s." And I felt in every nerve, that
they were suffering from fear lest I should fail to vindicate the
womanliness of our joint venture. But the people came, a church,
full; intelligent, expectant, and curious to hear a woman. The
resident clergyman, of my own faith, declined to be present and open
with prayer. A resident Universalist clergyman present, declined to
pray. A young Methodist licentiate in the audience, not feeling at
liberty to decline, tried. His ideas stumbled; his words hitched, and
when he prayed: "Bless thy serv--a'hem--thy handmaid, and a'hem--and
let all things be done decently and in order;" we in the committee pew
felt as relieved as did the young Timothy when he had achieved his
amen!

Utterly unnerved by the anxious faces of my committee, I turned to my
audience with only the inspiration of homes devastated and families
paupered, to sustain me in a desperate exhibit of the need and the
"determination of women, impelled by the mother-love that shrinks
neither from fire or flood, to rescue their loved ones from the fires
and floods of the liquor traffic, though to do so they must make their
way through every platform and pulpit in the land!" "Thank God!"
exclaimed the licentiate on my right. "Amen!" emphasized the chairman
oh my left. My committee were radiant. My audience had accepted
woman's rights in her wrongs; and I ---- only woman's recording angel
can tell the sensations of a disfranchised woman when her "declaration
of intentions" is endorsed by an Anti-Woman's Rights audience with
fervent thanks to God!

Latter-day laborers can have little idea of the trials of the early
worker, driven by the stress of right and duty against popular
prejudices, to which her own training and early habits of thought have
made her painfully sensitive. St. Paul, our patron saint, I think had
just come through such a trial of his nerves when he wrote: "The
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The memory of the beautiful
scenery, the charming Indian summer skies, the restful companionship
of our family party in the daily drive, and the generous hospitality
of the people of Wisconsin, is one of the pleasantest of a life, as
full of sweet memories as of trials, amid and through which they have
clung to me with a saving grace.

The Temperance majority in the ensuing election, so far as influenced
by canvassing agents, was due to the combined efforts of all who
labored for it, and of these it was my good f