Chapter IX: Vermont

As this State had a strong prohibitory law, there was not the demand for temperance work as there was in most of the other States.

There were no open saloons to visit, and the jails were comparatively empty, and the moral atmosphere healthy.

I have travelled extensively over Vermont, but have never seen an open saloon, or a drunken man, or a squalid home.

In the spring of 1875 I visited Montpelier, the capital of the State. At that time the jail was empty, there was no almshouse, and I could hear of but one poor family who needed aid.

A few years ago, the county of which St. Johnsbury is the county-seat had twenty-three distilleries. Now there is not a distillery or a saloon in the county.

Mr. Hepworth Dixon, an English gentleman of repute, who travelled and lectured extensively in this country in 1874, and who was not an abstainer, paid a beautiful tribute to the Vermont prohibitory law, after visiting St. Johnsbury and other parts of the State:

“Not a public house exists in all St. Johnsbury, nor can a mug of beer or a glass of wine be purchased openly by a guest to whom wine and beer are portions of his daily food. No citizen is allowed to vend intoxicating drinks on any pretext, or to any person. In the village we have two guest houses for the entertainment of such as come and go our way. We avoid such words as tavern and hotel, as too much savoring of the past old times, when every man might drink himself into a mad-house, and his children into a jail.

“Our tavern is a house. No bar, no dram shop, no saloon defiles the place, nor is there, I am told, a single gambling-hell or house of ill-repute.

“Intoxicating drinks are classed with poisons, such as laudanum and arsenic; but as poisons may be needed in a civilized country, under a scientific system of medicine, laudanum and arsenic are permitted to be sold in every civilized State. Such is here the case with brandy, beer and wine. A public officer is appointed by public vote. The town lays in its stock of brandy, beer and wine, which is carefully registered in books, and kept under lock and key. These poisons are doled out at the discretion of this officer in small quantities, very much as deadly night-shade and nux vomica are doled out by a London druggist.

“In going through Fairbanks’ Scale Manufactory, I noticed the several classes of artisans. Five hundred men are toiling in the various rooms.

“The work is mostly hard; in some departments, very hard. The heat is very great. From seven o’clock till twelve, from one o’clock till six--ten hours each day--these men are at their posts. Yet the men engaged in these manufactories are said to drink no beer, or whiskey, or gin. Drinking and smoking are not allowed on the premises. I am told that these five hundred workmen really never taste a drop of either beer or gin. Their drink is water, their delight is tea. Yet every one assures me they work well, enjoy good health, and live as long as persons of their class employed on farms. As year and year goes by, more persons come to see the benefits of our rule. Said Colonel Fairbanks: ‘The men who formerly drank most are now the staunchest friends of reform. The men who used to dress in rags are now growing rich. Many of them live in their own houses. They attend their churches, and their children go to school.’”

Mrs. J. M. Haven, President of the W. C. T. Union of Vermont, gives the following facts in connection with their work:

When the mighty wave of the Women’s Temperance Crusade came sweeping over our land, our band of six hundred organized temperance women heard more emphatically than ever before the Master’s call to the women of America--yea, his trumpet call so loud and shrill that many who had been comparatively deaf to His earlier calls were aroused.

When the Women’s Convention was called in Cleveland, in November, 1874, which resulted in the formation of a National Union, Vermont responded, and a full delegation from that State was present.

A State organization was effected February 17th, 1875.

We are working slowly, but I believe surely. We are a wonder unto many, it being so unusual here for women to get up anything that looks like thinking and acting for themselves. We met the greatest opposition from our own sex.

Several juvenile societies have been organized.

The Reform Club movement, which is accredited to the women, is doing a great work for inebriates and their families.

We were aroused to feel the importance of throwing our influence more positively on the side of temperance, because of the violation and disregard of the prohibitory law, which a wise Legislature had given our State.

Though there is still a disposition to evade the law, there is not one-eighth of the amount of liquor used there was twelve months ago; indeed, some say, the reduction covers twice that time.

