I^^^^HHHHHHIIHHHIBHB friffflffsflgffltfy <&> ^^-r^^w, *^tf i i>> J x' T~~,~ ^sssaJ^K <$&RKfitfiSI&!f&RSt!v'- LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ^L-_7 ^ THE POEMS AND WRITTEN ADDRESSES OF MARY T. LATHRAP President of the Michigan Woman's Christian Temperance Union for Fourteen Years SHORT SKETCH OF HER LIFE INTRODUCTION BY FRANCES E. WILLARD CHARACTER SKETCHES BY LADY HENRY SOMERSET PROF. A. A. HOPKINS DR. L. R. FISKE, Etc. COMPILED AND EDITED BY % JULIA R. PARISH State Corresponding Sec'y of Michigan W. C. T. U. PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF MICHIGAN COPYRIGHTED 1895 BY THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF MICHIGAN. PREFACE. he kindness and generosity of Dr. C. C. Lathrap, her hus- band, we are enabled to put in book form many of the written words of Mary T. Lathrap. He and members of the family have spent much time and bestowed much labor in collecting this material and putting it into the hands of the editor. He has also given the financial aid necessary to the publishing of a work of this kind by advancing funds to meet the expense of publishing. It is his wish that all profits arising from the sale of this volume shall go into the treasury of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Michigan, at the head of which Mrs. Lathrap stood for so many years. The work herein published comprises but a small fraction of her wonderful labor, for the majority of her addresses, sermons, and Bible readings were given without being written. This is a fact much to be regretted ; for her written work gives a very inadequate idea of the real work which she did in her busy life. No hand but hers could fill out what she left only in skeleton form, and no one would presume to undertake such a task. In her intense earnestness she scattered with a lavishness seldom seen, rare gems of thought, the products of her fertile brain, but she was too eager for the end to be accomplished to preserve these even for her own use, and the world is the loser. It was her intention to retire from official life in the near future, and to complete her public work by issuing three volumes, one of poems, one of sermons, one of addresses. But the only hand that could perform that task is stayed, and these words herein contained are published for the sake of perpetuating the noble work which she has done. JULIA R. PARISH. [3] CONTENTS PREFACE -3 INTRODUCTION ....... . -7 MARY TORRANS LATHRAP ....... n HER PUBLIC LIFE 15 CHARACTER SKETCHES ....... 19 THE CLOSE OF A BRILLIANT CAREER ..... 28 INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES ..... 35 EARLIER POEMS ......... 42 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS ...... . 197 LATER POEMS . . . . . . . . 232 MISCELLANEOUS 264 ANNUAL ADDRESSES . . . * . . . . 281 ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL .... 413 ILLUSTRATIONS. MARY T. LATHRAP . . . ., . . Frontispiece. MRS. HANNAH TORRANS ........ 14 DR. C. C. LATHRAP 40 MARY T. LATHRAP . .120 LATHRAP HOME, JACKSON, MICH. . . . . . . 184 MARY T. LATHRAP HALL, HACKLEY PARK, MICH. . . . 280 [5] INTRODUCTION. REATNESS does not happen ; achievement is no accident ; t * ie Droa d river that blesses the plains is the outcome of innumerable springs, rivulets, and brooks far up among the It took generations of Christian culture to poise that comely and face full of the fire of intellect above that symmetrical and perfectly proportioned figure, and to furnish forth the ampli- tude of personality that we think of whenever to our mind's eye she stands forth once more whom we shall never see again on earth, our queen of Prohibition orators, Mary T. Lathrap. Nothing is more rare than such a combination of the logician and the poet as was fused in the alembic of her unique mentality. She could handle a syllogism and a group of iambics with equal skill, a gift as rare as it is coveted. The daintiest fancies waited upon her pen as readily as the most solid arguments. Without the advantage of collegiate training she marshalled her mental forces like a skilled strategist. Born and bred on a crude farm in the early days of Michi- gan, earning her own bread from the beginning of her teens ; going to Detroit to study in the public schools, and afterward teaching in those schools ; writing for the country press when but fourteen years old, and working her way single-handed to the highest recognition as an artist in words and a statesman in speech, her life from its small beginnings to its magnificent close is an epic of American independ- ence and individuality. Her marriage in 1864 to a man of genial nature and independent fortune furnished her an environment from which the need of self-support was soon eliminated, so that she could give herself to the work that most strongly drew her mind and heart. The hidings of her power were an inheritance from her strong, sturdy, Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry. What she owed in nature and in nurture to that brave old Roman, her mother, who at ninety- eight years still survives, we can hardly overestimate. She had as much rarer gifts than are lavished on the cradles of crowned heads and the nobility, as her perception of truth was more clear and her [7] 8 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. ability to harness it to the chariot of language was more conspicuous^ It is easy to see that she owed nothing to fortuitous circumstances.- But the virility of her mind, the fresh upspringing that kept a scintil- lant light in her eyes, and a keen, wise smile on her lips, came to her from an ancestry whose wits had been sharpened and whose con- sciences developed through generations of study in which the text- book had been the word of God. The sense of duty and the pressure of destiny were supreme factors in their problem of life, and they passed on to her such a make-up as confirmed the impressions that had been worked into the warp and woof of their own characters throughout many a generation. Nor can I think the life of a pioneer family'in the western wilds is ill adapted to the best results of charac- ter. The emigrant woman whom some of us saw perched on a load of wood near Puget Sound, and who in reply to our expressed admira- tion of the country, doggedly said, " It 's a first rate place for men and horses but terrible hard on women and oxen," stated a foundation principle. But the children of the pioneer mother have everything to gain from their close union with the heart of Mother Nature, which gives them a strong physique and a poetic way of looking at the world, while they gain an untold advantage from the necessity of developing their own resources to which they owe that strong flavor of individuality which is one of the most attractive qualities in char- acter, and cannot be had in a strong measure by those who have all their lives been catered to by " All art yields and nature can decree." Her manner of working reminded me of Emerson's great lines, " The hand that molded Peter's dome, And grooved the aisles of Notre Dame, Wrought with a sad sincerity, Himself from God he could not free." And under the quip and pleasantry, the sarcasm and irony, under the lambent light of her perpetual humor, all who read her writings or listened to her polished utterances, felt that indeed Mary T. Lathrap, " wrought with a sad sincerity." She could not free herself from God ; it was the glory of her life that she lived under the constant consciousness of his presence and his power. She made more votes- "for God and Home and Native Land " than any other woman of her time. She added jewels of epigram to the White