out all right, on the Lord’s side, which
of course will be on the side of prohibition and total abstinence.
ST. ALBANS, VERMONT.
In the year 1873 the ladies of St. Albans, Vermont, formed an
association called “The St. Albans Woman’s Association for the
Promotion of Temperance.”
They appointed a committee to ascertain the number, locality, and
ownership of all places where intoxicating liquors were sold--to
converse with the owners, and urge them not to let their premises for
such purposes; also to ascertain the number of families suffering from
the use of intoxicants.
There were one hundred and sixty signed, as being in sympathy with the
movement.
Three hundred ladies signed a pledge, neither to use, buy, nor sell
intoxicating liquor, and that they would do all in their power to
banish its use from their land.
A company of fifty ladies called upon the proprietor of the “Welden
House,” a first-class and beautiful hotel. They spent some time in the
house, conversing with him. They then proceeded to one of the worst
saloons, and stayed until the keeper promised to shut up his saloon,
which he did immediately, and went into another business, which he
followed about a year; but it proved more laborious and less lucrative
than rum-selling.
His wife complained that she could not now keep a piano, or indulge in
other luxuries. So he opened another saloon, which brought him once
more into prosperity.
But at the present writing his prosperity is past. The man has deserted
his family, and his debts and dishonesty have made him worthy of the
prison.
After this the ladies divided into small parties, and visited various
other places, conversing earnestly with rum-sellers, and with drinkers.
A better moral sentiment prevails, the law is being enforced, and the
friends of temperance hold the fort.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The laws of this State are favorable to temperance, but many whose duty
it is to enforce the law are in sympathy with the law-breakers, as in
other States, and in defiance of public sentiment intoxicating liquors
are secretly and sometimes publicly sold.
There has, however, recently been a great change in public sentiment,
and thousands of drinking men have been gathered into Reformed Clubs.
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The following interesting report of the long continued work of the
women of Concord, New Hampshire, is from the Corresponding Secretary,
Alma Jane Herbert:
The Concord, New Hampshire, Temperance Society for many years held its
annual meeting, presenting some popular speakers on the afternoon of
Fast Day, in the old North Church.
On one occasion not far from 1840, if not prior to that date, the
ladies were invited to repair, at the close of the service, to the
“Brick school-house” near by. The room was closely packed, and then and
there they organized a Woman’s Temperance Society. I have consulted
the lady then chosen secretary, who perfectly remembers the fact, but
nothing of the phase of the work that came before them, nor how long
the organization was maintained.
On the 4th of July, 1837, all the Sunday-schools united in a
celebration and collation. For thirty years the use of wines and
liquors at parties, calls and on the dinner table was almost unknown,
so thoroughly was the early work done. There were always a few
exceptions, and the number is not largely increased at the present time.
Our Women’s Temperance Union was organized February 24th, 1873. So
far as I personally know, very little of what the Western women call
Crusade work was done in New Hampshire. But I can report only from
Concord.
The great tidal wave awoke new interest in the cause, at a time when
all seemed dark and discouraging. Owing to the differing circumstances
our most earnest women felt such methods to be less hopeful here, and
also less hopeful in the larger towns, where liquor-dealers are unknown
and trouble is more likely to gather than in the smaller villages.
We organized in February, 1873; and in March a committee of five or six
ladies were sent to visit the apothecaries from whose soda fountain
respectable young men too often take a step beyond and downward. All
declined to sign a temperance pledge, or a pledge to cease selling,
though one did for a little time. All were courteous, as were the
liquor-dealers, to whom at the next meeting of the committee was sent
with the same result, though they did not visit some low “bush dens.”
They left with proprietors a printed order the mayor had granted them
directing all illegal places of sale to be closed.
Meanwhile the city government had been petitioned to enforce the
law, and consult and advise with us upon the subject; and, in course
of time, one of the members found leisure to attend and speak. As the
signatures of very many citizens, who favored such enforcement, were
secured, various conferences with the citizens were held.
