MISS WILLARD ENCOURAGED

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 59, 1 August 1896, Page 7

MISS WILLARD ENCOURAGED

"If you wi9h to see something worth seeing," a man of the world with no total abstinence protlivitiea says, "take advantage of your first opportunity to see Frances E. Willard preside over a -trig convention. She is as cool as nteel, and her head seems to be as clear as crystal." That is Miss Willard aa a parliamentarian. As an individual, iv a parlour, she is another person. She is delightfully womanly. She has a soft voice and hand, the safne clear head, a breadth of view inoreased by her wide experience, and a dry sense of humour whioh makes her an entertaining conversationalist. At the home of Mrs. Demorcst, 21, East ■Fifty-Beventh-street, she gave a reporter 'for the New York Times her views of the Temperance movement, as it looks to her as President of the World's and National "Women's Christian Temperance Unions. " You know I am an optimist," she said. " The progress of the movement is shown in different places. Bourbon County, Kentucky, the great whisky region, has, by the vote of its people, 'gone dry,' 83 they say, within a few months. Norfolk, Virginia, has had a Prohibition party administration for about two years. These are little spots, of course, just as in the spring thing 3 begin to dry off a little in plaoes. Williamsport, Pennsylvania, has just eleoted Prohibition officers. I can also mention Albion, Michigan, which has eleoted for Mayor the Chairman of the National Prohibition Party. The big State of Texas has come under the Looal Option law within a year. The State of Mississippi, in SO of its 89 counties, is UDder, rj Local Option,/ In' Arkansas, an equally large" proportion of area is under Prohibition by Local Option. The signatures of the women there, on a petition against saloons, had equal force with ballots. In Colorado, lately, the women in all the towns and villiages voted for license or no license. The press reports, which are not tinctured with Temperance virus, said 'the Temperance cause won all along the line.' " "Do you notice a change in the general feeling for the Temperance cause?" the reporter asked. "There is an entirely different atmosphere," Mis 3 Willard replied. "We live in an impressionist ago, and we judge by the atmosphere. It is more highly charged by Prohibition ozone than it was years ago." " And what is the end to be ?" "Total Prohibition," Miss Willard replied, with decision, "salted down with Bait sea waves. Not sad sea waves, for they will be joyful. "How soon ? Certainly in 50 years ; perhaps in half that time, we move bo rapidly. Legislatures in the South pass scores of Bills at every session exempting the territory within so many hundred feet — within so many miles or fractions of miles— of churohee, colleges, schools, and oharitable institutions, from the liquor curse. " Y«s, we do that to a certain extent here, but it is a Southern idea, and they apply it more frequently than we do. They say in some of the Southern States that no town that has not a municipal form of government shall have a saloon. The devotion of the people is such that in many places they have torn up their charters, much as they enjoyed the privileges they gave, and went back to village ordinances to get rid of the saloon. " Tennessee was the first State to make this municipal government law. Judge East, of Nashville, said he could tell me of town after town where the people had torn up their charters to get rid of the pest-house, which is called more and more 'the curse.' " Australia and New Zealand have given the ballot to women. Men say they must have their votes to put down the curse, as they cannot do it alone. New Zealand is perhaps the most progressive country on •which the sun shines^ .The Temperance, labour, and equal suffrage movements there are a generation in advance of this country. "In Norway the liquor traffic is under State control, with a provision that every five years all men and women 25 years old or over shall have a chance to vote as to whether they deßire to have the State liquor agency continued or not. If itis abolished they willhaveProhibitionoutandout. They voted this spring in 12 leading towns against the curse. Wnen the voting was over the people sang, «AFirmMountainifl OurGod/andthe Lutheran priest pronounced the benediction. The Women's Christian Temperance Union is working in all this, the keynote being the protection of the home. " Yes, I believe in woman suffrage. Liquor men say the ballots of th« women will mean death to their trade. " I believe in the bicycle, too. It is the greatest agent of the Temperance reform. The human body and brain require a stimulant. Our Heavenly Father has provided this stimulant for the physical system in oxygen." " It has been said here," the reporter remarked, " that bicycle riding, by stimulating the thirst, has increased the use of intoxicating drinks, and that women are using them more." "Oh, folly !" Hiss Willard replied. "In Chicago there is nothing so hated by the saloonkeeper, the cigarette dealer, and the proprietor of the low theatre as the bicycle. They say the people are all scurrying for the parks. " Smokers and bicyole trainers say riders can't smoke. For once the smoke blows in their own faces. Men must be temperate to ride. To keep one's balance is the sine qua non of riding."— New York Times.