published a translation of much of the New Testament.

        The president of a State Normal College in Mississippi for the negroes says he had a student who could read one hundred and twenty-five consecutive verses of Homer's Iliad without one mistake; but it was impossible for that same student to copy a figure in analytical geometry. To others who had mathematical gifts the languages were unattainable. Of course, these cases of unusual attainment are exceptional.

        In a lecture given in Memphis, Tennessee, February, 1899, Judge James M. Greer presented a definition of the negro that will be endorsed by every Southerner who knew him, as the judge did, in ante-bellum days. The one generation since has not been long enough to materially change him, except as he has fluctuated in the chaos of his upheaval from slavery to the freedom to follow his undisciplined will and his disorganized circumstances. There will be much sympathy with these true and kindly words of Judge Greer: "I knew him so intimately in my own childhood, knew him as the trusted, loyal slave; knew him as my friend and my inferior, that I believe I may say to you that he was an anomaly in history and a contradiction in human nature. If he was wanting in settled purpose and determined mental effort, he was also without malicious hatred or puling complaint. If he had the thoughtlessness of childhood, he had also its faith. If he was religious without reason, he was devout without hypocrisy. . . . If he was without fixed principles in his life, he was kind in his impulse. If he was without the knowledge

of books, he had gained much from observation. If he never originated, he readily imitated. If his courage was small, his rebellions were few. If his family ties were weak and his domestic life fickle, his humor was great and his charity enormous. If he was uncertain in the line of meum and tuum, he was generous in distribution, hospitable in the extreme, and improvident always. If he was without profound wisdom, he was also without deep sorrow.

        "I may say of him truthfully that he was a humorist without wit, a lover without constancy, a poet without words, a father without control, a husband without rights, a slave without hatred, a friend without equality, an inferior without resentment, a human without ambition, a man without a country. He became a soldier without discipline, a politician without statesmanship, and a freeman without ceasing to be a child."

CHAPTER XI

EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN WOMEN

        The only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is that he gives himself for a principle. Words, money, all things else are comparatively easy to give away; but when a man makes a gift of his daily life and practice, it is plain that the truth, whatever it may be, has taken possession of him. - LOWELL.

        DURING the Southern Exposition in 1884, my second trip was made to New Orleans. The world had changed considerably to me since my first visit: my eyes had grown accustomed to larger visions. Since beginning to teach, every question that related to the attainments and possibilities of women was of intense interest to me; but especially her developed power of bread-winning.

        Julia Ward Howe was lecturing in the city. She was the first woman I had ever heard speak before a public audience, except students on a school rostrum. Never can the eagerness be forgotten with which my feet hastened to the hall where she was to be heard, nor the absorption with which my listening ears drew in every word, nor the critical attention that was given to every detail of the speaker's appearance, from the lace cap that rested on her brainy head down to the toes of her common-sense boots.

        She spoke on "Woman's Work." As she talked

brilliantly and fluently my enchantment grew The remark that she had visited several foreign countries and had addressed the women of each in their own tongue particularly impressed me. How far away those strange lands seemed! How wonderful to be looking at a person who had really seen them! Going to Europe had been the dream of my life, and here was a woman who had actually been there! For many years an earnest desire had possessed me to behold a genuinely strong-minded woman, - one of the truly advanced type. Beautiful to realize, she stood before me! and in a position the very acme of independence - upon a platform delivering a speech!

        Since the development of my reasoning faculties I had believed in the rights of women, although in an article on that subject, written at the age of nineteen, I had affirmed "that we do not ask for the ballot." It would have been too shocking, and my radicalism at that period was in the chrysalis state. There was born in me a sense of the injustice that had always been heaped upon my sex, and this consciousness created and sustained in me a constant and ever increasing rebellion. The definite idea of the political emancipation of woman, as a happy and logical solution of the vexed question, did not present itself to me in a positive guise until some time after my entrance upon the list of wage-earners.

        Mother and father had reared me in a very liberal atmosphere concerning the intellectual and political status of women, for they were both advocates of woman suffrage; father was particularly ardent. He had often

said that it filled him with humiliation to think that his wife and daughter were not his equals before the law; and with indignation that the mother of his children could be looked on in any other light.

        It gives me deep joy to remember that later on in our experience, on mother's sixty-seventh birthday, she drove with me four miles through the country to attend a suffrage meeting which I addressed. An Equal Rights club was organized in which mother assisted. Father, who was at that time seventy-one years of age, was made its president. Another fact that I remember gratefully is that it was my privilege to serve the Mississippi State Woman Suffrage Association for awhile as its president.

        Notwithstanding father's broad-minded position in the earlier days it did not occur to him that his daughter might desire to enter the field of active modern workers. That was "the pinch;" but since my way had been fought into public school teaching he had never opposed my progressive views nor interfered with my undertakings. By gradual stages he became alive to every issue in which my interest was involved and did all in his power to further my projects. He began to consult my opinion on important affairs. Every family trouble, every enterprise, every hope was discussed between us. Perfect freedom of thought and expression had been allowed me since my birth, and absolute freedom of action since my thirteenth year. The privilege had been granted of selecting my own clothes and choosing my own companions. After the beginning of my teens father and mother never said to me, "You shall do this,"

or "You shall not do that." Since my clash of ideas with father at nineteen, he has asked me at the beginning of each year: "Well, daughter, what are your plans?" Often when he has been implored to direct me on certain subjects or to criticize my actions he has invariably said: "You must exercise your own judgment. I have perfect faith in your powers of discrimination." Mother endorsed these sentiments fervidly.

        The freedom of my home environment was perfect, but I recognized the fact that there were tremendous limitations of my "personal liberty" outside the family circle. An instance of it soon painfully impressed my consciousness. Three of my brothers, the comrades of my childhood, had become voting citizens. They were manly and generous enough to sympathize with my ballotless condition, but it was the source of many jokes at my expense among them. On a certain election day in November, they mounted their horses and started for the polls. I stood watching them as they rode off in the splendor of their youth and strength. I was full of love and pride for them, but was feeling keenly the disgrace of being a disfranchised mortal, simply on account of having been born a woman, - and that by no volition of my own. Surmising the storm that was raging in my heart, my second brother - who was at home from the West on a visit of over a year's duration - looking at me, smiling and lifting his hat in mock courtesy said: "Good morning, sister. You taught us and trained us in the way we should go. You gave us money from your hard earnings, and helped us to get a start in the world. You are interested infinitely more

in good government and understand politics a thousand times better than we, but it is election day and we leave you at home with the idiots and Indians, incapables, paupers, lunatics, criminals and the other women that the authorities in this nation do not deem it proper to trust with the ballot; while we, lordly men, march to the polls and express our opinions in a way that counts."

        There was the echo of a general laugh as they rode away. A salute was waved to them and a good-by smiled in return; but my lips were trembling and my eyes were dim with tears. For the first time the fact was apparent that a wide gulf stretched between my brothers and me; that there was a plane, called political equality, upon which we could not stand together. We had the same home, the same parents, the same faculties, the same general outlook. We had loved the same things and striven for the same ends and had been equals in all respects. Now I was set aside as inferior, inadequate for citizenship, not because of inferior quality or achievement but by an arbitrary discrimination, that seemed as unjust as it was unwise. I too had to live under the laws; then why was it not equally my interest and privilege, to elect the officers who were to make and execute them? I was a human being and a citizen, and a self-supporting, producing citizen, yet my government took no cognizance of me except to set me aside with the unworthy and the incapable for whom the state was forced to provide.

        That experience made me a woman suffragist, avowed and uncompromising. Deep down in my heart

a vow was made that day that never should satisfaction come to me until by personal effort I had helped to put the ballot into the hands of woman. It became a mastering purpose of my life.

        The women of the South have not sought work because they loved it; they have not gone before the public because it was desirable for themselves; they have not arrived at the wish for political equality with men simply by a process of reasoning; all this has been thrust upon them by a changed social and economic environment. It is the result of the evolution of events which was set in motion by the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

        At the close of the war when the entire South was lying prostrate and bleeding; her fertile fields left bare and desolate, her lovely homes ravaged by fire and sword; her young men slaughtered or disabled; her commercial streams choked and stagnated; her system of labor utterly and forever destroyed; her social affiliations blasted and every feature of life dazed and revolutionized, the women of that unhappy time arose in the majesty of their hitherto undreamed-of strength and with forceful calmness and unmurmuring determination, put their hands figuratively and literally to the plow and have never faltered nor looked back. Their heroism has not been known as it deserves. When, after the war, the men were dying all about them from the hardships that they had endured in the field of battle, the mother-heart of the South said, "Somebody must live for the sake of our children" - and the women lived and worked. Those of the better classes had been

accustomed to the control and management of servants and households, often of large planting interests. They were full of resources, and their naturally flexible temperament made readjustment easier to them than to men. For a decade or more, the boys usually went to work at the time they should have entered college, partly from necessity, partly because many of them had served in the Confederate army and preferred work to the confinement of a student's life. The daughters were sent to college; every sacrifice was made for this end, until, after fifteen years, the superiority of culture of the young woman over the average young man was very noticeable. Improving circumstances gradually corrected this inequality: but the tide had set toward the advancement of women in the educational and industrial field.

