Chapter II: Preface

This book is a carefully-prepared official history, of the wonderful movement known as the Woman’s Temperance Crusade.

There has been no effort at literary excellence; yet many of the thrilling experiences narrated in these pages in simple words, will live in song and story as long as God and Truth are honored among the children of men.

The women who walked with God in the fiery furnace of the Crusade have been allowed as far as possible to tell of their work in their own words, and they should be accorded a gracious hearing.

In this record there are glimpses of home life, “like apples of gold in pictures of silver,” for these women are true home-makers; there are scenes in churches where the awful solemnity is broken only by the sobs of strong men, as women with lofty, heaven-born heroism, go out as God’s chosen leaders in this holy war; there are scenes in the streets, where bands of pure, true women, surrounded by a howling mob, kneel in the snow, and with the light of the excellent glory on their faces, pray as did their Master for just such another blaspheming, mocking mob: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” and then out of the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, guided by an invisible hand, sheltered by unseen wings, pass through the jeering, filth-reeking, angry crowd, unharmed.

There are many things in this book that will tax the credulity of the reader, but _the statements it contains are well-authenticated, and must be accepted as facts_. Nothing, perhaps, could be more incredible than the accounts, oft-repeated, of the base and cowardly indignities heaped upon American women, in their own land, by foreigners, who were protected in their outrages by the stars and stripes, for which many of these women had given their husbands, sons and brothers.

The liquor traffic of this country is mainly in the hands of a low class of foreigners, and they are responsible for all the mobs, and nearly all the insults offered to the Christian women engaged in the Crusade.

These pages have been prayerfully written, and the facts they contain are earnestly commended to all who love God, and Truth, and Justice.

ANNIE WITTENMYER.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page

INTRODUCTION 13

CHAPTER I.

The Outlook at the Beginning of the Crusade 25

The Nation Living on her own Vitals 28

A Calcium Light turned on the Liquor Traffic 32

OHIO.