In view of all these facts, so sad, so pitiful, ought we not for our own sake, for the sake of innocent children in our homes, for the sake of other women's children and other homes, and for the sake of society at large, in order to lead men and women, as best we may, towards all that is pure and holy, and away from all that is debasing and evil, ought we not to give our influence and our active help to this temperance work? CHAPTER VI. HOW WOMEN MAY WORK. Every human being has influence, and we may not know the effect of our words or of our silence. The fact being generally known that one is a member of the W.C.T.U. has sometimes a great influence. Recently one of our temperance workers spent a few weeks at the sea-side. She had no occasion to speak of her temperance principles, but as the little white envelopes marked W.C.T.U. went out from the office of the hotel from time to time, it soon became known that she was a temperance woman. Mrs. ---- one morning was very much interested to hear as she passed a bathing house near her own, "Here, take some brandy before Mrs. ---- comes down," and the reply, "Mamma, she don't take any, and the bathing don't make her sick." It was thought a necessary preventive in this case, but there was a silent influence that conveyed its disapproval. Yet there are many ways in which women may exert more than a silent influence in this work. 1. _In the Home._--The time has gone by, when it was thought absolutely necessary to have the brandy bottle on the sideboard and in the kitchen, and when it was thought to be flying in the face of Providence if one made a voyage or took a journey without this companion. Years ago even temperance people dare not exercise quite enough faith and common sense to enable them to put this thing quite out of their homes, so for every ailment, for spleen and spasms, for tooth ache and toe ache, for head ache and heart ache, this wonderful remedy was used. This greater than all quack medicines, for _some_ of these do stop at _some_ point in their healing power, but this was thought to be _never failing_ in its virtue to alleviate, if not to cure. Women in the last few years have been wiser than the doctors, for while they looked only at alleviation of pain, wives and mothers began to look beyond that, at the probable acquirement of the taste for drink, and now this prescription is becoming less frequent. Let the women of Canada banish this liquor from their sideboards and kitchens, and from their medicine chests. Let it be given as medicine, only as a last resort, and by the advice of a careful physician. Let temperance papers be taken in the home, that young and old may see and know all that is going on in the world in relation to temperance. We have our political papers, our church papers, our fashion magazines, let us have, too, our temperance papers, books and magazines.