        Now, over the South, boarding schools and academies with their meagre curriculum have been supplanted by industrial institutes and colleges where young women are drilled in common-sense pursuits that will fit them to be bread-winners; sending them out into the world with skilled hands and trained minds. Medical colleges once devoted wholly to men are now equally open to women. Among these is the State Medical College of South Carolina, at Charleston, Tulane University of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Johns Hopkins at Baltimore, Maryland. The following state institutions are co-educational: University of Alabama, Arkansas Industrial University, University of Mississippi, University of Missouri, University of North Carolina, University of Tennessee, University of Texas, West Virginia

University, South Carolina College, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College; also for the negro race Delaware State College for Colored Students, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (Mississippi), and Agricultural and Mechanical College (North Carolina). Very much after the order of Harvard and Columbia, the doors of the University of Alabama have been opened to young women. The annex is named for Miss Julia Tutwiler, the noted Alabama educator, who has done more to secure the opportunities now granted the girls than any other woman in her state.

        Four Southern states have industrial schools for white girls: - Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. Mississippi was the first State in the Union to have a State Industrial College; also the first to have an Industrial College for Girls. There were industrial schools, but not as planned in Mississippi by the State for the girls.

        Nearly all public normal schools in the South are co-educational. The custom is gaining in favor and there is a pronounced sentiment for allowing women to hold administrative situations in the educational system. In the field of instruction Southern women occupy an honored position. There are thousands of women teachers in the common schools of the South to-day, besides hundreds of college professors, principals of high schools, presidents of normals, county superintendents of education, school commissioners, members of school boards and committees on examination.

        Two prominent women asked the State Superintendent of Education of Louisiana not long since what proportion of women were employed in the public schools of that state. He replied that there were about nineteen-twentieths. This is a fair average of women teachers in all the Southern states. Two-thirds of the 425,000 teachers now in the United States are women.

        There were 1,391 more women teachers in the city of Baltimore, in December, 1896, than male teachers. It is a significant fact that the salaries of women teachers in nearly every Southern state, probably in all, are smaller than those of male teachers, - which fact may be stated as general for most states of the Union. Less pay for the same amount and character of work is a cause as potential in arousing the unrest of women as that they are taxed to support a government that denied them representation.

        Hundreds of missionaries go out from among Southern women every few years into home and foreign mission fields and almost every group of worshipers, however small, has a woman's missionary society. The majority of churches welcome women to their pulpits and Southern women evangelists are counted with the most successful in the United States of either sex. Some denominations allow women to represent them in their local councils and send them as delegates to legislate in ecclesiastical assemblies. In the South, as everywhere, women constitute two-thirds of the membership of the young people's church societies. Young Southern women are beginning to ask for deaconesses' orders and although not allowed to expound the Scriptures

as ordained ministers, yet some have graduated from schools of theology and many more are being prepared unconsciously to officiate as clergymen in the splendid drills they are receiving in gospel training schools, and the active work of the Young Woman's Christian Association. Women are superintendents of Sunday-schools, collecting stewards and elders, and are filling almost every office known to the church except that of pastor.

        From early Colonial times women have conducted newspapers in the South, written articles on strong-minded subjects and produced many works of fiction; but it was left to the women of these later days to blossom into full-fledged journalists, editors, reporters and managers of great dailies, proprietors of magazines and authors of books, forming a growing and brilliant host.

        A young lady of New Orleans told me that she was not allowed, several years ago, to go shopping on the most elegant business street of that city without a chaperone; afterward she became a reporter for one of the most influential papers, going out alone at all hours of the day and night. This has been the experience of many Southern girls. Numbers of women belong to press associations in the South, and some are presidents of these important bodies. Clubs, literary, industrial, scientific and political, abound from one end of the South to the other. Railroads are employing Southern women as bookkeepers and telegraph operators, and they are acceptably filling the responsible position of freight and passenger agent. They are seen behind counters as clerks, in drug stores as pharmacists, in offices

by the score as typewriters and stenographers. We find them successful merchants, hotel keepers, farmers and cattle ranchers, state librarians, cashiers of banks, postmasters, artists, sculptors, architects and musicians, presidents of banks, police matrons, trained nurses, superintendents of hospitals, instructors of gymnasiums, steamboat captains, and officials in the employ of our national government, supporting not only themselves but often large families. Southern women are rapidly entering the professions of law and medicine; many are promising amateur practitioners, while others have already reached the zenith of the expert.

        When a man married a wealthy woman of the South, a few decades ago, all of her property passed into the hands of her husband. Mississippi claims the honor of being the first state in the Union to bestow the right upon married women of full control of their property. Since it took the initiative, in 1880, the measure has become popular, not only in the South, but in many other states.

        When the bill giving women the control of their property was before the Mississippi legislature, its opponents argued against it on the ground that if passed and allowed to go into execution, it would disrupt families. This idea of the disruption of families has been a terror that has hounded the steps of the reformer for generations, but the home tie seems to remain unruffled, through all the revolutions.

        Southern women have developed marvelously as lecturers and organizers in philanthropic movements. Nearly every state in the South can boast of women

orators who have addressed hundreds of enthusiastic audiences and unflinchingly pushed their way through overwhelming difficulties to positions of influence and power.

        Modern reformations have gained a foothold in the hearts and lives of Southern women that is astonishing to all who realize the intense conservatism that fettered them in other days.

        The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the golden key that unlocked tile prison doors of pent-up possibilities. It was the generous liberator, the joyous iconoclast, the discoverer, the developer of Southern women. It, above all other forces, made it possible for women to occupy the advanced and continually advancing position they now hold. A position that is leading steadily to the highest pinnacle that can be reached in civil government, namely, the political emancipation of women. The hungry avidity with which the brainy, philosophical women of the South are taking hold of this great subject is something at which we cannot wonder. It is the natural outcome of their desperate struggles for individual freedom. This sentiment for woman suffrage is not confined to one sex, by any means. I have always maintained, and do now insist, that Southern men, as a rule, are stronger advocates for the enfranchisement of women than men in any other section of the United States except in certain portions of the West. The old-time element of chivalry, which constituted so largely the make-up of the Southern gentleman, has been handed down through the generations and now begins to crystalize in the direction

of equality before the law for men and women. Southern people are hospitable to reforms, whether they come in the guise of religion, philanthropy or politics, if justice and righteousness lie at the foundation. The movement for woman suffrage has advanced slowly in the South, because very slight effort has been made there to secure the ballot for women, and the thought is somewhat a new one to the masses. For years, in different Southern states I have heard prominent men say: "If women want to vote, it is all right. We have no objection. As human beings, they are entitled to the same privileges as we are, and require the same legal protection. We do not give them the ballot because they do not seem to desire it. Just as soon as they demand it, they will get it."

        When the constitutional convention was held in Mississippi, a few years since, suffrage came very near being granted to the women of that state; and in South Carolina, soon after, the bill introduced in the legislature for woman's enfranchisement was lost by a remarkably small vote in the senate. In 1898, the state of Louisiana, by constitutional enactment, gave to all tax-paying women the right to vote upon all questions submitted to the tax-payers.

        There are several states in the South that give women the right of suffrage to a limited degree, and whenever they have exercised that privilege they have been treated with the utmost deference by the male citizens who met them on an equal footing at the polls. Kentucky enjoys the distinction of being the first state in the nation to grant suffrage in any form to women.

This was done as early as 1838. Of course, there are thousands of men in the South, as elsewhere, who are heavily coated with an impenetrable crust of prejudice concerning the hoary creed of "woman's sphere," who would oppose bitterly any effort made for her enfranchisement, just as they would fight any other progressive measure. To this class belong the liquor dealers, the wily politicians of the lower stamp, the ultra-conservative ecclesiastics, the superfine "swells" and men who have risen from the humbler walks of life deprived of early advantages of education and the refinements of elevated home environments.

        Exactly as there are opponents among men, so are there thousands of women in the South who have arrayed themselves in a belligerent attitude toward the movement that was instituted especially for their well-being. There are multitudes of others who are still in a deep sleep regarding the necessity of having the ballot, and are continuing to drone the old song in their slumbers: "I have all the rights I want;" but there are many of their sisters who are beginning to rub their eyes and look up with a glad surprise upon the new day that is breaking, while scores of others have shattered every shackle that bound them to the old conditions and have walked out boldly into the flood-tide of the most benignant evolution that the centuries have brought to them, and are working with heart and brain on fire to materialize into legislation the most potential gift that civilization can bestow.

        There are woman suffrage societies in every state in the South, and equal rights conventions are constantly

being held. There are women everlastingly busy in sending out suffrage literature, lecturing and organizing political equality clubs, in supplying articles for the press, in appearing before legislatures and committees and interviewing representatives, in canvassing towns and counties, and in every other way laboring to promulgate the divine doctrine of equality, realizing that when men and women "shall know the truth, . . the truth shall make" them "free."

        A striking illustration of what sort of energy and persistence is in the Southern character is shown in the efforts of a young woman who was born in South Carolina, and brought by her parents at the age of seven to Mississippi, where she was reared on a farm near Meridian. From her earliest years, she was possessed of a great love for natural science, and was filled with an ambition for a liberal education: but she was poor, and the future looked shadowy and forbidding. It was not so dark, however, as not to be overcome by a relentless energy. At one time her brother playfully gave her the large sum of five cents. With this a yard of calico was bought, out of which she manufactured a sunbonnet and sold it for twenty-five cents. That amount was invested in more calico, and a dress was made and sold; then reinvestments followed till $12 was realized. She persuaded her father to let her have an acre of ground to cultivate for a year; her request was granted, and from her own labor and the help of the $12 a crop of sweet potatoes was raised which netted $40. This amount just covered the required deposit necessary to enter the Industrial Institute and College,

at Columbus, Mississippi. Here she paid her board for four years by doing dining-room work. In 1891 she was graduated with the degree of B. A.

