An effort among a few young women in the neighborhood of this city,
induced more than fifty young men to abandon cigars. One young
fellow swore by all the gods that he would smoke as long as he
pleased, and so he did; but he did not _please_ to continue very
long after several of the young ladies had had interviews with him.
In Dixon, Ill., fifty good women called at every rum-hole in town.
There were forty nine of them. In each place they read a touching
"Appeal from the Women of Dixon to the Venders of Intoxicating
Drinks in Dixon," joined in a brief prayer, sang a verse, and went
on to the next "rum-hole." This they repeated every day for a week,
when there were no places left to visit.
The women of Battle Creek, Mich., tried the same thing. One hundred
of them went, without parade or notice, to all the "rum-holes" in
the city every day, till there was not one that dared open its
doors. I was there at the time, and could tell you thrilling stories
of the encounters of these noble, brave women with the venders of
what a clergyman--a friend of mine--calls "liquid hell-fire."
But I hasten on to give you a very interesting illustration of the
power of woman in the summary abatement of social nuisances.
Although in lecturing upon "Woman's Influence in the Cause of
Temperance," I have frequently given the facts entire, with the
names of the parties, it has occurred to me that in writing it out
for a book, it would be only just to avoid mentioning names, as many
members of the families involved, are now most respectable people,
and earnest advocates of Temperance.
Well, this is the story:--In a small factory village (say in
Pennsylvania) with a thousand inhabitants, there were five "rum-
holes." The men of the little community spent their time in the
drinking places, while their children earned the family bread by
long hours in the mills. The mothers were busy in caring for their
children and drunken husbands, and many of them strove to add to the
comforts of the family, by the use of the needle.
At length, on a Saturday night, several boys, coaxed by a scamp,
drank freely of whiskey, and were taken home helplessly intoxicated;
two of them came near dying. The good mothers were on fire. They had
long since abandoned all hope for their husbands, but they would
never, _never_ consent that their boys should become drunkards. By a
common impulse they gathered in the little church on the hill, and
held a meeting for prayer and weeping. After three hours of
passionate ejaculation, tears and heart-breaking agony, they
resolved as follows:
"We will make a banner with our own hands. On one side it shall bear
the figure of a child drinking from a bucket, that beverage, which
God has prepared for his creatures. On the other side we will work
this sentiment, 'Mothers will sacrifice all for their Children.'
When it is done, we will go to these men with our banner for the
rallying flag, pray with them, plead with them, and never give up
till they stop."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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