Ribbon vocabulary- INTRODUCTION. VJ She led the women of her beloved " Michigan, my Michigan " with dauntless intrepidity. She suffered in her "prison-house of pain;" but sent only brave messages to her comrades in the cabinet and on the field until at last " the chariot swung low," and she left us, she was gone, and with unceasing steps "we follow that way." Her own words come to me in closing : " Ah, comrades, we stand in the silence, Homesick for a day, But how can our anguisb be bitter, We follow that way." "Let us lift up our hearts, our beloved Live on as of yore ; Who knows but in stress of the battle, They haste to the fore,' 1 '' FRANCES E. WILLARD. The Priory, Reigate, England, June 28, 1895. MARY TORRANS LATHRAP. >ARY TORRANS LATHRAP was born on a farm, twelve miles from Jackson, Michigan, April 25, 1838, and her childhood was spent amid the hardships of pioneer life. She was educated at Marshall, where she lived during her girlhood days. Though receiving only a common-school education, an after course of reading and study fitted her for her future brilliant career. When about fourteen years of age she wrote for various papers under the nom de plume of " Lena." When ten years of age she was converted, but was not allowed to enter the Presbyterian Church until nearly eighteen, she being deemed too young. Her mother was a strong Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, who was a noble example of a godly woman, and her precepts were an in- spiration to her young daughter. Mary Torrans taught in the public schools of Detroit from 1862 until 1864, when she married Dr. Carnett C. Lathrap, then assistant surgeon in the Ninth Michigan cavalry. One year later they removed to Jackson. Dr. Lathrap being a member of the First M. E. church, his wife united with that church by letter, where they were honored and loyal members. Though brought up in the Presbyterian Church, where the voice of a woman had not been heard, she felt that life would be a failure un- less she could preach the gospel. Her ability was soon recognized, and the quarterly conference of the Methodist Church granted her a license to preach. She also became prominent as a lecturer. In 1865 she organized a night school for colored children in Jackson, which was attended by adults as well, and three nights during the week for three years she maintained it, bearing most of the expense herself. She organized the Ladies' Aid Society of the First M. E. Church in 1866, and was always a leading worker in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. For many years she was conference secretary. In 1881 she was elected president of the Michigan 12 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. W. C. T. U., a position which she filled for fourteen years, and until her death in January, 1895, with remarkable power. As secretary of the Ladies' and Pastors' Union her labors were rewarded. Mrs. Lathrap always felt a deep interest in her own sex, and through her influence was secured the establishment of the State industrial school for girls at Adrian. Through her temperance and evangelistic work she became widely known. Thousands have been converted under her teachings, and her unwavering fidelity to all that is good and noble endeared her to the hearts of men and women all over this broad country. Although Mrs. Lathrap has lectured so many years, she left com- paratively few addresses which are complete. It was her hope to continue in active work for ten or fifteen years longer, then spend her remaining years compiling these, together with her Bible readings ; but she was not granted this desire, and the world has lost much that was valuable. Several manuscripts are finished, but the majority awaited the only hand and heart which could complete them. Her style of speaking and writing, combining the logical with the poetical, was so original and scholarly that no one could reproduce her ser- mons and words. This is a matter of deepest regret. HER HOME LIFE. She was a devoted wife, a loyal, affectionate daughter, and a lov- ing aunt, in her home which was such a bright, cheery one. It was touching to see the aged mother, ninety-eight in June, 1895, every evening after tea come to Mary and kiss her good-night, and to note with what affectionate simplicity and reverence and respect the daughter returned the kiss. The child spirit was still in her heart. Her husband was in sympathy with her in her work, and among the things asked for at daily prayers, he always prayed with unction for the temperance work and the temperance workers. National as well as Michigan temperance workers owe much to Dr. Lathrap, as well as to the nieces who have done so much to make the home in Jackson a welcome one for weary and often discouraged people. Dr. C. C. Lathrap writes thus of his beloved wife : "The world knows Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap as a poet, a reformer, a lecturer, and a preacher of righteousness. She was also a lovely wife and companion. She loved her home as the dearest place on earth, and often spoke of it as ' my home, my beautiful home. I love it and all its associations.' She went out from it to do her MARY TORRANS LATHRAP. 13 work at the call of duty, which to her was the call of God ; and as soon as it was done, she turned toward home for comfort, rest, and love. "It was most perfect in all its appointments. She was skilled in all the art and science of housekeeping. The cooks have often said : 'If she will but put one of her fingers into the bread or cake, it will make it perfect.' "She was a close student, an indefatigable worker ; always busy. She very sel- dom took a drive unless it was to go and see a shut-in sufferer, or on business in connection with some of her many lines of work. " She did much work among the poor, the suffering, and sorrowful. Many a poor girl has been able to finish her term at school because of her open purse. While she had no time to sew for herself, she made over many hats, bonnets, and dresses for the poor. " She had a keen appreciation of all the virtues and gifts, and a broad mantle of charity for the faults and failings of those about her. She usually read her poems and written articles to those at home, and she had no audience more appreciative, for all were very proud of her and loved her dearly. "In her last illness her patience and fortitude were very remarkable. She was so sweet, so kind, and so trusting. Her faith in God was so strong ; there was no ' dark river ' for her to cross it was all light. She talked familiarly of her going home and the friends she would meet. When she heard of Mary Woodbridge being stricken, she said : ' Mary and I may go arm in arm into heaven.' " For years it has been understood that if she went home first, her mother. Mrs. Hannah Torrans, now ninety eight years old, was to remain with me. " For several days before going she held no conversation regarding the things of this life, but spoke freely and confidently of the life that is just beyond. A few hours before her departure she called for me, and said to me and those about her, ' It is all right. It is all right.' These were her last words, and a noble soul was promoted to the triumphant host above." Three nieces, the Misses Emma, Florence, and Augusta Knight thus speak of her : "We early learned to love her, and that love grew stronger with each passing year. Although her journeyings from home were frequent, always the days on which she departed were sad ones. The members of the family allowed no engagement to take them away until they had seen her to the carriage door. Her home comings were real red-letter days. Business, so far as could be, was laid aside, and all the little home happenings were discussed. Her work drew largely on her strength and time, but she was never so busy as to forget her home duties ever ready to counsel and advise. No project, however small, was considered settled until she had passed judgment upon it. Her co-laborers will miss her, but only those privileged to sit at her own fireside can know of the irreparable loss there." She was given to merriment and innocent mirth when at home, and enjoyed simple, homely joys and pastimes with the zest of a child. Her home was beautiful, and she often said she did not like to leave it ; it was so pleasant and restful. 