        The next year was passed in Meridian studying medicine under one of the leading physicians. In the fall of '92 she entered the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, paying her way through that institution by giving private lessons in physiology and chemistry to the students, for which she received $2 an hour, and, at odd times, working as a waitress in a restaurant. During the summers she stayed in Philadelphia nursing, thus making her expenses and gaining much practical knowledge. In 1895 she was graduated from the Woman's Medical College, and returned at once to Meridian. Very soon she was requested by two mission boards to go to China and take charge of hospital work there, but she said she felt called to practice medicine in the South, in her own state and among her own people. Six months after her graduation as a physician, she took the state medical examination and was granted a license to practice - the first woman in Mississippi who has gained such a distinction. Her reception by the physicians of her state has been cordial and courteous. Dr. Rosa Wiss is now an honored and independent physician with a success assured by the precedent narrated.

        The mighty principles that are now being wrought out in the splendid lives of the women of this nation received their impetus several years before the Civil war. Jessie Cassidy in her compact little book called "The Legal Status of Women," published in 1897 for

the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in the Political Science series, gives a concise but comprehensive history of the woman's movement in these words: "The first organized demand by women for political recognition was made in the United States in 1848, at the memorable Seneca Falls Convention. That suffrage should be included had not beforehand entered the minds of those who issued the call for the convention, but it was suggested during the preparation of the Declaration of Independence and incorporated in the list of grievances submitted by the committee. It came like a bombshell upon the unprepared convention, and after a long discussion was passed by only a bare majority. Lucretia Mott was one of those who at that time could not see her way to support it. The organization of different State Suffrage Associations followed, continuing the agitation. In 1869 Wyoming granted full political equality to women.

        "Different degrees of school suffrage are now granted in twenty-two states and territories, partial suffrage for public improvements in three, municipal suffrage in one, and in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho women vote for all officers, local, state and national, exactly as do men."

        The following is a list of states and territories that have given the franchise in some form to women: Arizona and Oklahoma territories; Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South

Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

        In 1869, John Stuart Mill introduced the question of woman suffrage in Parliament. This was the first movement that was made for it in England. Since then women have been granted local franchise to a great extent and now a strong demand is being made for Parliamentary Suffrage. The cause of equal rights is gaining constantly in many provinces and countries on the continent. In a number of them local and school franchise has been given to women. Full suffrage is enjoyed in the Isle of Man, New Zealand, and South and West Australia. The following is a register of foreign countries that have given the ballot to women in some form: Australasia - Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, New South Wales, New Zealand, South and West Australia; Canada - Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, British Columbia; Cape of Good Hope, England, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Russia, Austria, Brunswick, Croatia, Saxony Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, Austria - Bohemia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Cracow, Moravia; Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Roumania.

CHAPTER XII

THE TRANSFORMATION

                        Why thus longing, thus forever sighing
                        For the far-off, unattainable and dim, -
                        While the beautiful, all around thee lying
                        Offers up its low, perpetual hymn? - HARRIET WINSLOW

        MY last private school in Flora was continued only a few months. At the beginning of the New Year, 1887, my pupils were turned over to the public school and I sought a much needed rest in a visit to some relatives in St. Louis, Missouri, where six weeks were spent. There was the usual round of society gaieties but the extent of my participation was entertaining numerous visitors, attending receptions and the theatre.

        This breath from the old life found me as miserable as five years before, full of the same restless and unhappy questioning, and more disgusted than ever with the emptiness of an existence without a definite aim, I was yearning continually for an intangible Something, but believing in nothing.

        On my return from St. Louis a lengthy visit was made to Canton. My mathematical studies under Mrs. Drane were resumed and examination taken, for the second time, under the new school law, in both of which first-grade certificates were obtained. My plans were

unsettled but wisdom pointed to a state of readiness for any emergency. Soon after going home a letter was received from Mrs. Drane inviting me to join her in the flourishing school she had established at Canton: "Not as my assistant," she wrote, "but as my partner; sharing equally my labor and my income." A short time previous father's health had begun to fail. This made it imperative for me to remain near him, so the tempting offer had to be declined.

        In the fall, my fifth public school year was begun near home in a new school-house that had replaced the old hut - the scene of my former struggles. It was not necessary for me to go from house to house begging for pupils as in earlier days, but the same visitations were made because a great yearning over humanity had crept into my heart, and the desire of my life was to do something for its solace and its uplift. My eyes had slowly opened to many truths; among the chief was a recognition of my intensely selfish, inordinately proud and uselessly embittered spirit. I saw that there was poverty in the world infinitely more stringent and painful than mine; that there was suffering cruel and exquisite, to which my sorrows were as drops of rain to the fathomless ocean; that there was hunger for light and sympathy, the intensity and need of which I was but beginning to comprehend; that there was ignorance pitiful and paralyzing in the very air about me; that there was degradation within reach of my finger-tips terrible and communicable.

        With the dawning of these realities there came the conviction that one and all ought to be remedied, and

that I should be an instrument in a new dispensation. Accompanying this consciousness was the knowledge that my own shortcomings would have to be conquered before it would be possible for me to help others. Then began a closer self-analysis; my most prominent failings were singly the subjects of excision. I forced myself to think of others' wishes as superior to my own; my pride was humbled by every crucifying device that suggested itself. An effort was made to tear out all roots of bitterness and to cultivate every tender sentiment. Clothes were bought for the needy and journeys were made around the country for the purpose of soliciting food for the destitute. The sick were visited and the lives of those who sat in the shadow brightened. Books and periodicals were sent to persons who could not afford such luxuries and an earnest endeavor was instituted to soften their hard lots by sympathy with their leaden atmosphere and sunless prospects. Sins that were intolerably repugnant were overlooked and outcasts, in the darkness of shame, were sought out.

        The wider the windows of my soul were opened the more distinctly was my true self revealed - odious in conceit, selfishness and prejudice. The greater my humiliation the stronger was my yearning for an infinite, inexplicable, divinely satisfying Something. At this stage of my spiritual awakening Robert Elsmere was read, Mrs. Humphrey Ward's famous book, which is said to have destroyed the faith of many. I was profoundly impressed with the difference in the life of Elsmere, before and after his renunciation of Christianity; so radiant and useful when in the fullness of

belief, so gloomy and forceless when the light died out.

        My brain began to wonder if such could have been the real experience of a human soul; if so, there surely must be a marvelous power in the possession of faith in Jesus Christ. Then came the remembrance of all the striking characters whose acquaintance had been made through books or personal contact, and they were carefully weighed in the scales of spiritual beliefs. It was found that the happiest and most useful professed a changeless faith in God, and the most objectless and miserable rejected Him. A desire grew to know that wonderful essence called religion which could effect such transformations and sustain such power in the human heart. "What is God?" was asked again, not impatiently this time, not imperatively, but with an undying hunger that all the years had not quieted. "O, my soul, what is God?"

        In the solitude of my room the Bible was opened. It had been closed ever since the hour the knowledge came that my school-days were over, - soon after my fifteenth birthday. I began at "In the beginning" and read on through the Old Testament, finding nothing satisfying, but numerous inconsistencies, unaccountable incidents and mystifying statements. I laid the book down with deep disappointment. A feeling swept over me of utter repugnance. Acceptance of the story of creation was impossible; the history of Adam and Eve was considered an allegory. It appeared unbelievable that a man as cold-blooded as Abraham in driving Hagar from his home should be the "friend of God." Jacob, to my

mind, was a shameless deceiver and a thief, and could never have been chosen as the father of his people by God. Moses was a murderer and could not have been divinely selected to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and to "talk face to face" with God. There was no poetry in the Psalms because David wrote them, and the sins he had committed were so hideous as to shut him out forever from any suggestion of greatness or connection with the mercy of God. So it was on down to the last verse in the last chapter of Malachi.

        A second darkness fell upon me. Heart-sick, my daily duties were faithfully done, but my difficulties and sufferings were not mentioned to a living being. The crisis was too sacred for the human touch. There are vast stretches of soul-land in the possession of every unconverted life where none but God have a right to tread. Silent and alone the fierce battle was fought to bring my mind into an attitude of acceptance of "the plan of salvation." There were no promptings of fear in my struggles for a thought of hell did not appeal to me. The pitiless restlessness swayed constantly in my soul. My intellect rebelled, my heart was as stone. The truth was no nearer my grasp than at first and my condition was as wretched and comfortless as when, without rudder or compass, my faith drifted out from me on the ocean of night, ten years before. Work in school and everywhere else was undertaken with more vehemence than ever, but my despair only deepened as the craving grew for a great Completeness. After many dreary weeks, the Bible was again opened and the reading continued where I had left off, - the first chapter

of Matthew, - "The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ." What a strange, sweet thrill went through me! what did it mean? "Of Jesus Christ." Rapidly the pages were turned with eyes and heart aflame. "The old, old story" of the only perfect Man; lowly, yet kingly; gentle, but strong; tender and faithful - "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" fearless in the denunciation of wrong, undismayed in the defence of righteousness, unconquerable in integrity, sublime in innocency, infinite in power and holiness; the perfection of humanity; the fulness of divinity!