Several complaints were entered and warrants taken out, and the
committee of ladies patiently endured the martyrdom of the police
court, surrounded by a crowd of vile men, set on by liquor-dealers to
create disorder and make rude comments. In September two dealers were
reported as under $200 bonds for the next term of court, when a court
ruling and the difficulty of procuring proper witnesses closed this
avenue. However, much prayer and varied efforts had charged the whole
atmosphere with germs of life-thought. And as the most thrifty plants
sometimes grow outside the cultured garden bed, we accept our noble
Reformed Club, numbering between two and three thousand, as the wave
sheaf-offering of the coming harvest, since J. O. Osgood, of Maine,
first came to Concord, accredited to our Woman’s League. We have a
Juvenile Temple of Honor, numbering several hundred.
Between two and three hundred names are attached to our pledge;
honorary members, lifted above giving and doing it is to be supposed,
since the earnest-working members scarcely count thirty.
PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The Woman’s Temperance League, of Portsmouth, N. H., was organized
February 3d, 1875. During the early winter of that year, Mr. B. F.
Thorndike conceived a plan for arousing an interest among the citizens
in behalf of temperance. His idea was to hold a protracted temperance
meeting, to continue eight successive evenings, and employ the best
speakers that could be obtained. He submitted his plan to several well
known friends of the cause, who all admitted that if such a series of
meetings could be held, much good might result therefrom; but one and
all declared it an impossibility to raise sufficient funds to sustain
such an unheard-of scheme.
But Mr. Thorndike determined that the meetings should be held, and
_unaided and alone_, he has the honor of being the first to inaugurate
such gatherings. In addition to employing the best temperance orators
that could be obtained, he secured the services of Mr. S. B. Spinning,
the celebrated Rhode Island vocalist, to sing. Mr. Thorndike also
arranged for two afternoon meetings: one to be a children’s meeting,
the other a meeting for the ladies of the city, with a view to organize
a society for practical temperance work. All the meetings were largely
attended, and such an interest awakened in behalf of temperance, that
its influence will be felt for many years to come.
Thursday afternoon, January 28th, 1875, was the time set apart for the
meeting of the ladies. Mrs. B. F. Thorndike entered heartily into the
work; and, on that Thursday afternoon, the Temple was well filled with
ladies and gentlemen, including several clergymen. The meeting was
addressed by Rev. Messrs. Goss and Hebbard, and Mrs. White, of Concord.
February 3d, a society was formed, called the Woman’s Temperance League
of Portsmouth.
From that humble beginning, the League has grown to be a very efficient
and influential body of workers. They have been foremost in every
effort that has been made to ameliorate the condition of suffering
humanity.
The League had the wise forethought to see that, if they would
successfully carry forward any good work, the society must be placed on
a correct financial basis; and, to this end, their laws stipulate that
each member shall pay a certain sum weekly.
One of the first acts of the League was to divide the city into
districts, and send committees to visit every house, for signatures
to the total abstinence pledge. In this mission they were very
successful. They also united with the Seaman’s Aid Society in
establishing a Seaman’s Home, which includes reading-room, restaurant,
and lodging-room. The Home has been of great practical benefit to
seamen, and to many others, by furnishing meals at a low rate; and many
laborers on the wharves and in the vicinity have taken coffee, when
heretofore they had indulged in intoxicating drinks.
The League soon became interested in the reform movement, which was
accomplishing such wonders in other places.
With a view to interesting the citizens of Portsmouth in this great
undertaking, the League invited the Dover (N. H.) Reform Club to visit
this city and hold a meeting. About three hundred, mostly reformed men,
came. They were met at the depot by a band of music, escorted around
the city, furnished with a collation, and proceeded to the largest hall
in the city, where an enthusiastic meeting was held, the reformed men
of Dover relating their thrilling experiences with the drink demon. At
that meeting many names were added to the pledge. The League paid all
the bills, even the chartering of the train.