14 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. MRS. HANNAH TORRANS. Her mother, Mrs. Hannah Torrans, nee Hopkins, was born in the north of Ireland, June 15, 1797. Her parents were of the old Scotch Covenanter and Presbyterian stock, her father being for many years a leading elder in the Presbyterian Church. At the age of twenty-eight she was united in marriage with Mr. David Torrans, and in 1830 they emigrated to America, arriving in Quebec in May of that year. From thence they removed to Whitehall, N. Y., where they remained seven years. In 1837 they removed to Concord, Michi- gan. A few years later they removed to Marshall, Michigan, from which place Mr. Torrans went west as a railroad contractor, where he died. Mrs. Torrans is the mother of seven children, three of whom are now living, John, William, and Mary. One daughter, deceased, was the wife of Hon. Wellington R. Burt, E. Saginaw, with whom Mrs. Torrans made her home after her husband's death, until after the war, when she removed to Jackson, and since that time has been a member of the Lathrap family. She has always been a woman of more than ordinary mental power. Her education was limited ; for when she attended school, it was not thought necessary for a girl to study arithmetic or writing. She did learn to write, however, and in her later years has become quite proficient as a letter-writer. Her faculties are still almost unimpaired, and although near- sighted in her early years, her sight is such now that she reads without the aid of glasses. She has kept pace with current events and lives in the present. She brought up her children in a religious manner. She had always been a member of the Presbyterian Church until she went to Jackson, when she united with the Congregational Church, there being no Presbyterian Church in the city at that time. June 15, 1895, she celebrated her ninety-eighth birthday, and not- withstanding her great age, she is vigorous still. She has lived nearly a century, and has been a noble example of motherhood. Hers has been a life of unusual strength, and she bequeathed to her youngest child, Mary, that strength which made her such a power for good. HER PUBLIC LIFE. LATHRAP'S fame as a lecturer spread from her Michi- & an h me to ever y P art f tne United States. She spoke in nearly every State in the Union and in every large city. The press notices concerning her are unanimous in placing her among the most brilliant, witty, logical speakers of her time. Even when they were not willing to concede the right of the cause which she vindicated, they confessed the superior merit of her logic. When- ever she held a series of revival services, hundreds and in many cases thousands flocked to hear her. Among the many press notices we quote the following : ' She is a woman of large brain, strong reasoning powers, and intuitive knowl- edge of the springs of human character, and withal she has a woman's sensitiveness, appreciation, and affection. Apart from any question of sex, as she stood on the platform, speaking with power and inspiration such as is rarely listened to, we were compelled, in the exercise of honest judgment, to decide that neither the clergymen on her right or on her left were her equals in force, logic, eloquence, or in the actual weight of brain. We may, therefore, be permitted to ask why, being their superior, she should by any law of church or modern society be hindered from the full exercise of her exceptional oratorical and logical powers? If anybody can give us a sound reason for putting up the bars to keep Mrs. Lathrap out of any field which she may choose to enter and adopt as her life work, we will change our present views on that subject." " We do not hesitate to say that for literary style, rhetorical finish, elegant anti- thesis, and logical grip, the speech of Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap made at the First Con- gregational church, last evening, was a masterpiece. We doubt if a speech so well worth hearing has been made in Springfield by a man in ten years." Daily News, Springfield, III. "It is difficult to analyze Mrs. Lathrap's oratorical power. It is essentially mas- culine in breadth and logic, and yet never for a moment does the woman disappear. Her title ' The Daniel Webster of Prohibition' was first given her by Gov. St. John, and was quickly accepted by her platform associates." Editorial Bureau Record, New York. "It is simply impossible to put into print the magnificent address of Mrs. Lathrap delivered last night." Standard, Belvidere, III. ['Si 16 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. " It is doubtful if such an address has ever been delivered from the platform in Chicago by a woman. It was eloquent from beginning to conclusion : scathing, earnest, persuasive, and denunciatory in turn." Chicago Journal. "Mrs. Lathrap, of Michigan, waked up that audience with an oratorical cyclone set to music. She was epigrammatic, dramatic, and most emphatic. She was argu- mentative, witty, rhetorical, sarcastic, and pathetic." Washington Correspondent Advocate, Nashville, Tenn. "For putting the truth down on the heart, and brain, and conscience, Mrs Mary T. Lathrap stands out unexcelled and rarely equaled. Her logic and eloquence are irresistible. God bless her ! " C. H. Mead. "I believe there is no man or woman living, the superior of Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap in the discussion of the temperance question. While she is a great logician and noted for depth of thought, she has a pithy way of putting things and a poetical use of language seldom found combined. She is a great and good woman." George W. Bain. " Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap has no superior on the temperance platform, among men or women, in this or any other country."