USA > Ohio > Memories of the crusade a thrilling account of the great uprising of the women of Ohio in 1873, against the liquor crime > Part 13
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The people are thronging out into their several homeward streets. The night is clear and frosty and the sound of sweet song is floating out on the air from manly voices. Hear!
" I am coming to the cross ; I am poor and weak and blind : I am counting all things dross, I shall full Salvation find."
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The refrain comes floating back from another street :
" I am trusting, Lord, in Thee, Blest Lamb of Calvary, Humbly at Thy cross I bow, Save me, Jesus, save me now."
From the West End comes,
" Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave."
Again floats back a final stanza that seems to be the best suited to the singer's condition and feelings, and dies away in the distance :
" But all thro' the mountains, thunder-riven, And up from the rocky stcep, There rose a cry to the gate of heaven, ' Rejoice ! I have found my sheep !' And the angels echoed around the throne, 'Rejoice ! for the Lord brings back his own.'"
It seems almost beyond belief, considering the apathy and indifference of to-day, except of the faithful few, that any day and any hour of the day or evening, our meetings were crowded by men and women.
We held a meeting every morning from 9 to Io o'clock, and every important business house in the city was closed during the service. As you passed along the streets you would see the card on the door, "Closed from 9 to 10." I never heard of any one's business, except that of the saloon-keeper, suffering by it.
The most prominent business men took an active part, presiding and speaking, ministers of all denominations worked in perfect harmony.
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And while the new Catholic priest, Father Sidley, did not join us, he did preach temperance to his people, and has continued through all these years to wield a good influence for temperance among his people. And our editors were keeping the world posted as to the progress of our work, and strangers were coming from other cities to wit- ness this marvelous uprising. We, early in the work, inaugurated Sabbath afternoon meetings. These we started in the largest church, but it at once overflowed into the lecture room. Then we opened in another church at the same hour, and it overflowed into the basement.
We were in this state of white-heat when one of these visitors, Dr. D-, of Cincinnati, came up, and in one of our Sabbath meetings told us that having heard of the great temperance excite- ment in our city, he had caught up his gripsack and started for the scene of the battle, feeling a glow of enthusiasm, as he sped onward, at the thought that he was actually going to witness this wonderful phenomenon with his own eyes.
It was my habit to pass from one to another of these meetings, noting and reporting progress.
I remember on one occasion, I said I was an old-fashioned shouting Methodist, and I felt then like shouting the praise of God as I witnessed such blessed results of our labors. At the close of the meeting, our Rev. Dr. Clokey, of the U. P. Church, grasped my hand, saying, "Mother Stewart thinks none but a Methodist can shout over this work, I feel like shouting myself."
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Precious and faithful servant of the Most High, he never knew the strength and encouragement we received from his prayers, in our behalf, that seemed to lay hold on the arm of the Lord; and from his counsels when he drew from the store- house of God's word, as I never heard any other minister with such aptness and unction, the treas- ures, "new and old." Though the feebleness of age was upon him, he would be with us every morning to watch the progress of the work, only yielding at last to overpowering weariness. " Write," saith the angel ; " Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."
Sometime since a " guarantee fund " had been subscribed, amounting to $150,000, I think it was. We were near the fruition of our hopes ; and it only needed a little stronger support on the part of the men, in demanding the enforce- ment of the law, to make a perfect work of it. But that support did not come. Like those in so many other places, they had taken up the mistaken notion that the Lord was going to re- lieve them of all responsibility by giving their work into the hands of the women. And so they quietly waited to see the women grapple with, and as they hoped, throttle the hydra-headed monster.
But we were still full of hope, and our hearts were almost hourly cheered by the news that was pouring in from all quarters. At our morn-
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ing meetings a telegram would be handed me saying, "We commenced work to-day, the women are marching," or, " Another surrender to-day," "Two more surrenders," "Three, four to-day." Then we sang
" All hail the power of Jesus' name."