        As the reading went on God was revealed to me - translated in the life of Jesus Christ. What difference did it make now about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David! I had found Jesus Christ. In the glory of that possession all unbelief vanished. With a triumphant, "My Lord and my God!" my soul passed into the liberty wherein He maketh free. O, wonderful revelation! O, divine consolation! O, perfect filling! My heart was "satisfied" for the awakening "in His likeness" had come. The hunger was gone. The unrest was stilled. The questioning answered. Peace, joyous and ineffable, that the world can neither give nor take away, swept through my being.

                        "And I smiled to think God's sweetness
                        Flowed around" my "incompleteness
                        Round" my "restlessness His rest."

CHAPTER XIII

MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD

        What power there is in an enthusiastic adherence to an ideal! What are hardships, contumely, slander, ridicule, persecution, toil, sickness, the feebleness of age, to a soul throbbing with an overmastering purpose? - MARSDEN.

        FOR many years the conviction had more and more firmly settled upon my soul that a special mission in life would be my destiny. My highest ambition had been to be a writer. At an early age several short stories were written and, later, articles on education and kindred subjects were contributed to different newspapers. A talent for authorship did not develop satisfactorily, so nothing more pretentious in a literary line was attempted.

        After my conversion the impression of being born for a specific work deepened into a certainty. With this consciousness came a definite act of consecration. All that was mine - brains, hands, feet, life itself - was given into the keeping of Christ to be used for His service. With this surrender there came from the fulness of a glad heart the cry: " 'Here am I. Lord, send me.' - anywhere - to the foreign mission field - to the slums of the great cities - to the self-renouncing vocation of a deaconess or to the isolated calling of a temperance worker - anywhere, O God!"

        My school closed in April. A few days later father said to me: "It is announced in the papers that Miss Frances E. Willard, President of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, is to lecture in Jackson next week. I wish, daughter, that you would go to hear her. She is a woman of international reputation and is considered the greatest orator and foremost reformer of the day. You should make it a point to come into contact with such a beautiful character." "Oh! father," was my reply, "the weariness is so great after these months of teaching that not enough vitality is left to pack a valise!" The next day a letter was received from Bessie Fearn, in which she wrote, "Miss Willard, the famous temperance lecturer, will soon be in Jackson to deliver an address. Do come down to hear her and remain to visit me." "What a strange coincidence!" was my comment, but still I did not think of going. The third day after, a letter arrived from a relative in New Orleans, saying, "I shall be in Jackson next week and am anxious to meet you there. Please do not fail to come." "This is a very unusual conjunction of circumstances," I remarked to father. "Perhaps, after all, it would be better for me to change my mind and go."

        The words, "Woman's Christian Temperance Union," had never fallen upon my ears until the week before Miss Willard came to Jackson, in 1889. Temperance lectures had been listened to from Francis Murphy and Luther Benson, and the Independent Order of Good Templars had been heard of, but I had never known of the existence of a temperance society

composed entirely of women. Father and mother had reared me with the strictest ideas concerning total abstinence; they held most decided views on the subject. Mother had banished wine from her table before my birth, and had not allowed even an egg-nog at Christmas. The decanters and wine glasses were put high up and far away in the cavernous depths of the china-closet and the spiders had long used them to assist their constructive enterprises. The children had been taught that intemperance was more than a beastly vice and drinking, in any degree, a disgrace. When a little girl, attending a picnic, some gentleman offered me a glass of wine and a bottle from which to refill. This incensed me so thoroughly that glass and bottle were tossed into the muddy creek on whose banks we stood and I walked contemptuously away.

        Uncle Kinch was more convivial in his tastes than father, and at his home wines and cordials were freely dispensed. By degrees my Nazarite teachings lost their force, the customs of the society about me were adopted and every sort of refreshment partaken of that was served, - wined ice-tea being a specialty. It often happened during visits to intimate friends that claret was "handed around" at intervals to the young people; at other times, while spending the day with a young lady acquaintance that the mother sent in a bottle of wine to be used at will as we played cards. I was accustomed in towns to see champagne flow at dinings, and I did not refuse it. Once a wine-party was given "to young ladies only" at which I was present. Our hostess had tasted the contents of different bottles before our arrival.

She soon become so visibly "under the influence" that she had to be taken to her room. Of course, after that, she was "cut dead" by the "set." It is only the sin that "finds you out" with which society reckons seriously. At balls and parties I usually took champagne with the rest, but always in my heart there was a sharp protest.

        When the decision was reached that life held something better for me than a giddy round of butterfly flittings, wine drinking was renounced with the other so-called pleasures that go to make up "society." My young men friends began to be talked to earnestly about the dangers of drink and success was completely attained in making myself widely unpopular with the fashionable ring. When the serious business of life commenced there came a recognition of the dreadful havoc drunkenness had made in the homes about me, and the conclusion was reached that total abstinence, and nothing short of it, was the only safe position for any man or woman to occupy. The pledge was signed but the temperance question did not take hold of me with such absorption as to lead me to read on the subject; in fact articles bearing upon it had always been skipped as very tiresome. Up to the moment of hearing Miss Willard my interest in the temperance movement was not greater than in any other religious or philanthropic enterprise. I was simply waiting on God, keeping my heart ready to obey any command and my eyes open to catch the faintest gleam of "Kindly Light " that should show the unmistakable way.

        There was an immense audience present to greet Miss

Willard. It was afterward told me that she had visited Jackson seven times before but had never been able to secure a satisfactory hearing, except when she spoke, in 1889, before the legislature, - nobody else, however, being interested enough to attend. Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, one of the brainiest, most cultured and advanced women of the South, who had made her record as an educator, and afterward became distinguished as a journalist and leader of thought in the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, - had determined that Jackson should hear Miss Willard this time, and, by the use of wise methods, including elaborate advertising, had been a potent cause of the assembling of the vast crowd that sat and stood, anxiously awaiting the great speaker. Many were turned from the door unable to gain entrance. The State Medical Association, which was in session in Jackson, adjourned in honor of the occasion.

        Seats very near the front were secured by my friends and myself so that not a word of the orator should be lost and not an expression of her countenance be missed, in order that we might judge what manner of woman she was. She came quietly into the pulpit, modestly attired. The small bonnet which was worn she removed before arising to speak. One glimpse of that face almost divine, one echo of that matchless voice, one charmed moment under the witchery of that superb intellect were enough to form an epoch in a life, to create a memory unmated forever. Miss Willard that night was the peerless orator, the gracious Christian, the marvelous reformer who shall stand forth in history "until there shall be no more curse" and "the kingdoms

of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ." While she was speaking a vision arose before me of the glad day when not one woman only, but women of all lands shall have entered into the human heritage - as man's equal in society, church and state.

        Mrs. Kells came to me at the close of the address and said: "You must be introduced to Miss Willard. I think she will like you," and drawing me forward to the altar where the speaker stood, presented me. A cordial greeting, an earnest hand-clasp, - then we passed on with the throng. It is a little remarkable that I had met Mrs. Kells but once before, and during our brief acquaintance there had bean only a very short conversation.

        The day following Miss Willard's lecture, in company with Bessie Learn, a call was made upon a mutual friend, Miss Sue Tarpley, who was visiting in Jackson. When I was sixteen years of age this delightful woman came to live at her plantation which was within six miles of my home. We soon became constant companions and for eleven years she was my closest friend, exerting a blessed influence on my life. She came just when she was most needed in my mental and spiritual struggles. Although of the world and worldly-wise she had kept herself "unspotted from the world;" was intellectual, exquisitely refined and of the loftiest religious nature. To use her own words in describing a friend, "She was like a breath of autumn flowers, the undertone in music and all things else that are sweet and unforgetable."

Although my senior by several years, she took me into her "holy of holies" and we found ourselves to be peculiarly congenial.

        While we talked together in Jackson this friend said suddenly, "I somehow feel that you must see Miss Willard and have a conversation with her. These progressive women are total strangers to the traditions of my life, for I am hopelessly of the old régime, but you are thoroughly interested in them. Please don't waste another moment on me, but go at once." We arose to do her bidding. When we reached the street Bessie said suddenly, "It will be useless to try to see Miss Willard at this hour; she is at dinner, and wouldn't have time afterward to receive a call, for she speaks this afternoon at three o'clock, and it is now 2:30. Let us go around to the church and wait until she comes. You may possibly have a chance to talk with her before the meeting opens."

        While waiting for Miss Willard, Dr. W. C. Black sat near me. He was pastor of the First Methodist Church in Jackson and an old friend of my family, having once filled the pulpit at Vernon. He had since risen to distinction in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and had added to his reputation as a most invincible antagonist of the liquor traffic, and by the publication of his recent book, "Christian Womanhood," which fixed his place as a scholarly, broad-minded thinker. In course of conversation he was told of my late acceptance of Christ, of my entire consecration, and of my willingness to be sent to the missionary field, to enter the order

of deaconesses or to go into the temperance work. These three forms of service had clung persistently in my thought ever since my conversion.

        Miss Willard came and went without my having an opportunity for one word with her. There were a number of prominent Mississippi women present, en route to Crystal Springs, to attend the annual convention of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Miss Willard left immediately after the service in company with them. I supposed we should never meet again. My disappointment was keen.

CHAPTER XIV

THE NEW CAREER

                        To each man's life there comes a time supreme;
                        One day, one night, one morning, or one noon,
                        One freighted hour, one moment opportune,
                        One rift through which divine fulfillments gleam,
                        One space when fate goes tiding with the stream. - MARY A. TOWNSEND.