-- Frances E. Willard, Eulogies from the press are too numerous and too lengthy to be quoted in a sketch so brief as this one must be. She gained the title " The Daniel Webster of the Temperance Reform " early in her public career, and right worthily she held it to the last. Like all positive natures she did not escape the attacks of partisan papers, and was accused of " being in the pay of the Prohibition party." The editor of one paper says of one address, " It was simply a political Prohibition harangue." Notwithstanding these criticisms she never faltered or yielded one iota of what she believed to be right. Prof. Samuel Dickie says: Her three chief characteristics were clear- ness, conscience, and courage. She carried points by clearness of argument and by womanly, persuasive eloquence. In the star cham- ber of her conscience the question was not, Is it policy? but, Is it right ? She was loyal to the cause of Christ and the church. Her heart was sore and she grieved over the fact that the church has not yet come to its proper place on the questions of reform." Those who advocated the perpetuity of the liquor system and kindred evils, feared her vigorous assaults upon their methods. She was fearless in the utterance of what seemed to her to be the truth. In conversation with a friend after the heated campaign for constitu- tional prohibition in Michigan, in 1887, she said, " I often thought when traveling during those anxious weeks, that I was taking my life into my own hands." HER PUBLIC LIFE. 17 As president of the Michigan Woman's Christian Temperance Union for fourteen years, she showed wonderful ability both as a leader in thought and as master of details. She never hesitated to adopt a bold policy nor stopped to ask concerning its popularity. She grasped the work in its entirety, she saw future results with a quick, strong, almost inspired vision. She carried minute details with as much fidelity as she planned larger things, for no duty was small to her. As an executive officer she was firm and just, even to those whose views did not always harmonize with hers in methods of work. She was a wise counselor, an impartial executive officer, a true friend, a safe adviser, always true to every member of the Executive Board, whether absent or present. She put the work first and the worker second. The cause went ahead of the individual. Her deep conviction and clear vision as to the importance of the work to be done were so emphasized in her activity that a casual observer lost sight of her gentle traits which were underneath all. She could be touched into pity and sympathy as readily as she could be roused into heroic action. That rare combination of strength and gentleness was blended in her in an unusual degree, but not always recognized. Her spiritual life has been an inspiration to thousands, her ser- mons and Bible readings have been wonderfully honored of God and listened to with eagerness by the multitude. Her logic was as keen as a surgeon's knife, her eloquence was like a beautiful strain of classic music. She was a matchless leader in -thought and execution. We quote a sentence or two from some of the members and ex- members of the Michigan State Board : " She could deal with hard, cold facts in a most uncompromising manner, or she- could fashion a poem so touching and so tender as to stir the pathos of the coldest nature." Mrs. A. S. Benjamin. " Flowers of speech were always hers, and every convention was made bright by them." Mrs. C. H. Johnson. "I never met so charming a hostess hospitable, gracious, she was also at times frolicsome as a girl. It was in her home that the beauty and symmetry of her char- acter were delightfully revealed.'' Mrs. Jennie Voorhies. " Her efficient and faithful work for the advancement of her sex will cause many to arise and call her blessed." Annie Andrus. "As with all deep natures, there were lovely tenderness and sweetness and the holy of holies in the temple of Mrs. Lathrap's character to those who had entered in a wonderful vision." Julia D. Stannard. "The last State Convention has left with me a lovely memory of our president, to be cherished till we meet again." Catharine Birrell. 18 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. " On every hand her production of thought from the printed page will be an in- spiration to urge us on to higher and grander work for our cause than we have ever achieved in the past.' 1 Irene Smith Clizbe. "The home, motherhood, fatherhood, and the cause of humanity in general, have all been raised to a higher plane by her example and eloquent words." Charlotte E. Brown. " To me she was a help and strength." Mrs. R. A. Campbell. "Prophetic in vision, brave in speech, eloquent in portrayal, a two-edged sword to the enemy." Mrs. P. J. Howard. " Her satire and wit, launched at shameless, conscienceless cowards, where moral boldness should be found, were as keen and direct as well-aimed poniard thrusts." Mrs. C. C.Faxon. "I learned many lessons from her noble life that will follow me through all my days." E. N. Law. " Mary T. Lathraps's words and influence will live on, blessing humanity through those who have been brought to Christ through her tender pleadings." Emma A. Wheeler. " To her judicious counsel and untiring energy, I attribute much of the growth of the State society during the years of my presidency." Mrs. B. B. Hudson. Her audiences listened to her words and acknowledged their power, even if they refused to accept her views. She held them from the beginning to the end of her addresses, which were often from one and a half to two hours in length. While she was skilful in appealing to men's reason, she was powerful in her appeal to conscience ; and the climax of her masterful addresses was usually reached by the way of conscience rather than by the way of cold argument. Strong argumentative power warmed by an impassioned appeal made her efforts brilliant, pathetic, and winning. CHARACTER SKETCHES. AS A LEADER IN THE WOflAN'S CHRISTIAN TEHiPER- ANCE UNION. BY FRANCES E. WILLARD, IN " MICHIGAN UNION." ) 1 T has been nobly said by a great thinker that " the only wealth is life." By this computation what riches melted away from the - White Ribbon movement when, in this world of chance and change, Mary T. Lathrap was no more alive ! The riches of the W. C. T. U., as its leaders have said a thousand times, consist in the women who have cast in their lot with us, and on the round earth no woman of greater power than the president of " Michigan, my Michi- gan," has ever done so. She has been from the first the central figure in our great debates, uniting the grasp of a man's mind to the elec- tric intuition of a woman ; she has been one of the century's most vivid illustrations of the fact that in intellect there is no sex. No woman among us was less self-seeking ; none had retained more of that fresh, girlish enthusiasm which made her company delightful in the rare hours off duty that we know. None had a more radiant eloquence, nor had any a wing so swift and white in the realms of poesy. I had learned to lean on her ; to love her I had no need to learn. From the day I saw her first (and it was the first day of the convention at which our national society was organized, in 1874), she always stood to me for power purposely consecrated to the highest uses ; power original, immense, and wisely guided to the wisest ends. She has traversed the United States and Canada, as carefully searching for prohibition votes as Diogenes traversed the streets of Athens, lamp in hand, searching for an honest man. Her commanding figure, her face radiant with intellect, her attitude of equipoise and dignity, but instinct with vigor and vitality ; the rythmic movement of her beauti- ful hand, the flashing smile, the scintillating dark blue eyes how plainly we can see them all ! In the long laborious years I have 20 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAI'. always felt that no keener sickle was at work in the great harvest field, and none came back to us more richly laden with the spirit of our splendid "peaceful war." Wherever Mary Lathrap went, a broad path of light flashed out over the darkness of average opinion and mediocre purpose. When she represented the White Ribbon movement at the great council of women in Washington, in 1889, it seemed to me that no woman living could have equaled the lofty and inspiring view she gave our society, its genius, history, and method. No one has given us a greater number of golden sentences than she has coined in the rich mint of her racy, philosophic, and original forms of speech. It is beautiful to admire as we have admired her ; indeed hardly less delightful than to be worthy of such admiration and