Again a letter is put into my hand, saying, "We closed our last saloon yesterday. Oh, I wish you had been here. We celebrated our jubilee with ringing of bells and bonfires, and songs of triumph; and oh, everybody is so happy, we love everybody. Only think of it! We slept last night without a saloon in the place. Not a drop of liquor to be had." Then we sang,
" Praise God from whom all blessings flow."
All the principal towns in the State had taken up the work, or were preparing to. The flames had spread like fire in the prairies. They had lapped over into Indiana and Pennsylvania, The sparks had flown on the wings of the wind-or flashed along the wires-and caught in the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, and in the timbers of Mich- igan. West Virginia, up in the mountains, was moving. New York city was holding meetings and soon entered into the work with such lead- ers as Mrs. H. E. Brown, Mrs. Knox, Mrs. McClees, who have continued steadfast and faith- ful to the present. And so with Brooklyn, where Mrs. Hart and Mary C. Johnson were active leaders. In Philadelphia a most remarkable work was done, Mrs H. N. K. Goff and other competent ladies leading the hosts.
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The Pacific coast was falling into line. A spark had flown wild and lit way in the mountains of East Tennessee, and kindled a blaze in Green- ville, the home of Ex-President Johnson. Rev. R. D. Black, an Ohio man, was stationed there ; and his wife, a talented and pious lady, upon hearing of the glorious work in Ohio, called the Christian ladies together, organized, and led them out. And they succeeded in closing out all but one or two of the drinking places in the town. The Ex-President would come and stand at a respectful distance, with his hands in his pockets, using language more forcible than refined in re- gard to that "- Yankee woman who had come down there to make the Southern ladies unsex themselves." There might have been some little personal solicitude in regard to the equalizing of supply and demand.
Yes, the glad news is sweeping around the world. Here comes a paper from Bremen, Ger- many, sent by some unknown friend, telling all about the " Womens' Whisky war in Ohio." The one all-absorbing topic is the Ohio Crusade. Ministers preach about it and pray for it. In stores, places of business, street corners, club- rooms, the fireside, the theme of press and peo- ple is the Crusade.
It has been my purpose to convey, as far as possible, a correct idea to the reader of the influences that set in motion and controlled the women's uprising against the liquor crime. And yet I feel all the time that I am not succeeding.
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It is, indeed, almost an impossibility for one who has not been a participant, or at least an eye- witness of the movement, to form a correct judgment of it. Many have visited the scenes with their minds prejudiced against it, but I scarcely ever saw one such who did not change his opinion upon seeing it for himself.
I have in my travels met persons who declared very emphatically that they "did not approve of, did not believe in the Crusade." But a little in- quiry would disclose the fact that they only had their knowledge from hearsay.
The following from the editor of the Springfield Republic, who was, from the first, a close observer and warm supporter of our work, will perhaps convey the true animus of the work better than I am able to. He says :
Certain journalists at a distance are criticising the women's movement in Ohio with some severity, and the immense amount of worldly wisdom they exhibit is something fearful to contemplate. These persons are well-meaning and clever fellows, doubtless, but the fact is that they don't know anything about the matter !
The telegraphic reports and newspaper accounts that come under their notice have failed to give the spirit of the movement, and have certainly failed to give an adequate idea of its power. Our friends abroad may as well understand at the outset that a mighty revolution is in progress in Ohio; and such a revolution as has not been seen on the face of the earth in a hundred years-or in fact a thousand years. We are having such a great awakening as men now living have never known before. Persons heretofore having no belief in the supernatural, or faith in what is known as prayer, have become con- verted by the spirit and power of this movement,
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and are glad to feel and to acknowledge that the women are inspired by God's Spirit and nerved and strengthened by Almighty power. Liquor-sellers say " We don't know what to do. We can't resist these praying women! If the men would approach us we would kick them out,"-and they would, too, if their muscle proved equal to their desire. "But, these women pray and sing so beautifully that we cannot resist them ! If they keep coming we will be forced to surrender." Can any man clothed in his right mind object to such a work as this ? It may be that things are said and done by persons that are not judicious. This cannot be avoided. The spirit of the movement, however, is Christ-like and grand.