So persistent and earnest in their work were the ladies of the League,
that ere long they were instrumental in forming a Temperance Reform
Club in Portsmouth, which soon gathered in a large number of the
intemperate of both sexes, and at the expiration of a year the roll
of the club numbered over 2,500 names, about one-fourth of the whole
population.
Portsmouth being a seaport city, quite a number of men are engaged
in deep sea-fishing; and to awaken an interest among this class of
persons, and to create a generous rivalry, the League advertised to
present a large temperance flag to the fishing crew of not less than
eight men, who first came forward in a body and signed the pledge. At a
large and enthusiastic public meeting of the club, two crews presented
themselves at the same time, and amid cheers and rejoicings, signed
their names to the total abstinence pledge. One flag was presented
the same evening, the other at a meeting one week after. Mrs. B. F.
Thorndike, President of the League, presented them with well-timed
and earnest remarks, with the request that at every port visited, the
temperance flag should wave at mast-head. So highly did the fishermen
prize the gifts, that each crew, at a subsequent meeting, presented the
League with choice tokens of their esteem.
Very great service was rendered by the League in fitting up and
decorating a hall for the Reform Club head-quarters; and in presenting
the club with a library of more than 200 volumes of the choicest
temperance literature; also, aid has been given to the families of
destitute reformed men; clothing, provisions, and fuel having been
judiciously distributed; and in this benevolent work they find much to
claim their attention.
The Woman’s Temperance League is composed of ladies belonging to all
religious denominations, and although their name is not “Union,” yet
they live in union and harmony together, letting their _works_ bear
evidence of their Christian unity.
RHODE ISLAND.
Early in March, 1874, a few Christian women of Providence, whose hearts
had been deeply moved by reading the accounts of the great uprising of
their sisters in the West against the rum traffic, called a meeting,
inviting all ladies interested in the cause of temperance to come
together and prayerfully consider their duty in regard to the work
to which God had so clearly called the women of this land. A large
number of ladies from the various churches in the city were present. A
most profound solemnity prevailed throughout the meeting. Many fervent
prayers were offered. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit was
manifest, and all felt that God was calling to action. A meeting was
appointed for the following day, and from this the interest increased,
and large meetings were held daily for several weeks. Requests
for prayer were sent in by wives, mothers, and children for their
intemperate husbands, sons, and brothers. Never before had we so keenly
felt that our help must come from the Almighty arm.
The traffic was legalized in our State to a fearful extent. Its
emissaries were plying their vocation on every corner of our streets.
In no way could we turn to avoid the sickening spectacle of misery and
woe that followed in their train. The community were indifferent, or
hardened to it. Ministers, discouraged, had left it to politicians,
and a general apathy prevailed. Intemperance was fearfully increasing,
dragging down to certain destruction many of our noble men. What were
we to do? In the language of Jehoshaphat, we cried, “O, our God,
wilt _Thou_ not judge them? for we have no might against this great
company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our
eyes are upon Thee.” Prostrate before the throne, we besought Him,
with strong crying and tears, to interpose in our behalf. Intemperate
men came to our meetings, asked for our prayers, and signed the
pledge. Rum-sellers were made especial subjects for prayer. This was
known to them, and they looked for our appearance on the streets. But
the Crusade, as conducted by our sisters in the West, was not deemed
advisable in so large a city as ours. A few ladies, however, went
forth in a quiet, unobtrusive way, without attracting attention on the
streets, and visited a large number of saloons, distributing tracts,
exhorting and remonstrating with rum-sellers, and their customers,
sometimes praying with them.
We were generally respectfully received, and attentively listened to.