loyal pride as every White Ribboner felt in the richly endowed personality of Mary T. Lathrap. She has made a record brilliant as a star and enduring as the granite of old Scotia whence came her sturdy ancestry. She had the wit of that Irish race, a strain of whose blood was in her own ; she had the broad, bright outlook of the great West where she was reared ; she had the gener- ous, sisterly sympathy of the movement that swept her into its deep current and bore her on to fame and death. AS A POET. BY LADY HENRY SOMERSET. I have always held Mary Lathrap in special affection and warm admiration. She was ever to me a figure that towered strong in her accomplishments, and above even the gifted comrades in the White Ribbon work. Her songs are an inspiration to her English sister, and her written words have touched thousands who never heard her elo- quent voice. Mrs. Lathrap's muse was like the rock from which may burst forth the bright refreshing water when smitten by the rod of Moses. She was so preoccupied with her pulpit and platform work that she did not in later years especially put forth her blossoms of song save under the sweet south wind of a friend's appeal. For instance, we owe the ode on President Garfield's death to the earnest request of Miss Willard ; the poem at the laying of the corner stone at the World's Temple to the insistence of Mrs. Carse ; and the White Rib- bon hymn that has now gone around the world to Anna Gordon's CHARACTER SKETCHES. 21 plaintive request for help in her difficult endeavor to edit a book for the children that should be worthy the romance and poetry of the temperance reform. Hardly any writer of modern times has given us a song that has made a deeper impression on philanthropic work. At the great demonstration in Queen's Hall before five thousand per- sons, and in Royal Albert Hall before ten thousand, a group of sor- rowful little children from the slums stood on the platform and sang, " There's a shadow on the home." Their pitiful cry was jubilantly met by a procession of children bear- ing aloft the white ribbon in long fluttering lines and advancing rap- idily to the platform from their places of concealment while they sang, " We are coming to the rescue, We are coming in our youth ; The homes we build to-morrow, Shall be shrines of love and truth." This produced an effect, the deepest and the most helpful that I have ever witnessed in a public assembly. As we watched that bright pro- cession bearing aloft their ribbons, and heard the fresh gush of their childish voices as they came to the platform and surrounded the group of sorrowful faced children while they waved their white ban- ners and sang the chorus, " We are coming to the rescue Of Purity and Right, And for a winsome token, We wear the ribbon white," tears were in all our eyes and smiles on every lip. Miss Willard turned to me and whispered, " I cannot help believing that Mary Lathrap sees all this with us and rejoices as we do in the good that is done by her beautiful song." While it is true that in her youth Mrs. Lathrap wrote a poem entitled, I think, " A Woman's Answer," which was so good that Elizabeth Barrett Browning was thought to be the author, and it was included in a collection of her poems, I can but think that in its far-reaching influence for the uplifting of humanity this song of" Rib- bons White" will prove to be the crowning inspiration of her great life ; for it has gone from London, the heart of the world, to ten thou- sand cities, towns, and villages where, with the pageantry I have de- scribed, it will be reproduced in the hearing of uncounted myriads who will be helped by it to the concept of a pure life and hallowed home. 22 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. AS A PREACHER. BY L. R. FISKE, LL. D. During her early womanhood Mrs. Lathrap shrank from appearing before the public as a speaker. Presenting herself for membership in the church of which the writer was pastor, she sought to exact a pledge that she should not be called upon to take part in any of the meetings held. But becoming deeply interested in some special efforts put forth to lead young people to Christ, she gradually overcame the timidity which had held her back, entering into the active work of the church and showing an ability for spiritual leadership which soon brought her into marked prominence. Before she was fully aware of the change that was taking place, Providence had led her on to the very door of the ministry. It was the heart much more than the judg- ment that influenced her action a love for souls, more than a delib- erate conviction of personal fitness for the work of preaching the gospel. Results soon proved that the voice which reached the will through her awakened spiritual life was not a delusive one. Almost immediately the public recognized in her a divinely called and able minister of the gospel. Intellectually Mrs. Lathrap was a commanding figure. Indeed her whole being was in an extraordinary degree symmetrical. Rather above the average physically, her mental life, including intellect, heart, and will, measured fully up to her bodily stature. Perhaps it would be a better putting to say that in the unusual vigor of her womanly nature there seemed to be a completely rounded personality. To make the ideal preacher there must be several factors blending in the unity of the being. While in some respects least important, yet by no means unimportant, there is the bodily presence. In the case of Mrs. Lathrap the physical was a fitting medium for the mental. As she stood before an audience, there was a strength of character manifested in the face, a largeness of the soul speaking through the eyes, an intellectual mastery appearing in the poise of the body, which always impressed the people and won attention at the very beginning of her sermons. As she proceeded, the earnestness of a soul breath- ing out intense desires for the salvation of the people, could be read in the features of the face, and the deep soul life inspired gestures calculated to make more profound the convictions awakened. Her voice was clear, her utterances physically decisive and comparatively rapid, and there was a dignity as well as a grace of demeanor that CHARACTER SKETCHES. 23 always secured for her more than a respectful hearing. The physical never stood in the way of the mental, but rather seemed to be a per- fect channel for the message that came from the soul. She could easily be heard by audiences of two or three thousand persons, without any straining of the voice or manifestation of painful effort, and in- deed without impairing the womanly quality of her voice. She was a strong preacher. I think the word strength properly characterized her sermons. It is often said that woman quite natu- rally speaks beautifully, but that we may expect less of intellectual might than grace of diction. While her productions may be charm- ing, we must turn to man for logic and vigor of thought. Mrs. Lath- rap was a poet. It was easy for her to create poetical conceptions, they sprang up in her mind spontaneously, but they were not winged fancies, they always rested back on sharp intellectual discernment. They were the clothing of thought, not a substitute for thought. Not less vigorous were the blows she struck for right, not less weighty were the truths she uttered because the armor was polished. She was eminently an acute and logical thinker. Hence as a preacher she did not talk about a subject, she unfolded it. Her expositions of Script- ure were clear and full, and she always brought truth to the audience as food for reflection. She