It was a source of grief and many tears that "some persons," as the editor observed, said and did unwise things. Many were swept into the movement by the excitement and the eclat that seemed to attach to a Crusader, but did not comprehend the deep, spiritual meaning and significance of the work. They seemed to see in it an opportunity for acquiring a little notoriety, or possibly of displaying talents they thought they possessed. Of course such elements, where- ever found, created discord and did harm. But such things are encountered in every channel of benevolent work, proving a trial of patience, but there seeming to be no way to avoid it. These were not of those who continued in well-doing.
On Wednesday, February 18th, another all- day prayer-meeting was held, the interest being sustained to the close. And at the same time the visiting of saloons was prosecuted with great enthusiasm. This evening I was called to " Con- gress Hall," a very excellent neighborhood, some three miles from the city, where the ladies
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organized themselves into a sort of relief corps, to assist their sisters in the city, and passed the following resolution :
We, the undersigned ladies of Congress Hall, send greeting to the ladies of Springfield, bidding them God-speed in their noble work against the liquor traffic. And we hereby form ourselves into a volun- tary committee, ready to march to their aid when- ever called upon.
To this, nearly the entire audience of ladies ap- pended their names. And they did come and give valuable aid, as did the ladies of other neigh- borhoods.
· These good ladies also passed a resolution pledging themselves not to buy any goods or groceries of any one in Springfield who also sold liquors. This was a very telling stroke upon some of the grocers, especially the redoubt- able Zischler, who had a large country patron- age.
At the close of our meeting, I went out to take the carriage for home, and lo! the whole hori- zon in the direction of my house was illumi- nated, and great tongues of fire were leaping up against the western sky. " Oh," I exclaimed, "My house is on fire." The friends tried to allay my alarm, but to little purpose. My hus- band and niece were both out that evening and my house was alone. The liquor men knew I was doing all I could to ruin their business, though they had no reason to think I would do them or theirs any personal harm. But I presumed they had taken advantage of my absence to set fire to
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my home. I requested my friend to drive as fast as he could. He tried to quiet my fears by tell- ing me the fire was quite beyond my place, was too far south. But by this time I could not talk. How slowly the horses crept over the ground. Oh, I wished they would rise and fly through the air. I had, when I entered upon my work, so foolishly said I had "laid all upon the altar." How little did I know what that involved? I had, indeed, expected that the liquor men would slander me and say evil things of me; but my beautiful home I had not thought of. No stately palace, but my home, and the last of what was once at least a comfortable compe- tence, and dearer, now that I, as I supposed, saw it crumbling into ashes, than ever before. And there were my worldly goods, the furnishing that made it home. My books, precious souvenirs and keepsakes of dear ones who had gone. There was my mother's old wedding ring, a lock of her golden hair, though she had been in the grave more than fifty years. Oh, why didn't the horses fly? When we reached the city limits, I directed the gentleman to strike into such a street as would bring me soonest home-the shortest route. Striking into High street, my friend said, "Why, there is no one on the street." I thought "No, everybody knows Mother Stew- art's house is on fire, and the whole city is there."
By this time the smoke and cinders were en- veloping us ; and not till we turned into my own
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street, a square from my house, was my agony of alarm relieved.
Thank God, my home was safe. I had, indeed, wrongfully suspected the saloon-keepers. It was an unimportant building, though in a line with mine, farther west. But by that experience I learned some important lessons. One was that we do not know till we are placed in the crucible, how strong are the influences that control us. And another was that when we are in dead earn- est, we are not likely to hesitate as to ways or means, but will take the shortest and most effec- tive way to accomplish our purpose. And thus will it be when the Christians of this nation come to see the liquor curse in its enormity, with its woe and misery.
They will no longer parley as to expediency, or whether it will affect their political interests, but as one man will arise and sweep it off the face of this fair land.
CHAPTER XI.