There is a hue and cry that “prohibition does not prohibit.” But I am sure it does in a good degree: the sale is not openly and freely made.

I know some who have been obliged to abandon the traffic. One man in Rutland, who had quite a capital in liquors, has gone out of the business entirely, and goes to church every Sabbath. His partner has also given up selling lager beer. I have heard that he says the women killed him.

Numberless dodges have been resorted to by those who are determined to sell.

One man had a tin can fitted to his body, in which he could carry a quantity of liquor, supplying his customers (by a tube carried in his pocket, connecting with the can) as he chanced to meet them.

Great secrecy is practised and brains are racked to the utmost, to devise ingenious methods of concealment. A sink is an indispensable piece of furniture in every saleroom, where the bottle, jug, or pitcher can be emptied at a wink from some interested devotee, from without or within; maybe by the prosecuting officer himself. Mind you, the vile stuff is not lost after all--a pipe conveys it into an underground cistern or tank, and it is dug out again in due time, just as pure and palatable as ever.

At the last session of our Legislature a nuisance law was granted in addition, but our people are unable to determine whether dens foul with everything that would be perfectly revolting to any clean heart or hand, can truthfully be pronounced a nuisance. It would be decided in a moment by any sane man if money were not involved.

But I think Vermont will come out all right, on the Lord’s side, which of course will be on the side of prohibition and total abstinence.

ST. ALBANS, VERMONT.

In the year 1873 the ladies of St. Albans, Vermont, formed an association called “The St. Albans Woman’s Association for the Promotion of Temperance.”

They appointed a committee to ascertain the number, locality, and ownership of all places where intoxicating liquors were sold--to converse with the owners, and urge them not to let their premises for such purposes; also to ascertain the number of families suffering from the use of intoxicants.

There were one hundred and sixty signed, as being in sympathy with the movement.

Three hundred ladies signed a pledge, neither to use, buy, nor sell intoxicating liquor, and that they would do all in their power to banish its use from their land.

A company of fifty ladies called upon the proprietor of the “Welden House,” a first-class and beautiful hotel. They spent some time in the house, conversing with him. They then proceeded to one of the worst saloons, and stayed until the keeper promised to shut up his saloon, which he did immediately, and went into another business, which he followed about a year; but it proved more laborious and less lucrative than rum-selling.

His wife complained that she could not now keep a piano, or indulge in other luxuries. So he opened another saloon, which brought him once more into prosperity.

But at the present writing his prosperity is past. The man has deserted his family, and his debts and dishonesty have made him worthy of the prison.

After this the ladies divided into small parties, and visited various other places, conversing earnestly with rum-sellers, and with drinkers.

A better moral sentiment prevails, the law is being enforced, and the friends of temperance hold the fort.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The laws of this State are favorable to temperance, but many whose duty it is to enforce the law are in sympathy with the law-breakers, as in other States, and in defiance of public sentiment intoxicating liquors are secretly and sometimes publicly sold.

There has, however, recently been a great change in public sentiment, and thousands of drinking men have been gathered into Reformed Clubs.

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The following interesting report of the long continued work of the women of Concord, New Hampshire, is from the Corresponding Secretary, Alma Jane Herbert:

The Concord, New Hampshire, Temperance Society for many years held its annual meeting, presenting some popular speakers on the afternoon of Fast Day, in the old North Church.

On one occasion not far from 1840, if not prior to that date, the ladies were invited to repair, at the close of the service, to the “Brick school-house” near by. The room was closely packed, and then and there they organized a Woman’s Temperance Society. I have consulted the lady then chosen secretary, who perfectly remembers the fact, but nothing of the phase of the work that came before them, nor how long the organization was maintained.

On the 4th of July, 1837, all the Sunday-schools united in a celebration and collation. For thirty years the use of wines and liquors at parties, calls and on the dinner table was almost unknown, so thoroughly was the early work done. There were always a few exceptions, and the number is not largely increased at the present time.

Our Women’s Temperance Union was organized February 24th, 1873. So far as I personally know, very little of what the Western women call Crusade work was done in New Hampshire. But I can report only from Concord.