was a masterful logician. The defensive armor she would wrap around the soul of the Christian believer was thoroughly interlaced as a shield of faith, so that the darts of the evil one could not penetrate it ; and when she made an assault upon the realm of darkness, she employed all needed weapons for the complete demolition of the kingdom of wickedness. More than this, she was a bold preacher. She struck directly at sin in every form^in which it made its appearance. All wrong was hateful in her eyes, and its overthrow was the end at which she aimed. It never occurred to her to propose a compromise. Logically she could not stop short of the complete eradication of evil from the human heart. There was, therefore, no covering up, no passing around, but the most determined blows for its extirpation. To the sinner she spoke with a directness and point that was difficult to evade ; to the Christian she brought a salvation that would save to the uttermost. Neither in the teachings of Scripture nor the demands of logic did she find a stopping-place this side of the complete heal- ing of the soul from the disease of sin. Hence, in a very eminent degree was she an evangelical preacher. She conceived sin to be a crime against God, not a mere misfortune 24 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. in the life. She treated the sinner, therefore, as a rebel against the divine government, holding up before him his guilt, and pleading with him to turn from his evil ways. She exhorted him to flee from the wrath to come, for not only was there guilt, but impending ruin. She preached to the believer a full salvation. Not only did Christ die to redeem all men, but wholly to save each soul from the thralldom and power of sin. Logic is always lame when it necessarily limits the work of grace to a partial salvation. God wishes to heal all the dis- eases of the soul, and this work he is able to do when the surrender is complete. She conceived that God was dishonored by the doctrine that in his plans of human salvation he stopped short of the entire eradication of moral evil, making provision only for a partial restora- tion of the divine image. Only two possible reasons could be assigned for limitations in his plans, either that his power was re- stricted, or his mercy partial, neither of which could be harmonized with the infinitude of his being. The divine law is infinitely sacred ; God's justice is absolute, but also is his mercy without bounds. Hence it was natural that she should proclaim a gospel that was able to save even to the uttermost. In an unlimited sense did she con- ceive Faber's words to be true : " There is welcome for the sinner, And more graces for the good ; There is mercy with the Saviour, There is healing in his blood." Such conceptions of the divine plan adequately expressed, neces- sarily impart strength to a sermon. Truth came to Mrs. Lathrap round and full, not maimed and halting. Possessing in a degree beyond most people the power of verbal utterance, she dealt in great principles, so that the vigor of which I have spoken was vigor of thought expressed in language fitted to carry the truths uttered. While her discourses were not devoid of poetic imagery, rather abounding in it, their greatest merit consisted in the breadth of her conceptions and the invincible logic with which her arguments were framed. Such sermons are not evanescent, but bear fruit long after they are spoken. It might be supposed that with such a type of intellectuality there would be but little room for the emotional. It is a common notion that the intellect and heart act in an inverse ratio. There is indeed a sentimentality that contains within itself but little of clear, guiding CHARACTER SKETCHES. 25 thought. This is often found in inferior minds. But there is a wealth of heart that grows out of a wealth of intellect, the emotional nature being profoundly stirred because of the majesty of truth which the intellect encloses. Mrs. Lathrap's reasonings were not formal and cold, but glowed with the warmth of a loving, deeply sympathetic heart. She saw the peril of the sinner, and longed to save him. Eternal death- appeared to her an awful doom. The folly of the peo- ple absorbed in temporal concerns, forgetful of eternal interests, deeply moved her. The utterly irrational procedure of the great mass of men putting earth before heaven, the gratification of the senses before the spiritual life, stirred most profoundly her emotional being. The heart always kept company with the intellect in the con- templation and discussion of every theme. Her sermons glowed with a fervor that showed the deepest interest in those to whom she spoke. Her appeals to the sinner came from a heart aching for their rescue, and her exhortations to the church members betrayed an anxiety that they should not fail to obtain the wonderful good a loving Father was holding out to them. Solicitude marked her words, and all her reproofs and not infrequently were they uttered were not spoken to wound, but to heal. It is not strange, therefore, that her labors were very effective in revival services. As the Methodist Church made no provision for women in the pastorate, her special opportunity was in evangelistic work. For several years she conducted services of this nature in dif- ferent places, and in some of our largest cities. Many were reached by her warm, forcible, and eloquent appeals. There are hundreds of people living to-day who were brought to Christ through her instru- mentality. Few ministers of the gospel possessed that admirable poise of the intellectual and emotional so well fitted to meet all the demands of the sacred desk. Cold thought will not save ; neither will fervor without truth. The foregoing analysis of the personal qualities of Mary T. Lath- rap, appearing in her public ministrations as a preacher, bear out the assertion made earlier in this chapter, that her life was eminently symmetrical. As stated, there was a physical presence fitted to im- press an audience ; a voice full and round while it was penetrating ; an utterance displaying force and energy of life ; a deep mental pene- tration and comprehension of truth ; a poetic gift that charmed, united with logical blending of thought which carried conviction to the mind of the hearer. With all this there was a wealth of emotion 26 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. which, accompanying the truth, opened the way to the heart, so that the conscience was reached, and the best conditions supplied in con- nection with the work of the divine Spirit, for the salvation of the souls of men. Mrs. Mary Torrans Lathrap was a great and success- ful preacher. AS A POLITICIAN. By A. A. HOPKINS. When we come to write of Mrs. Lathrap as a politician, we must discard altogether the lower meanings of a partially degenerate term. Associated with her memory, in the minds of all who have made a study of political things, and who knew in what spirit these were regarded by her, the term politician is uplifted to the noblest plane of pure civics. In this better atmosphere a definition given by the new Standard Dictionary well befits the word, and renders it appropriate as applied to her, "One skilled in political science or administra- tion ; a statesman." Mrs. Lathrap was skilled in political science ; but it was rather through her clear, keen, unerring womanly instincts, her native grasp of underlying principles, than through mere study of rudimental or partisan ways and means in politics. To her heart's core she was a patriot, and under all and above all she was a Christian. She stood everywhere, in the discussion of public questions, upon the high levels of Christian patriotism and intelligence. Her woman's think- ing would have found fair interpretation in this language of Dr. J. G. Holland, applied to his own sex, and quoted by the "Standard" to emphasize its definition : " The more the Christian gentleman knows, the better politician he will make, and in him, and in him only, will scholarship come to its finest issues in politics." She craved and pleaded and prayed for the highest Christian knowledge to inspire the people of this republic as to the purpose of government, and the gifts of citizenship, and the responsibilities at- taching thereto. " The realm of politics," to use a phrase often on her lips, was the realm of consecrated brain, of devoted heart, of loyal life, of honest manhood, brought to their unfailing best. A few sen- tences in the " Life of General Clinton B. Fiske," culled from a few pages contributed to that volume by Mrs. Lathrap, will illustrate how she felt and thought : CHARACTER SKETCHES. 