        WHILE at the breakfast table two days after Miss Willard's visit to Jackson the servant announced that Dr. Black wished to see me in the parlor. On entering the room he greeted me with the following statement: "I went to Crystal Springs, the day after we had our conversation in the church, to look in upon the State Convention. While there I told several of the leaders what you had said in reference to entire consecration and willingness to enter the temperance work. Mrs. Mary E. Ervin, who was formerly president of the Mississippi Woman's Christian Temperance Union, clapped her hands and said: "Praise the Lord! For four years I have been praying for a young woman to be raised up in Mississippi to lead the young women's department of the work. I have been commissioned," continued Dr. Black, "by the foremost women of the convention to tell you that your expenses will be paid to Crystal Springs and that you will be entertained there if you

will go down to the convention. They wish you to come at once. You have one hour in which to decide and to catch the train. Will you go?"

        When he had finished speaking there swept through my mind, like a lightning flash, as is said to occur to the drowning, the memory of my past life. Scene after scene in vivid panorama glided by. Then the thought presented itself of what the result might be if this strange call should be accepted. It would lead me out of the trend of my old existence. Doubtless it would mean renunciation of home life, the estrangement of friends, the criticism of an unsympathetic world; but through all my retrospections and forecasts there was sounding a voice more than human, with an imperative, unmistakable ring: "Go! You must not fail to go!" The hour of my destiny had come. "My soul was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." The answer was given calmly and instantly: "Dr. Black, in one hour I shall be on the train."

        Hurriedly my dress was changed, the street car reached, my ticket bought and I was seated in an express that faced south. From the window a good-bye was waved to Bessie. As the engine pulled out she called: "Now, remember, Belle, you must return this afternoon for we have an engagement to tea at a charming home!" "O, that shall not be forgotten," was sent back in reply. "Meet me at the depot at four o'clock." At the end of an hour or two, accompanied by a minister, who came down in the car with me, I went to the hall where the convention was in session at Crystal Springs.

        What a novel spectacle it was to me! The delegates were massed together in perfect order, each looking so serious and intent; the stage was filled with women and decorated with flowers, while the walls were bright with banners. There were stirring debates and tactful engineering of parliamentary points. A beautiful Christian spirit, holy enthusiasm and sublime devotion for a great cause seemed to animate all.

        A seat was taken on entering in the rear of the room, but in a few minutes Mrs. Kells saw me and sent a page to conduct me to the platform. There were Miss Willard and Miss Anna Gordon, the noble young woman who had accompanied the former in all her labors and travels and who superintended the juvenile temperance work of the nation; Mrs. Mary McGehee Snell, now Mrs. Hall, who afterward became the most celebrated woman evangelist in the South; Mrs. Lavinia S. Mount, the devoted state president of the Mississippi Union, and other distinguished women.

        After the adjournment of the morning session Mrs. Kells said to me: "Now, my dear, if you wish to learn something about the Woman's Christian Temperance Union you must not think of leaving here before the convention closes."

        "O, but I have an engagement for tea this evening in Jackson!" was my protest.

        "This occasion is decidedly more important than a tea," she answered. "Send a telegram at once saying you will not return."

        The message was sent and on the days and nights following I attended every session of the convention,

and was profoundly interested in them. Miss Gordon's address was the first I had heard given to children. It made a lasting impression as a model in its line. Before that experience practical illustration in public speaking was an unknown art to me.

        During a meeting, Mrs. Kells whispered in my ear, "It would not be surprising if you were appointed state superintendent and organizer of the L. T. L. and Y. W. C. T. U." The intimation dazed me. Those letters which slipped so glibly from her tongue were as cabalistic to me as the incantations of an Indian juggler. "Do please explain all that," was my puzzled appeal. "Why," she exclaimed, looking at me with astonishment, "L. T. L. stands for Loyal Temperance Legion, which is a juvenile society, and Y. W. C. T. U. for Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union. It will all come to you in the most natural manner. You must be introduced to the convention."

        "Oh! don't do that!" was my imploring answer. "Being introduced to this body of women would be a new and a terrible ordeal for me. I should not know whether to stand up or to sit down, to laugh or to cry."

        "O, well," she assured me, "if you dread it like that it shall not be done."

        She forgot her promise. On the last afternoon of the convention, without giving me a hint of her purpose, she walked to the edge of the rostrum and announced my appointment by the executive committee as state superintendent and organizer of those strange orders with the mystical capitals. "Will Miss Kearney come to the platform?" she continued. There was nothing

for me to do but to go. She took my hand, and introduced me to the delegates, who arose and gave the Chautauqua salute. In a low tone she said: "You must say something now."

        "Impossible!" was my reply. "I haven't opened my lips before an audience since reading my Commencement essay, eleven years ago."

        "Oh! but you must," she insisted; "this is a good time to begin." Turning complacently to the assembly she added: "I'm telling Miss Kearney that she might as well make her first speech here as elsewhere."

        With a supreme effort I said: "Dear friends: I haven't a conception of what it means to be a state superintendent and organizer of the L. T. L. and Y. W. C. T. U. The existence of your organization was unknown to me three weeks ago. My ignorance concerning your methods is absolute; but something in my soul tells me that I must undertake this work. In accepting the position with which you honor me my promise is given to consecrate the best powers of my young womanhood to the cause to which this day my allegiance is declared."

        Just as my little speech was finished Miss Willard stepped forward and putting her arm about me said some complimentary words of cheer. In a few minutes the convention adjourned and the women, old and young, crowded around, welcoming me to their sisterhood and extending hearty invitations to visit their localities, to speak and to organize. It was impossible to answer them. My voice was choked, my eyes were clouded with the mist of unshed tears. How strange

it all seemed! What was to be the outcome? Not a soul explained my duties, not a suggestion was given. No one had talked with me about the Woman's Christian Temperance Union within the two weeks since I had learned of there being such an organization. I knew nothing of its history nor how to procure literature to enlighten me. In the rush of those few days at Crystal Springs no one had found time to answer questions. One morning I had sought an interview with Miss Willard at the home of her hostess. She walked up and down the parlor with hand clasped in mine talking lovingly and hopefully of my future, but it did not occur to me to ask her about books and papers bearing on the temperance question. As Anna Gordon had passed through the room she handed me a little package of leaflets.

        On returning to Jackson from the convention, my next step was to go to Canton with the purpose of standing another examination in order to resume my school in the fall. I had given myself to the W. C. T. U. work, it is true, but it all seemed very vague; especially how I was to be fed and clothed, for the officers had told me there would no fixed salary, I learned later that expenses and remuneration would depend on collections at my places of appointment. So the practical thing, it seemed to me, was to teach and supervise the work of the two departments now under my charge, not dreaming of going out into public life and making speeches. It presented itself as an absurdity that I should organize others into a temperance society in which my own name was yet to be enrolled.

However, my time-worn plan of keeping myself in a state of preparedness was available in this crisis.

        I shut myself in my room and studied those leaflets that Miss Gordon had given me with the earnestness and devotion that final examination for university honors would demand.

        On my knees, day and night, I cried out for guidance from Almighty God. No help could be obtained from my aunt and uncle, for their ignorance of the subject was as dense as my own. When their counsel was sought with reference to my going into the work, they both said: "Do it, honey, if you want to; it is a new departure to us; we can't say what is best."

        In loneliness of spirit and yearning inexpressibly for some word of advice and sympathy, a visit was made to the Methodist pastor, the man under whose ministry my entrance into the church had been effected, when a little girl, and from whose hands had been taken my first communion; he it was also who had accompanied me from the train to the hall during the recent convention at Crystal Springs. In a very hurried manner he entered the sitting-room of the parsonage and, as hurriedly greeting me, announced that it was very near the hour for his prayer-meeting. While we talked he turned over the leaves of a hymn book searching for the needs of his coming service. "Pardon me," was my first hesitating venture, "but can you tell me anything about the Woman's Christian Temperance Union?"

        "No, ma'am, I cannot;" still turning over the leaves.

        "Well," swallowing to keep down a sob, "can you

tell me anything about the Washingtonian movement and the earlier efforts of temperance reformers?"

        "Not a thing," bending his head lower to discern the numbers of his hymns. "Can you give me an account of Father Matthew's work in Ireland, or tell me if there is a Catholic temperance society in America?"

        "I can give you nothing at all on those subjects," was the reply, leaning back in his chair and covering his mouth with the book to suppress a yawn.

        "You, perhaps, know," was my last despairing effort, "of my appointment as state superintendent and organizer of the Loyal Temperance Legion and of the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union at the convention just adjourned at Crystal Springs? What do you think of my entering the work?"

        "You can do as you please, Miss Belle," he answered, rising. "Of course, you may be sure that you will meet with nothing but snubs. I should certainly hate to see my wife or daughter undertake such a life." He excused himself and went to his prayer-meeting - which was composed, as usual, of about ten women and two men - leaving me alone to work out my own salvation, or not, as might be.

        My next thought was to go to my old friend, Mrs. Drane, who was a staunch Presbyterian, by the way, and unburden my soul to her. In her gentle, kindly fashion, she said: "I know nothing of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, but from what you tell me about it and of your own convictions, I feel it is the call of God to you and that it would be spiritual suicide for you to disregard it. My advice is to go through

no more examinations, think no more of teaching but give yourself wholly to this work for humanity."

