" " 14

Mrs. Allen Butler " " 27

Mrs. Maria Hyde Hibbard " " 32

Mrs. Mary Towne Burt " " 40

Mrs. Ella A. Boole " " 51

Mrs. Frances W. Graham " " 57

Mrs. Georgeanna M. Gardenier " " 67

Mrs. Ellen L. Tenney " " 75

PREFACE.

Histories are strange things: they uncover so many hidden events, and
bring back so many lost memories. A history that traces the beginnings
of a reform movement, that weaves the shuttle of memory in and out of
the web of the past and presents a perfect woof of fact and incident, is
a treasury of knowledge that will not fail to delight and instruct. But
the compilation of such a history is no easy task, and especially is
this true of an organization with the many ramifications of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York.

The 14th of October, 1894, marked the twenty-first milestone in our
history, and the story that follows is the story of the hopes and fears,
the smiles and tears of the past twenty years, mingled with songs of
rejoicing for grand achievement. For twenty years this organization has
stood with undaunted front against the sin of the state as represented
by the legalized traffic in intoxicating liquors and by the awful vice
that would put a premium on woman's shame.

During this time it has uttered its shibboleth that that political
party, and that only, which declares in its platform for the complete
prohibition of the liquor traffic, can have its influence and its
prayers. There have been days of darkness and disaster, but by the grace
of God no weapon turned against the union has prospered, and every
tongue that has risen in judgment has been condemned. The growth of the
organization has been marvelous, for in twenty years it has grown from a
few hundred members to twenty-two thousand, and from a few auxiliaries
to over nine hundred, which cover as a network the entire state. Its
workers are indefatigable, and wage their peaceful war for "sweeter
manners, purer laws," with an earnestness that carries conviction to the
hearts of the people and the law-makers of the state. And wherever there
is a wrong to right, an evil to attack, or a hand to help, there will
you find a woman with a white ribbon on her breast.

The committee having this history in cha