The great tidal wave awoke new interest in the cause, at a time when all seemed dark and discouraging. Owing to the differing circumstances our most earnest women felt such methods to be less hopeful here, and also less hopeful in the larger towns, where liquor-dealers are unknown and trouble is more likely to gather than in the smaller villages.

We organized in February, 1873; and in March a committee of five or six ladies were sent to visit the apothecaries from whose soda fountain respectable young men too often take a step beyond and downward. All declined to sign a temperance pledge, or a pledge to cease selling, though one did for a little time. All were courteous, as were the liquor-dealers, to whom at the next meeting of the committee was sent with the same result, though they did not visit some low “bush dens.”

They left with proprietors a printed order the mayor had granted them directing all illegal places of sale to be closed.

Meanwhile the city government had been petitioned to enforce the law, and consult and advise with us upon the subject; and, in course of time, one of the members found leisure to attend and speak. As the signatures of very many citizens, who favored such enforcement, were secured, various conferences with the citizens were held.

Several complaints were entered and warrants taken out, and the committee of ladies patiently endured the martyrdom of the police court, surrounded by a crowd of vile men, set on by liquor-dealers to create disorder and make rude comments. In September two dealers were reported as under $200 bonds for the next term of court, when a court ruling and the difficulty of procuring proper witnesses closed this avenue. However, much prayer and varied efforts had charged the whole atmosphere with germs of life-thought. And as the most thrifty plants sometimes grow outside the cultured garden bed, we accept our noble Reformed Club, numbering between two and three thousand, as the wave sheaf-offering of the coming harvest, since J. O. Osgood, of Maine, first came to Concord, accredited to our Woman’s League. We have a Juvenile Temple of Honor, numbering several hundred.

Between two and three hundred names are attached to our pledge; honorary members, lifted above giving and doing it is to be supposed, since the earnest-working members scarcely count thirty.

PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The Woman’s Temperance League, of Portsmouth, N. H., was organized February 3d, 1875. During the early winter of that year, Mr. B. F. Thorndike conceived a plan for arousing an interest among the citizens in behalf of temperance. His idea was to hold a protracted temperance meeting, to continue eight successive evenings, and employ the best speakers that could be obtained. He submitted his plan to several well known friends of the cause, who all admitted that if such a series of meetings could be held, much good might result therefrom; but one and all declared it an impossibility to raise sufficient funds to sustain such an unheard-of scheme.

But Mr. Thorndike determined that the meetings should be held, and _unaided and alone_, he has the honor of being the first to inaugurate such gatherings. In addition to employing the best temperance orators that could be obtained, he secured the services of Mr. S. B. Spinning, the celebrated Rhode Island vocalist, to sing. Mr. Thorndike also arranged for two afternoon meetings: one to be a children’s meeting, the other a meeting for the ladies of the city, with a view to organize a society for practical temperance work. All the meetings were largely attended, and such an interest awakened in behalf of temperance, that its influence will be felt for many years to come.

Thursday afternoon, January 28th, 1875, was the time set apart for the meeting of the ladies. Mrs. B. F. Thorndike entered heartily into the work; and, on that Thursday afternoon, the Temple was well filled with ladies and gentlemen, including several clergymen. The meeting was addressed by Rev. Messrs. Goss and Hebbard, and Mrs. White, of Concord.

February 3d, a society was formed, called the Woman’s Temperance League of Portsmouth.

From that humble beginning, the League has grown to be a very efficient and influential body of workers. They have been foremost in every effort that has been made to ameliorate the condition of suffering humanity.

The League had the wise forethought to see that, if they would successfully carry forward any good work, the society must be placed on a correct financial basis; and, to this end, their laws stipulate that each member shall pay a certain sum weekly.

One of the first acts of the League was to divide the city into districts, and send committees to visit every house, for signatures to the total abstinence pledge. In this mission they were very successful. They also united with the Seaman’s Aid Society in establishing a Seaman’s Home, which includes reading-room, restaurant, and lodging-room. The Home has been of great practical benefit to seamen, and to many others, by furnishing meals at a low rate; and many laborers on the wharves and in the vicinity have taken coffee, when heretofore they had indulged in intoxicating drinks.