27 " Great masses of our people leave their political thinking to party leaders, ora- tors, and writers, so any campaign lifts or lowers the standards of patriotism, loyalty and integrity, according as the ideals and arguments are high and worthy or the reverse." " One mission of the Prohibition Party and its leaders is already proven, in lift- ing public thought once more from this low level of strife for spoils, to the high realm of principle, thus compelling public attention along patriotic channels." "General Fiske's speeches were not alone remarkable for the absence of what makes up the average political tirade, but for the presence of all that brings manhood to its best, in the interest of home and country." " He was a typical American, an ideal statesman, a pure patriot, conducting a model campaign." It was on the platform, as an advocate of true political develop- ment, and pleading for the proudest patriotic ideals, that Mrs. Lathrap revealed in full measure her endowments as a stateswoman. She had mastered the philosophy of government, as a man must, to be a states- man, as a woman may, by her own demonstration, given the superlative qualities of head and heart essential to such mastery. Many times men said of her, with entire realization of what their words meant : " She ought to sit in the United States Senate ! " She would have been the intellectual peer of any man who ever sat in that body during her lifetime. She would have been a sure stimulus to higher moral standards of political faith, to grander national ambitions, to sublimer utterances of statesmanship. She would have done more than any senator has done since Charles Sumner, in a just and wise patriotism, inspired by the divinest influences of civilization, to fix " the attitude of government " (adopting her most familiar phrase) as it should be forever determined and maintained in behalf of the su- preme Right and against the selfish Wrong. THE CLOSE OF A BRILLIANT CAREER. N the winter of 1893 Mrs. Lathrap first made known to some of those in official relation with her in the Michigan Woman's ^J, Christian Temperance Union that she was disturbed about the condition of her health. She sought the best medical aid that the State afforded, and her physicians gave her much encouragement ; but she felt that her work was drawing to a close, and this conviction never left her. In the autumn of 1893 she said to the writer, while sitting in the Chicago National W. C. T. U. Convention, " I feel that I am coming to the end. I cannot rid myself of this impression." She was ill for the most part of the winter of '94, but carried on the convention pro- gram work with the aid of her corresponding secretary. When the cor- responding secretary left her home where the preparations had been made for the convention to be held in a few weeks, Mrs. Lathrap said as she bade her good-by, " Once again and often you have been a great comfort to me." She stood in the door and watched her guest to the last, with that far-away look that had become so habitual to her. Never did she seem so gentle, so thoughtful for our highest inter- est, as at this last convention. Some of her winsome and beautiful sayings seemed prophetic of the "going away" soon to be. Some of these are quoted below, and we are indebted to the faithful recording secretary of the Michigan W. C. T. U., Mrs. C. H. Johnson, for pre- serving so many of her words for us. " Forgetting the things that are behind, let us reach forward unto the victories yet to be, since the battle is not ours but God's." In the memorial exercise, she said : "Do not think of me as sick, think I am well; thoughts are things." In her prayer at the close of the memorial service, she said : " Help us to lift our eyes from the beautiful grasses, as we go out to think, not of death, but of eternity. The way lies on before only a [28] THE CLOSE OF A BRILLIANT CAREER. 29 little way for some of us. We thank thee for eternal, boundless love ; comfort those who stay." At one of the morning devotional exercises she said : " I have made up my mind for the rest of my life to give up my life more fully to God. Let us be holy women, have a higher ideal than we ever had. I thank you with all my heart for the atmosphere of love and sympathy you have put around me the past year. Let us be higher, purer, holier women, nearer to God than we have ever been before. Make your local union a center of spiritual power. I some way think the morning lingers just over the hill. Christ will not let this evil go on much longer. The Lord has brought me back, and I hope to do better work." Her closing words when the convention adjourned were: "We have come to the end of our program, to the closing moments of our convention. Thanks for all the strength, all the pleasure you have been to me. Pray God that all together this year, we may make this work a power as it never has been before. Be holy women, more given to God than ever before. Pray for all officers, for a fresh bap- tism of the Holy Spirit." The following letter, written on a sick bed to the members of the State Board then present at Lathrap Hall, Hackley Park, reveals her tender and ever thoughtful interest in her co-workers. " JACKSON, July 23, 1894. " DEAR SISTERS: I confess to a sharper heart-ache these days than has come to me all these months of sickness. I want to be at Hackley Park so much. I longed to be there yesterday to do my part. I want to be there our day and hear John G. Wooley's apostolic message. I long to spend these days at the Hall with my sisters in Christ, my comrades in the great battle for all things pure, the beloved gray- haired girls to whom my soul is knit. I do not worry about the work. I thought when I read the last Michigan Union [State paper of the Michigan W. C. T. U.], and examined the program, with its promise of such good things, that I needed you all so much more than you needed me ; and I feel it this morning though I long to be with you. I Hear the wind in the tall trees, and see again the soft light through the leaves, the gleam on the lake, and I hear its music on the. sand until the tears will come, as I lie here still a prisoner of pain, shut away from you all. " I hope you will have a delightful sojourn and enjoy every hour. I am trying to be both brave and patient, and in the strength of Christ am succeeding, I trust, in a measure at least. I often think I ought to be perfectly well, so many are praying for me. Some time, while you tarry together, if you feel drawn to it, will you not make special prayer for me. It seems that God will hear you, as