One lady, nearly eighty years of age, went alone into every saloon in
Pawtucket, a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, that licensed a very
large number of places for the sale of liquors. A man recently arrested
for selling liquor without a license was visited by one of our ladies
while he was awaiting his trial in prison, when he told her he was one
of the rum-sellers visited by the ladies in his saloon, and the face
of that aged lady, and the words she uttered, had come up before him
ever since, and that he often had resolved to give up the business,
but he knew not what else to do; he repeated her exhortation, and said
he should never take up the business again. One of our ladies who said
she would do anything for the cause but visit saloons, hesitated no
longer when appealed to by an almost broken-hearted mother (the widow
of a Congregationalist clergyman), who had just learned that her son,
her sole dependence, was drinking in saloons. “Go,” she said, “I beg
of you, and ask them not to sell liquor to my _boy_. Something must
be done: I cannot bear it.” God gave the message, and her appeals in
behalf of suffering wives and mothers brought tears to eyes unused to
weeping and some promised that they would not sell liquor to young men
without first remonstrating with them. One rum-seller said that on no
account would he let his boys drink what he was selling to other men’s
boys. Prayer-meetings were also held in the police court-room, and the
poor victims of rum awaiting their trial in the station, and the roughs
who were loitering about, were invited in and brought under gospel
influence. The pledge was circulated among them, and some signatures
obtained; but the good done by these and the saloon visiting, eternity
alone shall reveal. Though we are not without evidence that some from
that time have walked in newness of life. Near the commencement of our
work, we districted the city, appointing committees in each district to
carry the pledge to every house, asking that intoxicating beverages be
discarded for culinary and social purposes, A good many signatures were
obtained. A property-holders’, physicians’, and druggists’ pledge were
also circulated.
It was suggested by our friends that it would be well for us to
memorialize our Legislature, which was then in session, asking for a
restriction to be put upon the sale of intoxicating liquors in our
State, as a means of promoting the cause for which we prayed. We
learned that they were to adjourn the next day. There was but little
time for action. We went out from our meeting, and during the evening
secured the names of five hundred women to our petition.
After a short service of prayer, in the morning, about fifty ladies
slowly and silently marched, two by two, to the State House. The
importance of our mission, and the uncertainty of success, overwhelmed
us with sadness. The burden of that hour we shall never forget. It
seemed like a funeral march to the graves of thousands of rum’s
victims, while the wailing cry of suffering wives and more than
orphaned children were ringing in our ears. We were a band of retiring
women, unaccustomed to publicity, and we timidly shrunk from the
seeming boldness of the step we were taking; but believing that we
were in the path of duty we went on, sustained by a power not our own,
and presented our request. We were kindly received by the honorable
gentlemen, and a hearing granted us.
A mass-meeting of women was held, the 13th of April, and a City
Women’s Temperance Union was organized. Expecting that our petition
for prohibitory law would be considered at the May session of the
Legislature, we secured the names of ten thousand women of the
State, and, at a day appointed for a hearing, twenty-three ladies of
Providence went to Newport, carrying the names, and listened with
prayerful attention to the discussion. It was long and fierce. The rum
power had rallied all their forces to defeat the bill. They had left
no stone unturned to win their cause. It was kept along, day after
day, and, as a last resort, they moved to carry it over to the January
session, which would effectually kill it. The vote was taken on the
movement, and announced a tie. Immediately all eyes were anxiously
fixed upon the President of the Senate, whose vote should decide
the question. Rum’s advocates looked triumphant, for they felt quite
sure the vote would be in their favor. We committed our cause to Him
“who doeth all things well,” and calmly watched and waited. ’Twas but
a moment. Of that moment, and God’s purposes in it, you will better
understand, as we have, by the following quotation from a speech
recently delivered by the _then_ President of the Senate, _now_ his
Excellency, Governor Vanzant, of Rhode Island, before a temperance
convention held in this State. He says--I quote his words:
“I sat in your Senate chamber, as its temporary presiding officer,
when the so-called prohibitory law was before it for its action.