The League soon became interested in the reform movement, which was accomplishing such wonders in other places.

With a view to interesting the citizens of Portsmouth in this great undertaking, the League invited the Dover (N. H.) Reform Club to visit this city and hold a meeting. About three hundred, mostly reformed men, came. They were met at the depot by a band of music, escorted around the city, furnished with a collation, and proceeded to the largest hall in the city, where an enthusiastic meeting was held, the reformed men of Dover relating their thrilling experiences with the drink demon. At that meeting many names were added to the pledge. The League paid all the bills, even the chartering of the train.

So persistent and earnest in their work were the ladies of the League, that ere long they were instrumental in forming a Temperance Reform Club in Portsmouth, which soon gathered in a large number of the intemperate of both sexes, and at the expiration of a year the roll of the club numbered over 2,500 names, about one-fourth of the whole population.

Portsmouth being a seaport city, quite a number of men are engaged in deep sea-fishing; and to awaken an interest among this class of persons, and to create a generous rivalry, the League advertised to present a large temperance flag to the fishing crew of not less than eight men, who first came forward in a body and signed the pledge. At a large and enthusiastic public meeting of the club, two crews presented themselves at the same time, and amid cheers and rejoicings, signed their names to the total abstinence pledge. One flag was presented the same evening, the other at a meeting one week after. Mrs. B. F. Thorndike, President of the League, presented them with well-timed and earnest remarks, with the request that at every port visited, the temperance flag should wave at mast-head. So highly did the fishermen prize the gifts, that each crew, at a subsequent meeting, presented the League with choice tokens of their esteem.

Very great service was rendered by the League in fitting up and decorating a hall for the Reform Club head-quarters; and in presenting the club with a library of more than 200 volumes of the choicest temperance literature; also, aid has been given to the families of destitute reformed men; clothing, provisions, and fuel having been judiciously distributed; and in this benevolent work they find much to claim their attention.

The Woman’s Temperance League is composed of ladies belonging to all religious denominations, and although their name is not “Union,” yet they live in union and harmony together, letting their _works_ bear evidence of their Christian unity.

RHODE ISLAND.

Early in March, 1874, a few Christian women of Providence, whose hearts had been deeply moved by reading the accounts of the great uprising of their sisters in the West against the rum traffic, called a meeting, inviting all ladies interested in the cause of temperance to come together and prayerfully consider their duty in regard to the work to which God had so clearly called the women of this land. A large number of ladies from the various churches in the city were present. A most profound solemnity prevailed throughout the meeting. Many fervent prayers were offered. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit was manifest, and all felt that God was calling to action. A meeting was appointed for the following day, and from this the interest increased, and large meetings were held daily for several weeks. Requests for prayer were sent in by wives, mothers, and children for their intemperate husbands, sons, and brothers. Never before had we so keenly felt that our help must come from the Almighty arm.

The traffic was legalized in our State to a fearful extent. Its emissaries were plying their vocation on every corner of our streets. In no way could we turn to avoid the sickening spectacle of misery and woe that followed in their train. The community were indifferent, or hardened to it. Ministers, discouraged, had left it to politicians, and a general apathy prevailed. Intemperance was fearfully increasing, dragging down to certain destruction many of our noble men. What were we to do? In the language of Jehoshaphat, we cried, “O, our God, wilt _Thou_ not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee.” Prostrate before the throne, we besought Him, with strong crying and tears, to interpose in our behalf. Intemperate men came to our meetings, asked for our prayers, and signed the pledge. Rum-sellers were made especial subjects for prayer. This was known to them, and they looked for our appearance on the streets. But the Crusade, as conducted by our sisters in the West, was not deemed advisable in so large a city as ours. A few ladies, however, went forth in a quiet, unobtrusive way, without attracting attention on the streets, and visited a large number of saloons, distributing tracts, exhorting and remonstrating with rum-sellers, and their customers, sometimes praying with them.