        As soon as my commission had been received I wrote to father and mother for their opinions. Mother answered: "My darling, I have always taught you to enter every open door if it led to wider service for the Lord Jesus. If you are persuaded that God wants you in this temperance work don't fail to enter upon it; and I will give you up if it breaks my heart. Flowers are kept in your room while you are away as before a shrine, and I long continually for a glimpse of your face; but my suffering and loneliness now are as nothing compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us through entire submission to the will of Him 'who loved us and gave Himself for us.' " Father wrote: "In a supreme moment, such as that which has come to you, no human being beside yourself can settle the question of destiny. It rests with you and your God. You are standing 'on holy ground.' I would not profane it by even a suggestion as to your duty. You are my only daughter, and I love you as I love my life; but if you feel divinely called to go from home to 'sow beside all waters,' I say go most gladly, and may the richest blessing of our heavenly Father attend you."

        My brothers wrote later that they could not appreciate the motive which actuated me to relinquish a substantial salary as a teacher and go into a strange work without a dollar in view; but if my conscience prompted that it was my duty, they would offer no opposition but follow me in my travels with loyal hearts. All my fears vanished after receiving those letters from my dear

ones, so full of faith and approbation. A renewed consecration of myself to God was made at once, promising to go wherever He directed and do whatever work He gave me and ask no questions about bread, but suffer want and persecution if need be to promote the blessed cause that claimed my fealty. Every association was rejected that hampered and every tie severed that bound me to the old existence. In the strength and majesty of a sublime purpose, I arose and shook myself free!

        The call of God had come. Through that assurance a deep peace abided with me, a joyous rest in Him. There has been ever since a new song in my heart, a new light in my soul, a new inspiration in my life, a definite, sacred purpose that has never died out. My mission was found. No more advice was asked for, no more sympathy sought. I closed the door to all the world but God, - AND WROTE MY SPEECHES.

CHAPTER XV

MY FIRST SPEECH

                  Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,                   Or what's a heaven for? - ROBT. BROWNING.

        AMONG the leaflets in Anna Gordon's package was one of Miss Willard's annual addresses and some of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt's publications on scientific temperance instruction. From these it was easy to gain a comprehensive idea of the scope and purpose of the woman's war against the liquor traffic and definite plans for the children's organization. On a tract designed for the Y. W. C. T. U., the name and address of Miss Mary McDowell, one of the national organizers of the Young Woman's work, were found. I communicated immediately with her explaining my ignorant but inquiring state and asking for some literature bearing directly on her subject. She promptly forwarded several leaflets. From this store of valuables sufficient information was culled to enable me to prepare two speeches, - one for young women, the other for children.

        I had never taken an elocution lesson and knew nothing of voice culture. My unprospected field was entered literally without training. The state president

urged me to go at once into the work of lecturing and organizing. She sent me the address of a young woman who was anxious to have a union formed among the girls at a little place near Port Gibson. While definite arrangements were being made for this trip, a visit was paid to my home for a greeting and good-bye to mother and father and the boys. Before leaving, a meeting was planned for the children and my first public address was given in the Baptist church at Flora. Notes were placed on a table conveniently near, but they had to be glanced at only once or twice. I talked without embarrassment. Several nights after, a meeting was held in the Methodist church for the people at large. No address was attempted but the manuscript of my speech for young women was read, and a Y. W. C. T. U. was formed. There were only four girls present, but every one joined. The smallness of the union caused many to smile. Noticing the amusement rippling over the audience, I said: "This is a weak beginning but I prophesy that within three years there will not be a saloon in this town." At the end of three years there was not a legalized dramshop in the entire district and public sentiment had been revolutionized respecting the liquor traffic.

        A letter finally came from Miss Russell, the young woman near Port Gibson, saying that arrangements had been perfected and that she would meet me at the nearest railway station. One bright, hot day in June, about six weeks after receive my commission from the Crystal Springs convention, I stepped off the train, with umbrella and traveling satchel, to fill my first appointment,

as a W. C. T. U. organizer. There was no one to greet me. On taking my bearings, the village was found to consist of several small stores and a few residences scattered far apart. Nobody was at the depot from whom information could be gleaned, it being quickly deserted after the train had passed; so, one of the stores was invaded and a clerk asked if he could tell me where to find a boarding place. "Over the hill," he answered, jerking his thumb eastward. Summoning my reserve forces, the climb up the dusty road was begun.

        "Over the hill," sure enough, there was a boarding house, clean and white, close by the highway. On knocking at the entrance, a tall, stout woman peered from behind the door at the end of the front hall. "Good morning!" I said cheerfully, her silence forcing me to take the initiative. "Will you allow me to spend to-day and to-morrow here?" It was Saturday; and I did not travel on Sunday.

        "Well, yes, I reckon so!" was the answer, but she did not ask me to come in, and continued to eye me cautiously. Still waiting, my interrogatives were plied in self-defence. "Is Miss Russell in town?"

        "No, indeed! she lives several miles out in the country and has not been here for weeks."

        My heart sank. "Do you know Miss Russell?"

        "Yes, that I do!" A broad smile broke over the landlady's face. "She used to board here and teach school. Do you know Miss Russell?" she asked in turn.

        "No; but she has been inviting me to come here to speak on temperance and organize a union among the

young women. She promised to meet me here today."

        "Won't you sit down?" asked the landlady emerging from behind the door, and apologizing for her lame foot and disheveled appearance. "Miss Russell may come in yet. I haven't heard a word about the meeting. When did you expect to speak?"

        "To-morrow night. Miss Russell was to arrange everything."

        "Well, nothing has been done that I know of. Folks are here from all over the county to-day to a big picnic in the grove back of the house. They ain't thinking about temperance. You can see them gathering now."

        Looking in the direction indicated there were seen some hundreds of persons coming into the woods and disporting themselves in true picnic fashion. An inspiration seized me. "Since the journey has been taken here, I certainly do not intend going away without holding a meeting," I declared. "If a number of notices are written will you have them put up all over the picnic grounds?"

        "Of course I will!" the landlady rejoined. Forthwith, my satchel was opened and in a few moments the following arrestive words were scrawled in a mammoth hand: GREAT W. C. T. U. MEETING TO-MORROW NIGHT! A MISSISSIPPI WOMAN WILL SPEAK! COME! COME! COME!

        My coadjutor remained true to her promise and the notices were posted. Miss Russell arrived early the next morning and satisfactorily explained her previous non-appearance. Arrangements had been made for me

to speak in the village church; an announcement of the lecture was read from the pulpit at the eleven o'clock service. Sunday night the church was packed with people who had come from far and near to behold the novelty of a woman speaker. When the audience was viewed from my position at the altar my courage fell below zero. The blood seemed to freeze in my veins. The opening services seemed remarkably brief and the presiding minister was introducing me to the congregation. Not a word that he uttered was comprehended by my dazed faculties, but when he sat down the fact appeared that my hour had come. Holding to the communion table for support I said: "It will be impossible for me to speak to-night unless some young woman in the audience will first pray." Miss Russell had given me the names of several consecrated girls who had received fine spiritual training at the State Industrial Institute and College, so one of these was called on. Without hesitation the noble young woman responded.

        When the prayer closed my address was begun and carried to the end with ease. The manuscript which was spread out before me was referred to but once. The transport of enthusiasm, the inexplicable fervor, the exquisite joy, the utter abandon that often comes to public speakers in appealing to the intellect and stirring the emotions of an audience descended upon me. It was forgotten whether the listeners were opposers or sympathizers. Nothing was remembered but that my speaking was for deepening and broadening the outlook for young womanhood and the ultimate redemption of mankind from the curse of drink and the blight of social

impurity. It is worth the effort of a life-time to experience the divineness of such a touch.

        From the hour of my speech in that little town until this day, - which means the test of nearly eleven years on the platforms manuscript has not been referred to but once and notes have been used only two or three times. I concluded that decidedly the best course to be pursued was not to be hampered by the consciousness that succor was near but throw myself completely on my own resources and trust. At the close of this my first address to an adult audience my second Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed.

        Several years after this experience, Miss Russell entered the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as state lecturer and organizer and it was my pleasant privilege to arrange a meeting for her. From a girlhood of heroic achievement she advanced to an enviable position as one of the foremost teachers of Mississippi, and from the school-room stepped easily upon the platform.

CHAPTER XVI

"AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE"

        There is no road to success but through a clear, strong purpose. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of whatever sort. - T. T. MUNGER

        WHEN my public work began, acquaintance with the W. C. T. U. was so limited that it seemed impossible to speak those letters in the order in which they should come. I would nearly always say W. T. U. C. or W. T. C. U. until they were conned over and over again--W. C. T. U., W. - C. - T. - U. - like a child studying its lesson. My all was given to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and its service was entered with the avowed determination to succeed, cost what it might of personal energy and sacrifice. It was felt that I was called to push the work and not for the work to push me.

        When Mrs. Mount, the state president, failed to secure engagements for me in certain places, which sometimes happened, if the towns were in need of an organization my creative faculties were set to work to accomplish our purpose regardless of the obstinacy of the hindrances. Every available orthodox means was used. A letter was first written to the minister whose name had been given as a sympathizer with the temperance

movement, explaining my mission and requesting that he secure me an audience, provide entertainment and allow a collection to be taken at the meeting, to defray expenses. If a reply was received saying there was no opening another preacher was written to, and so on, until the ministerial circle in the town was completed. If all wrote that it was a hopeless undertaking, then letters were sent to Christian women whose names had been secured through the ministers. If these failed then men and women outside the churches were appealed to; the destined place was always reached in the end, and a union among the children or the young women was invariably formed.