The question was upon the postponement of the law until the January
session. The clerk of the Senate handed the roll to me, for which I
was utterly unprepared, and announced a tie vote. The whole thing then
rested marvellously, magically, and wondrously on me. By education
and association, I was conservative--I doubted the influence of the
so-called sumptuary legislation, because I had been brought up in that
school. But, my friends, in one _moment_--for it came upon me in a
moment--it came upon me just as the face of nature is revealed to the
gazing eyes of a looker-on, in the darkness of the night, when the sky
is black, and there is a flash of lightning exceedingly luminous, and
he sees new dangers that he was before unaware of. My mind moved with
inconceivable rapidity, and a train of thoughts, something like this,
passed before me, like a weird panorama: I looked back to the days of
my youth, and I saw those who started out with life full of bloom
and happiness fallen at my side, the victims of this great Moloch. I
saw society disorganized, deranged. I saw men who honestly and with
Christian faithfulness lifted their hearts and aspirations to God, and
they were dragged down into the mud, and slime, and filth of corruption
and degradation by this same power. I saw the fairest happiness of
woman soiled and ruined. I saw little children degraded and ignorant.
And I read in the faces of the little band of _earnest women_, who so
intently watched and waited my action, the hope of a triumph of right
over wrong. I made up my mind to cast my vote against the postponement
of that law. I did so, and have never regretted it. By that vote,
ladies and gentlemen, I stand or fall. This,” he said, “is the first
opportunity I have had to stand before an audience of temperance men
and women, and thank them for what they have done for me.”
In January, 1875, the Women’s State Temperance Union was organized and
made auxiliary to the National Union.
In the spring the rum power was again dominant. And the prohibitory
law was repealed, and a license law enacted in its stead. This was
discouraging to us, and some were ready to abandon the field to the
enemy. But a _few_, who believed that God had called them to the work,
kept the ball moving. Quietly and silently they went about visiting
the intemperate in their homes and in prisons, circulating temperance
literature, and in many ways endeavoring to cultivate temperance
sentiment among the people. The number who rallied to the work in
the fall, after the summer vacation, was very small. Many felt that
they had spent their strength for nought, and surely had no might
against so great an enemy. Scarcely enough came together at the weekly
prayer-meeting to claim the promise, that “where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The propriety of disbanding was discussed. A meeting was called to
consider it. Only three or four felt interest enough to come. A great
burden was laid upon us; and, although the enemy had the field, we
resolved not to retreat.
We kept on praying, until God appeared for us. After about three months
persistent effort, Dr. Reynolds consented to give us two days from his
time in Massachusetts. The day previous to his coming was observed as
a day of prayer for God’s blessing on his work. Meetings were held all
day. A large hall was filled with the earnest workers of the city, and
the meeting was one of great power and interest.
The right chord had been struck. Men who had been reformed took hold
of the work in earnest, and carried it on with wonderful success. The
largest hall in the city was soon too small to hold the crowd that
came to the meetings. Large numbers signed the pledge, including many
talented and influential men, some of whom had long been slaves to
intemperance. The old Providence club was resuscitated, and rallied to
the work, going over the State telling the story of their redemption.
There are now twenty-seven Reform Clubs in the State, with an
aggregate membership of 8,500. More than 23,000 adults have signed the
pledge, besides a large number of children. The work has overflowed
into adjoining States, and nearly 6,000 pledges have been taken in
border towns by our workers.
The whole State seems to be aroused, and the prospect is encouraging
beyond precedent. The fear that some of our ladies entertained, that we
made a mistake in appealing to law, is entirely dispelled, since it is
so clear that, though our prohibitory law was repealed, God was fitting
a noble man to honor Him and His cause in the highest office of the
State.
Our Union is efficiently organized, and the women of the State seem
to be waking up to more earnest work. Though we can write thus
encouragingly, still there are hard battles to be fought before the
right shall triumph. The harvest is great, and the laborers few;
yet when we look back to the commencement of the so-called woman’s
movement, we can but exclaim: “Behold what great things our God hath
wrought!”
I am indebted to Mrs. S. Clough, Corresponding Secretary of the State
Union, for the above facts.
MASSACHUSETTS.