We were generally respectfully received, and attentively listened to. One lady, nearly eighty years of age, went alone into every saloon in Pawtucket, a town of twelve thousand inhabitants, that licensed a very large number of places for the sale of liquors. A man recently arrested for selling liquor without a license was visited by one of our ladies while he was awaiting his trial in prison, when he told her he was one of the rum-sellers visited by the ladies in his saloon, and the face of that aged lady, and the words she uttered, had come up before him ever since, and that he often had resolved to give up the business, but he knew not what else to do; he repeated her exhortation, and said he should never take up the business again. One of our ladies who said she would do anything for the cause but visit saloons, hesitated no longer when appealed to by an almost broken-hearted mother (the widow of a Congregationalist clergyman), who had just learned that her son, her sole dependence, was drinking in saloons. “Go,” she said, “I beg of you, and ask them not to sell liquor to my _boy_. Something must be done: I cannot bear it.” God gave the message, and her appeals in behalf of suffering wives and mothers brought tears to eyes unused to weeping and some promised that they would not sell liquor to young men without first remonstrating with them. One rum-seller said that on no account would he let his boys drink what he was selling to other men’s boys. Prayer-meetings were also held in the police court-room, and the poor victims of rum awaiting their trial in the station, and the roughs who were loitering about, were invited in and brought under gospel influence. The pledge was circulated among them, and some signatures obtained; but the good done by these and the saloon visiting, eternity alone shall reveal. Though we are not without evidence that some from that time have walked in newness of life. Near the commencement of our work, we districted the city, appointing committees in each district to carry the pledge to every house, asking that intoxicating beverages be discarded for culinary and social purposes, A good many signatures were obtained. A property-holders’, physicians’, and druggists’ pledge were also circulated.

It was suggested by our friends that it would be well for us to memorialize our Legislature, which was then in session, asking for a restriction to be put upon the sale of intoxicating liquors in our State, as a means of promoting the cause for which we prayed. We learned that they were to adjourn the next day. There was but little time for action. We went out from our meeting, and during the evening secured the names of five hundred women to our petition.

After a short service of prayer, in the morning, about fifty ladies slowly and silently marched, two by two, to the State House. The importance of our mission, and the uncertainty of success, overwhelmed us with sadness. The burden of that hour we shall never forget. It seemed like a funeral march to the graves of thousands of rum’s victims, while the wailing cry of suffering wives and more than orphaned children were ringing in our ears. We were a band of retiring women, unaccustomed to publicity, and we timidly shrunk from the seeming boldness of the step we were taking; but believing that we were in the path of duty we went on, sustained by a power not our own, and presented our request. We were kindly received by the honorable gentlemen, and a hearing granted us.

A mass-meeting of women was held, the 13th of April, and a City Women’s Temperance Union was organized. Expecting that our petition for prohibitory law would be considered at the May session of the Legislature, we secured the names of ten thousand women of the State, and, at a day appointed for a hearing, twenty-three ladies of Providence went to Newport, carrying the names, and listened with prayerful attention to the discussion. It was long and fierce. The rum power had rallied all their forces to defeat the bill. They had left no stone unturned to win their cause. It was kept along, day after day, and, as a last resort, they moved to carry it over to the January session, which would effectually kill it. The vote was taken on the movement, and announced a tie. Immediately all eyes were anxiously fixed upon the President of the Senate, whose vote should decide the question. Rum’s advocates looked triumphant, for they felt quite sure the vote would be in their favor. We committed our cause to Him “who doeth all things well,” and calmly watched and waited. ’Twas but a moment. Of that moment, and God’s purposes in it, you will better understand, as we have, by the following quotation from a speech recently delivered by the _then_ President of the Senate, _now_ his Excellency, Governor Vanzant, of Rhode Island, before a temperance convention held in this State. He says--I quote his words:

“I sat in your Senate chamber, as its temporary presiding officer, when the so-called prohibitory law was before it for its action. The question was upon the postponement of the law until the January session. The clerk of the Senate handed the roll to me, for which I was utterly unprepared, and announced a tie vote. The whole thing then rested marvellously, magically, and wondrously on me. By education and association, I was conservative--I doubted the influence of the so-called sumptuary legislation, because I had been brought up in that school. But, my friends, in one _moment_--for it came upon me in a moment--it came upon me just as the face of nature is revealed to the gazing eyes of a looker-on, in the darkness of the night, when the sky is black, and there is a flash of lightning exceedingly luminous, and he sees new dangers that he was before unaware of. My mind moved with inconceivable rapidity, and a train of thoughts, something like this, passed before me, like a weird panorama: I looked back to the days of my youth, and I saw those who started out with life full of bloom and happiness fallen at my side, the victims of this great Moloch. I saw society disorganized, deranged. I saw men who honestly and with Christian faithfulness lifted their hearts and aspirations to God, and they were dragged down into the mud, and slime, and filth of corruption and degradation by this same power. I saw the fairest happiness of woman soiled and ruined. I saw little children degraded and ignorant. And I read in the faces of the little band of _earnest women_, who so intently watched and waited my action, the hope of a triumph of right over wrong. I made up my mind to cast my vote against the postponement of that law. I did so, and have never regretted it. By that vote, ladies and gentlemen, I stand or fall. This,” he said, “is the first opportunity I have had to stand before an audience of temperance men and women, and thank them for what they have done for me.”

In January, 1875, the Women’s State Temperance Union was organized and made auxiliary to the National Union.

In the spring the rum power was again dominant. And the prohibitory law was repealed, and a license law enacted in its stead. This was discouraging to us, and some were ready to abandon the field to the enemy. But a _few_, who believed that God had called them to the work, kept the ball moving. Quietly and silently they went about visiting the intemperate in their homes and in prisons, circulating temperance literature, and in many ways endeavoring to cultivate temperance sentiment among the people. The number who rallied to the work in the fall, after the summer vacation, was very small. Many felt that they had spent their strength for nought, and surely had no might against so great an enemy. Scarcely enough came together at the weekly prayer-meeting to claim the promise, that “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The propriety of disbanding was discussed. A meeting was called to consider it. Only three or four felt interest enough to come. A great burden was laid upon us; and, although the enemy had the field, we resolved not to retreat.

We kept on praying, until God appeared for us. After about three months persistent effort, Dr. Reynolds consented to give us two days from his time in Massachusetts. The day previous to his coming was observed as a day of prayer for God’s blessing on his work. Meetings were held all day. A large hall was filled with the earnest workers of the city, and the meeting was one of great power and interest.

The right chord had been struck. Men who had been reformed took hold of the work in earnest, and carried it on with wonderful success. The largest hall in the city was soon too small to hold the crowd that came to the meetings. Large numbers signed the pledge, including many talented and influential men, some of whom had long been slaves to intemperance. The old Providence club was resuscitated, and rallied to the work, going over the State telling the story of their redemption.

There are now twenty-seven Reform Clubs in the State, with an aggregate membership of 8,500. More than 23,000 adults have signed the pledge, besides a large number of children. The work has overflowed into adjoining States, and nearly 6,000 pledges have been taken in border towns by our workers.

The whole State seems to be aroused, and the prospect is encouraging beyond precedent. The fear that some of our ladies entertained, that we made a mistake in appealing to law, is entirely dispelled, since it is so clear that, though our prohibitory law was repealed, God was fitting a noble man to honor Him and His cause in the highest office of the State.

Our Union is efficiently organized, and the women of the State seem to be waking up to more earnest work. Though we can write thus encouragingly, still there are hard battles to be fought before the right shall triumph. The harvest is great, and the laborers few; yet when we look back to the commencement of the so-called woman’s movement, we can but exclaim: “Behold what great things our God hath wrought!”

I am indebted to Mrs. S. Clough, Corresponding Secretary of the State Union, for the above facts.

MASSACHUSETTS.