        After being fairly started it was easy sailing for me in Mississippi. The loveliest homes in the state stood wide open with a warm welcome; the press was generous in its expression, - even the papers most conservative on the woman question and prohibition never once publishing an unkind criticism; and the blessed ministers, with a few isolated exceptions, gave me the heartiest reception and most cordial co-operation. Without them very little could have been effected. They offered me the use of their churches and the hospitality of their parsonages; they spent portions of their limited salaries to advertise the meetings, hireing conveyances to drive me long distances through the country to meet appointments and accompanying me from place to place on the railroads to insure a successful attempt at organization. They failed in nothing that was true and brotherly and Christ-like. To them the deepest gratitude of my heart is rendered faithfully and reverently. It is amusing

to know some of the influences that operated to introduce my work. The third effort at making a speech was at the Methodist Camp-ground, on the Gulf of Mexico, near the little village of Biloxi. While there, a young girl about seventeen years of age, was introduced to me: she was very gay, very bright, and an ardent Episcopalian. It was learned that she lived in one of the adjacent towns, back from the coast, and that the place was full of young ladies. On being asked if she would arrange a meeting for me on her return home, she replied that it was quite impossible. In the afternoon of the same day she went with me to hear Bishop Keener preach. Returning from the service, she said suddenly: "I believe, after all, an audience can be secured for you in my town. In an hour or two I shall leave and will write you in the course of a few days what the prospect is." Within a week I had received an invitation to come, had gone, had organized a very large Y. W. C. T. U., and had been royally entertained in the home of the young girl's parents, who were elegant people. Just before leaving my little hostess said, with a mischievous smile, "Did it ever occur to you that my mind was changed very quickly that day you asked me to secure you an audience here?" On acknowledging that I had often wondered what was the cause, she explained as follows: "When you first spoke to me I was undecided whether the dress you wore was sateen or China silk. If it had been sateen you would not have been asked to this place; but during the prayer after the Bishop's sermon I found it was China silk, and at once concluded to have you come."

        "It is not fine feathers that make fine birds," truly, but it has been discovered to my sorrow for humanity, that it is often fine clothes that gain a hearing for a speaker in an unpopular cause.

        Day by day valuable experience was being added to my limited store. In a few months a visit was paid to a little country place, near Natchez called Washington, one of the historic landmarks of Mississippi, - once the territorial capital and the place where the first Constitutional Convention of the new state met, in 1817; the old Methodist church in which it was held is still standing. Here Aaron Burr was taken, in 1807, after his capture, en route on his supposed treasonable expedition to Mexico, and here he gave bond to appear before the Supreme Court of the Mississippi Territory. Jefferson College, for the education of boys, was located there in 1802. This venerable institution now opened wide its hospitable doors to receive me.

        The minister who had invited me said: "Your meeting is to be in the afternoon. No one will be present except some old settlers. It will be best to talk to them on Prohibition." At that time, my knowledge of the methods employed in the abolition of the liquor traffic went no farther than the principles involved in simple total abstinence; but some points gotten up in my journeyings on the legal side of the question were put together, and we went to the church expecting to find about two dozen elderly ladies and gentlemen congregated; but not a soul was present, and as soon as we arrived it had begun to rain. Just as the thought presented itself of suggesting to the minister and the two

friends who had accompanied us that we return, lo! the doors opened and in marched about fifty students, dressed in uniforms, ranging in age apparently from fifteen to twenty-five, and calmly took their seats with exact military precision.

        Terror seized me. There were only two set speeches in my repertoire: one was for girls and the other for children; the facts that had been prepared for the "old settlers" would answer no better. What was to be done? As soon as the students appeared the minister sat down at the organ, without saying "By your leave," and proceeded to sing; then he prayed and immediately after introduced me. It would have been far easier to have faced a fire of musketry in the heat of battle than the calm gaze of those placid young men. There they sat, still and solemn as the judges of the Areopagus, not relieving the cruel tension by the faintest indication of a smile or a frown. While standing before them the wish uppermost in my heart was that the planks of the old church floor would split and let me drop through to some happier spot: but as the awful seconds went by and no hope presented itself in that direction, or any other, a brave front was assumed, and going on the principle that "honesty is the best policy" the deplorable condition was revealed to them: "Boys, I have no idea what to talk to you about this afternoon," was my frank avowal. "Never before has an audience of young men greeted me. Your august presence is overwhelming. Since entering the W. C. T. U. work, meetings have been held for the public, it is true, but my speeches were made for the benefit either of girls or children.

You do not belong to the first class, so my usual remarks in that line cannot be applied; consequently, the nearest approach to the fitness of things will be to speak to you as if you were little children."

        At this the reserve of my auditors was broken and they laughed aloud and clapped their hands. Encouraged by this demonstration of approval, without further apology I made a talk on Scientific Temperance, telling them of the evil effects of alcohol and tobacco on the human system. They listened with absorbing interest throughout, and, at the close, gave the most tumultuous applause.

        That night was spent at the college as the guest of the president's wife. While sitting in the parlor after supper a committee of young men waited on me with a request from the student body that an address be made to them in the chapel, saying that study hours had been postponed, by special favor of the president, until the meeting was concluded. The invitation staggered me. "Oh! boys!" was my reply in real distress and embarrassment, "you were told all that I know in the church this afternoon; my supply is exhausted." "Come and tell us the same things over," they urged. "The students are so anxious to hear you once more. Several sent word that if you would speak to them again to-night they would sign the pledge against the use of liquor and tobacco." That inducement was too alluring to be resisted; so my opposition weakened and consent was given to hold a meeting.

        As soon as the delegation disappeared to report the result of the interview and to gather the clans, my room

was sought, and covering my face with my hands to shut out all distracting objects, my brain was ransacked for every fact and story that had ever been read or heard on the temperance question, and every deed of pluck and heroism was marshalled forth, from the Spartan boy with the fox in his bosom to the valorous deeds of the armies of Napoleon, and down to those of Robert E. Lee.

        In the course of half an hour an escort of a goodly number came to conduct me to the chapel which was filled with students and professors. Then my first impromptu address was made. The effort was richly rewarded by securing the signature of nearly every student to the double pledge against the use of alcoholic stimulants and tobacco in any form. The next day Washington was left with a glad heart but a wiser head. Dwelling on the trying lesson that had been taught me by this new experience, I resolved never to leave home again on another campaign without being fortified for every emergency by a stack of speeches to appeal to every class - from babbling babes to scheming politicians.

        From the moment of enlisting in the ranks of temperance reformers, work was done with unremitting zeal. The eternal principles of righteousness upon which the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded appealed to my highest convictions and commanded my unswerving loyalty.

        "In December, 1873, under the inspiration of a temperance address delivered by Dr. Dio Lewis, of Boston, the women of Hillsboro, Washington Court

Home, and other Ohio towns, were moved to concerted action against the saloon. They gathered in the streets to pray, and marched two by two into saloons. They besought the men who drank to cease to do so, and the men who sold to give up the business, and invited all to accept Christ. In fifty days this whirlwind of the Lord had swept the liquor traffic out of two hundred and fifty towns and villages."

        The outcome of this crusade which was so strongly characterized by the outpouring; of the Holy Ghost was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The first local society of that great organization was formed in Fredonia, N.Y., on December 15th, 1873. In August, 1874, at Chautauqua, N. Y., a meeting was held "from which the call for permanent national organization was sent forth." In Cleveland, Ohio, November 18th and 20th, 1874, the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized. It was incorporated March 1st, 1883, in Washington, D. C. Its growth has been marvelous. "It has fifty-four auxiliary State and five Territorial Unions, besides that of the District of Columbia and Hawaii, and is the largest society ever composed exclusively of women and conducted entirely by them. - It has been organized in every State and Territory of the nation, and locally in about ten thousand towns and cities.

        "The lines of its work are: I. Organization. II. Preventive. III. Educational. IV. Evangelistic. V. Social. VI. Legal.

        "Besides these are: 1. The Affiliated Interests. 2. The Standing Committees.

        "Under the six chief heads are grouped various departments, each one under the charge of a National Superintendent, as follows:

1. Young Woman's Work.
2. Work Among Foreign-Speaking People.
3. Loyal Temperance Legion Work.
4. Work Among Colored People.
5. Health and Heredity.
6. Scientific Temperance.
7. Physical Education.
8. Sunday School Work.
9. Temperance Literature.
10. Temperance and Labor.
11. Parliamentary Usage.
12. Press.
13. Presenting our Cause to Influential Bodies.
14. Anti-Narcotics.
15. Evangelistic.
16. Unfermented Wine.
17. Proportionate and Systematic Giving.
18. Non-alcoholic Medication.
19. Penal and Reformatory Work.
20. Work among Railway Employes.
21. Work among Soldier and Sailors.
22. Work among Lumbermen.
23. Work among Miners.
24. Sabbath Observance.
25. Department of Mercy.
26. Purity.
27. Rescue Work.

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28. Mothers' Meetings.
29. Purity in Literature and Art.
30. Parlor Meetings.
31. Flower Mission.
32. State and County Fairs.
33. Legislation.
34. Franchise.
35. Peace and Arbitration.
36. Kindergarten.
37. School Savings Banks.
38. Medal Contest Work.
39. Christian Citizenship.
40. W. C. T. U. Institutes."