First Surrender and Exciting Scenes.
THINK the next town after those I have already mentioned, to take up the Crusade work, was Morrow, in Warren county. This town, though well situated, lying on the east bank of the Miami, with a good country surrounding, and having many intelligent citi- zens, was impoverished and demoralized to an alarming degree by the saloons,-being fifteen to eleven hundred population. The ladies, hearing the wonderful news of the work in those towns, sent Miss Henrietta G. Moore as their embassador to the ladies of Wilmington, with the Macedonian call, "Come over and help us!" They accordingly sent over two of their most efficient workers, Mary Hadley, a minister of the Friends' denomination, and Mrs. Runyan, wife of the Methodist minister, who, with their glowing reports of their work and success, their enthusiasm and encouragement, soon had a band of sixty women organized and marching through the streets and visiting saloons,-the brethren, as usual, remaining in the sanctuary to pray. Among those who tarried at the altar
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that morning was the venerable, war-worn soldier, Louis Fairchild, who had met the enemy in many a fierce conflict, and had been treated to their strong knock-down arguments, rotten eggs and accompaniments, for more than a generation. But he was still full of hope and zeal, and ready to help forward this new method of dealing with them. But the field was a hard one, and the liquor men, or saloon-keepers more correctly, for one, at least, was a woman, were unyielding. Henry Schied, proposing to follow the example of Dunn, brought suit against the temperance people for interfering with his business, naming over a hundred ladies, with several gentlemen, in his appeal to the courts for protection in his "legiti- mate business and orderly house." The case was tried at Lebanon before Judge Smith. Forty ladies marched in Crusade file to the hall of justice. The ladies of Lebanon furnished them a sumptuous banquet, and the interest in the case was intense.
The temperance friends had the best of coun- sel. and the Judge, deciding impartially on the merits of the case, dissolved the injunction, holding that the women's singing and prayers in or before a saloon could not be considered as illegally interfering or obstructing his business. The people of Morrow made it an occasion of great rejoicing ; the band paraded the streets, playing their most inspiring music, followed by a great procession of men, women and children. All the church and school-bells in the town pealed
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forth their most exultant clangor, while two or three locomotives lying on the tracks, joined in with screeching whistles and bell accompaniment. The Crusaders hastened to the sanctuary with prayers, songs and speeches, to express their gratitude to God for their victory. Hundreds of the people in the surrounding country, hear- ing the tumult from afar, supposed the town must be in flames and hastened to the scene and swelled the crowd and the glad discordant jubilation.
But it was too much for the respectable saloon- keeper, Schied - he closed up and left the town. I neglected to say in the proper place, that in the list of obstructionists that the respect- able liquor-vender presented, were Dio Lewis, VanPelt and others, who happened that morn- ing, February 17th, to be passing through the town, and while the train made its necessary halt, they stood on the platform shaking hands with the Crusaders and saying words of encour- agement. It was not long until the council passed the "McConnelsville Ordinance," and closed out the business in Morrow-for the time.
Among that faithful and determined hundred women was a young teacher of rare talents and ability, who had suffered much through those dear to her, at the hands of the liquor-sellers, and lost her position-though so competent a teacher-through the revengeful influence of some of those "noble, generous-hearted fellows" in the School Board. But she was destined for
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a much wider field of action. She has long since proved herself one of the most powerful advocates of our cause before the public, every- where winning laurels for herself and the cause to which she has devoted her life, -Miss Henri- etta G. Moore.