        The World's Woman's Christian Union "is composed of national unions, and was formed in November, 1883. It is organized in forty nations, with a total membership of about half a million."

        The reformation of the drunkard and the banishment of the open saloon were the primary objects of the earlier endeavors of that devoted band of women known as the W. C. T. U.; upon these rocks they still stand, but their platform has "widened with the process of the suns " until the White Ribbon movement rests upon a foundation of plans and principles broad and generous enough for the establishment of a church, a state, or a nation. Its purpose now is to carry the philosophy of Jesus Christ into politics, to make a practical application of the laws of God to those of men; to cause morality to become the rock-bed of our national life and brotherhood the ozone of its atmosphere; to advance the welfare of women; to defend the childhood of the

world, and to protect the home. The numerous departments of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union form a mosaic of many thousand colors. The colossal figures worked out are God in government; man as the exponent of righteousness in citizenship; woman in church and state as the daughter of God and the partner of her brother man. In the brilliant array of glorious possibilities for the human race that the organization has held forth, it was the splendid opportunity for broadening and illuminating the horizon of woman that most attracted me.

        Within the first year of my ministry I traveled into almost every section of Mississippi and organized over one hundred unions among the young women and the juveniles, speaking to the children in the afternoons, to mixed audiences at night; holding business meetings in the mornings to discuss methods of work best calculated to forward the interests of the societies formed, and to appoint superintendents of the different departments adapted to start the union to move in easy channels. As a reward for my strenuous efforts the Woman's Christian Temperance Union sent me as delegate-at-large from the State to the National Convention, which met in Chicago in 1889. That was my first attendance upon a national convention. The large number of delegates present, the thousands of people who thronged to each session, the admirable executive power displayed by Miss Willard and other leaders, the thrilling debates on the floor, and the fine logic and eloquence that blazed in the numerous evening addresses was all a revelation to me. More practical knowledge was gained

of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union during those few days spent in Chicago, and more was learned of human nature, than in all the personal experience acquired in months of field work.

        Nothing by joy filled my heart over my first efforts for the young people of my native state. For a number of years there had been a profound unrest in the heart of the girlhood of the New South Faint echoes of the secrets of a higher, stronger life, struggling consciousness of the necessity for more exalted action, whisperings of unborn possibilities suggested aspirations in directions that before had been only dimly outlined. The surging, aching, loving heart of womanhood began to throb and pulse with heavenly assurances of the right to do and to dare, striving to find a channel through which it could voice its longings. The Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union, that vast force, with its multiplied interests and varied, ever-widening scope of thought and accomplishment, that splendid factor which had arisen in our midst like a giant in its power, generating such light and sweetness over the already luminous fields of modern philanthropy, supplied the demands of the hour.

        It has been a benediction to the girls of the South whose lives it has touched. A subtle, unseen spirit has taken hold of the fines faculties of their souls and stirred to action every holy impulse, producing changed beings. Indifference has been turned to enthusiasm; selfishness has been broadened into sympathy; unkindness has been swallowed up into an abounding charity; idle hands have reached out for employment; narrow

minds have expanded and become glorified by the quickening, uplifting agency of love for humanity that has poured, like a divine radiance, into their slumberous lives and raised them up to God. In the few years since the Southern girls have donned the white ribbon and enlisted in the ranks of the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in conjunction with the young women of the North, East and West, they have assisted in campaigns for constitutional amendments; secured signatures to the Polyglot Petition; supported rest cottages, lunch houses and headquarters for working girls; taken charge of mission meetings at night; sent singers to the hospitals; dispensed substantial charities through the medium of the Flower Mission in their visits to prisons, almshouses and the homes of the poor and distressed; distributed literature, studied the subject of physical culture and formed hygiene clubs; introduced text-books in the public schools teaching the effects of alcohol and tobacco upon the human system; established loan libraries, engaged in evangelistic, kindergarten, social purity, Sunday-school, juvenile and press work; labored among lumbermen, sailors, foreigners and the colored population; conducted Demorest Medal contests, held Gospel Temperance meetings and obtained thousands of signatures to the pledge. They are now supporting beds for young women in the Temperance Hospital at Chicago, and in the cities have established drinking fountains for man and beast. They are raising funds to aid in carrying on missionary temperance work in foreign fields; circulating petitions among the high schools and colleges against the use of wine and all

alcoholic beverages at class suppers and alumni dinners; conducting parliamentary drills, prosecuting topical studies and discussions; giving receptions and entertainments in their parlors, besides holding public meetings of a high order to create sentiment for the temperance cause, and educate the people up to the idea of total abstinence and prohibition and gain the co-operation of young men. They are offering prizes of money to pupils who write the best essay on temperance, and several are going out into different states as organizers and lecturers, and one into foreign fields as a missionary.

        The young women of New Orleans, who were members of the Y. W. C. T. U., for a long time supported a room in an institution for the destitute, near the Charity Hospital, where men and women could find a refuge, before entering the great world again to seek work and a shelter. The girls of Richmond, Virginia, one year, raised $600 which they expended in sustaining a retreat for the sick. The Y. W. C. T. U. or Asheville, North Carolina, in co-operation with the King's Daughters, established an admirable, uniform system of charity by which the poor of the city were clothed and fed. The young women of Mississippi have been potent factors in bringing temperance sentiment up to the high-water mark which the state now enjoys. All of this blessed service is simply a faint foregleam of the noble attainments and beautiful opportunities which the future holds for Southern girls. When they devote wholly their latent, unused powers to rid this drink-cursed Republic of its over-shadowing curse, then indeed, will be started a wave of helpfulness that will swell into a great

ocean for the temperance cause and for the evangelization of the world whose shores will be bounded only by eternity.

        The most hopeful feature of the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union is the standard that the girls have set up for the equal purity of both sexes. "A white life for two," is their war-cry. The day will soon go by when a young man, indulging in strong drink and poisoning himself with nicotine, will have the assurance to ask a girl, pure in heart and life, to link her destiny with his. The day is fast coming when a young woman will place too high an estimate upon herself to accept the attentions of a young man given to dissipated habits. The watchword that will be handed down the lines and rung from the hill-tops of advancement will be: Sobriety, or no husbands. The new law that is being evolved out of the old chaos is that when the holiest of alliances is consummated, it will be upon a true basis.

        The most prominent figures in this era of the history of the South are the young women; formed for all possibility, ready for every development, capable of every achievement; strong, earnest, brainy, progressive, comprehensive! The light of the future is in their faces, the shuttles of destiny are in their hands, the suggestive tread of their oncoming feet sounds ominously near. They have adopted the creed of a new philosophy. The non-entity of other times has vanished; in her stead has come the energetic, up-to-date, gracious entity who is getting hold of the springs of power through legislation; who is turning the locks of the doors that have shut

her out from the sanctum-sanctorum of ecclesiastical polity; whose sweet voice is swelling into louder, deeper tones, and is singing out from pulpit and from platform the glad songs of freedom, of advancement, of human rights and privileges.

CHAPTER XVII

HOW "DE CAP'N COME THU"

        What's brave, what's noble, let's do it after the high Roman fashion, and make death proud to take us. - SHAKSPEARE.

        THE first invitation that was given me to speak out of the borders of Mississippi came from Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, President of the Louisiana Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and afterward one of the foremost leaders of the suffrage movement in the South. She requested me to attend the State W. C. T. U. Convention which was to meet in New Orleans, and to deliver an address on the evening that would be given to the Young Woman's Branch. Consent was forwarded, but considerable misgiving was felt as to my capability to reach the standard demanded by a city audience. After my speech in New Orleans was made an invitation was extended to lecture and organize throughout the state Very soon a work in Louisiana was begun that has continued; not only for successive months, but, at intervals, through successive years.

        My experiences in that state alone would fill volumes. A way was made into nearly every nook and cranny; from the Red river district in the North to the blue waters of Berwick Bay in the South; from the cotton

fields of the Mississippi to the timber-lands of Lake Charles; often riding twenty miles in a lumbering vehicle through the pine woods to reach an appointment, or puffing down streams in energetic tugs through chilling winds and surprising sand-bars; entertained in an humble cottage to-day or in a mansion to-morrow; eating fat bacon and cold potatoes on a lonely prairie, or feasting like the gods on the Atchafalaya and the Ouitchita; depressed with illness at Grand Cane or radiant at receptions from Monroe to the Crescent City. Ins and outs, ups and downs, arounds and abouts, but God in all and above all.

        There is no country in the United States like Southern Louisiana. It is a land of languorous beauty, of poetry and romance. From New Orleans to the Texas line there is an unbroken stretch of territory; a broad, flat belt that has been utilized for rice and sugar plantations. Numerous rivers and bayous roll peacefully through it, adding exquisite touches to the scenery. Mammoth live oaks, draped in gray Spanish moss, line the sides of the streams, their branches almost meeting in the centre, forming shady arches. Sail boats with their white and crimson canvas, steamers, skiffs and numerous other craft float up and down the waters; over rich oyster beds, under an Italian sky; through zephyrs soft wth sunshine and heavy with the odor of orange blossoms; in the midst of a tropical growth of plants and flowers as rank as in Central America; past ever-changing scenes of dreamy loveliness that soothe the senses and stimulate the imagination.

        The most famous of all the rivers and bayous are the