At Greenfield, a very pretty little town in Highland county, the women began their work on January 12th, and in six weeks eleven saloons were closed and three druggists had signed the dealers' pledge ; and it was not long till all were closed, a blessed work, by the combined efforts of women and men. And here, as everywhere, were incidents of most touching character that I would be glad to relate, and my readers to know, but the fear of swelling this volume to undue proportions restrains me. If admissible, I could write on and on of these wonderful scenes. Greenfield has had a peculiar and varied experi- ence on the liquor question. In 1865, a very great excitement was caused by the murder of a worthy young man as he was quietly passing a saloon on the street ; a shot aimed at some party in the saloon found a lodgment in the young man in the street, with fatal results. The victim was the son and only support of an aged and feeble widow. There was no law to reach the case, but a large number of the respectable ladies of the town, after some secret counsels, accompanied by the bereaved mother, proceeded to the saloon and with axes and other weapons knocked in the heads of barrels and casks, and demolished bot- tles and fixtures
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There was law in our great State to meet this case. It called them a mob, rioters, dis- turbers of the peace, destroyers of valuable (?) property ; they had interfered with a man's lawful business. The prosecution, in the list of ladies complained of, named one who stood at a dis- tance, in no way participating, but seeing the liquor leap out of a barrel as a lady brought down the ax upon it, she clapped her hands, - she was, perse, an abettor; but he was very care- ful not to name the mother of the murdered young man. Of course the women were arrested and had to appear before the Grand Jury. But by the good management of their counsel, Hon. Mills Gardiner, they were acquitted, after a hearing of a week. No ! let no woman presume that she may lift her puny arm to protect her boy from those dens of destruction. She may not exercise even the mother instinct given the dumb brute for the protection of her young; neither shall she have the privilege of helping to make such laws as would close those places ! Oh, no! that would be shocking, unwomanly, a thing not to be thought of. But thanks be to the Lord, in our extremity He devised a way. What wonder that on every street in all the State floated out on the air in plaintive strains- " What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear ; What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer."
And what wonder we held with such tenacious
(14)
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faith to the arm of Omnipotence while we pleaded that He would avenge us of our enemy.
But the blessed Crusade is no longer restrain- ing men from their deadly work; they are doing a thriving business in crazing men and exciting their baser passions to deeds of violence and murder.
During our campaign for the prohibitory amendment, I was passing through Greenfield, when a man boarded the train and proceeded to tell the passengers of a terrible, double murder that had been committed near there two nights before, and saying that the murderer was then undergoing his examination. He had come into town on Saturday and became intoxicated. On going to his buggy to start for home he found some one had taken his buffalo-robe. Parties standing near suggested that it might be a couple of young men-naming them-who also lived in the country, and were in the habit of coming into town on Saturdays and, of course, getting drunk, and often committing some mischief, more for the love of it than from viciousness. There was no proof, however, that in this instance they were the offenders. But the man was just in the condition to be greatly excited over the supposed offense, and upon reaching the home of the young men, he called to them to come out. One went out to him, when he deliberately shot him; the other followed and was also shot, but the wound did not prove to be immediately fatal. The murderer rode on home
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and the poor, widowed mother went out and dragged her dead boy in, and by some super- human power got him onto the bed; then the wounded and dying boy was brought in. And through the weary hours of the night she passed her time in going from one to the other with her plaint of woe. When discovered by some of the neighbors next morning, she was still going from one bed to the other, so nearly insane that she did not seem to know which was dead or which dying, with her heart-rending wail: "Oh, who could hurt my poor boys ! Oh, who would murder my darling boys! They were all I had, and they were so good and loving !" They were, indeed, known to be industrious, taking good care of the farm and devotedly loving and tender towards their mother. But like so many other young farmers, and old ones too, they had the habit which led to their destruction.
A few weeks later I was called to Greenfield by the W. C. T. U., when I learned that the murderer was out on bail and was at one of my meetings. I never heard the finale, but suppose he was acquitted, as he boasted he would be. Oh! will men never, never come to a sense of their duty in regard to this accursed traffic in the souls of men ?
At Xenia Dio Lewis organized the women's praying bands, or Crusaders, on February 11th, before coming to Springfield. Being blessed with a large number of ladies of superior intelli- gence and sterling piety, who were backed by a
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strong force of men worthy of such wives, noth- ing less than glorious victory was to be expected. Before me lies a letter addressed to the Cincin- nati Gazette, dated February 13th, from which I copy the following :
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