perhaps no others, and send help from our sanctuary in the woods. My physicians think I am improving, but I have many downs on the way which seems very long. 30 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. "I send you my greeting and my love. Let me know about everything. I trust our plans were well made, and that profit and pleasure will come to all. God be with you. Yours ever, "MARY T. LATHRAP." In letters to the corresponding secretary she says : " I still camp where both worlds are in view. ... I am some discouraged. I fear my health is not coming back as soon as I had hoped ; but we shall see." August 24, 1894, she says : "I am forced yet to be very much of an invalid. ... I had the loveliest letter from Miss Willard two days ago that one woman ever wrote to another, and in the same envelope one from Lady Henry. The latter wrote me about the singing of my hymn, ' The Battle Song of the Y's,' at Queen's Hall. Mother has been very sick for a week; she is very feeble, and I think it doubtful if she is ever down stairs again. She is so anxious to go and be with the Lord. Love to all the family and a heap for you, my right hand in these trying days." After Miss Willard's return from a two years' sojourn in England, she says : "When I came home, after two years of absence, and learned that our great heart was an invalid, it seemed as if an eagle had been stung by some cruel hunter's relentless shaft. As time went on, and I heard more and more of her great sufferings and greater fortitude, she grew more dear to the comrade who had loved her always. I do not think that any human being has been so constantly in my thought for the last six months as Mary Lathrap. Often in the night-watches among the Catskill mountains or on the swift trains, or in the great assembly, her presence has been with me and my heart has been lifted up for her in prayer. It came to be a custom with me as I did this to place in fancy a loving kiss on that imperial brow. One day last simmer I wrote her just what I have here stated. She was a woman brave, strong, and self-contained. I had never dared to say as much to her before, nor did I feel certain that she would receive such an avowal with the tenderness 1 felt in making it ; but a few days later a letter in the hand that had grown tremulous came back from her, so beautiful, so rich in all womanly softness and devotion, that I shall cher- ish it all my life as one of the sweetest and most sacred communications ever made to me. Some sentences I shall disclose to those her tender ' gray-haired girls,' as she called them, in the last days, and those younger ones who have joined the army and marched with us through storm and stress : " ' Dear Frances Willard : I cannot make any suitable reply to your letter which reached me some days ago. The tears come when I think of it, and I feel no woman ever wrote so graceful a tribute to another. I rejoice that it has been mine to stand with you in some of the storms, as well as the sunshine, of the battle for God and home and native land. . . . Nothing could exceed the sweetness of word and action on the part of my sisters of the White Ribbon. What a gathering it will be when we meet on the other side and go no more out forever. ... I have THE CLOSE OF A BRILLIANT CAREER. 31 much I would like to say, but cannot now ; if my work is done, I rejoice that my best years were given to such a cause, and in such a company. ... I bless you from my heart for your words, so full of fragrance ; they seem the well-weighed val- ues of a comradeship which shines like beaten gold. I hope it may be my joy to see you at Cleveland, but only the Lord our leader knows. " ' Yours now and forever, " ' MARY T. LATHRAP.' " August 13, 1894, Lady Henry Somerset wrote to her as follows : "It is impossible to spare your great gifts from the warfare. I have so hoped that some day you would extend your campaign to England. We should give you such a welcome, and your white ribbon sisters would make the old country home-like for you. Your beautiful hymn, 'There' s a Shadow on the Home,' was sung at our great annual gathering at Queen's Hall. Men and women bowed their heads and wept as the band of ragged gutter children wailed out the song that was evidently true ; and hearts were uplifted by the glad prophecy that rang out from the white- robed child choir that filled up the great auditorium, bearing aloft the white ribbon, and singing, ' We are coming to the rescue.' " Your words have so often been to me an inspiration that I know you will let me thank you for them." October 26, 1894, the writer of this sketch spent a few hours at Mrs. Lathrap's house v We talked of our State work as she found strength. She had been confined to her bed since the early part of July and was very weak physically ; but her brilliant mind was active, and her faith in God was triumphant. As I entered the room, bear- ing a basket of flowers, sent to her from the Fourth District Conven- tion, she said, after the greeting : " The chariot is swinging low for me, these days, dear. I am looking out upon two worlds." Later in our interview she said, " I sometimes fear we have lost the way, or else my work is done ; for the vision of the work closes. I doubt the wis- dom of our taking the platform on political issues, such as silver and tariff, rather than on the moral part of the question." In reply to a question concerning an alliance with men's societies, she said, " In an alliance of men and women, the men's views always gain the ascendency. I do not approve of organic union. I feel, though, that there should be something besides adhesion in our rela- tion to the Prohibition Party." When I bade her good-by, she said, " Keep this thought on the mast-head, that it is the work and not the worker that should be promoted. It is such a little thing when only honor to the women is sought." Her good-by was tender and thoughtful ; even in her suf- fering she tried to spare others from grief. She spoke freely of 32 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. "going away," and requested her husband and the nieces to give to each of the members of the State Board a souvenir from among her belongings. This wish was carried out, and each member of the Board cherishes the gift, and, most of all, the tender thought back of it. In speaking of her illness she said : " I feel grieved that this should come to me. I had such a sweet compact with the Lord years ago, that I had looked for long life. I cannot make it seem right." As she said that, I thought of the piece of statuary on exhibi- tion at the World's Fair, called " The Angel of Death and the Sculp- tor." A sculptor with chisel in one hand and up-raised mallet in the other, was represented as making a form, the outline of whose fea- tures already appeared in a block of marble, and just above stood the Angel of Death with hand closed over the hand that held the chisel, as if staying him in any further work. The startled, anxious look on the sculptor's face, fhe work only in outline, the beautiful figure seen to the artist's vision in the unfin- ished marble, plead with an "eloquent silence'' for more time. The relentless expression on the face of the angel revealed the fact that the marble thought must be wrought out by other hands ; and I thought, Who shall make such masterful strokes as our Mary in the unfinished work'of the temperance reform. She saw the battle still raging and longed to be again in the conflict ; but as her sickness and suffering were prolonged, her vision turned from earth's conflict to heaven's victory. She laid down earthly weapons of warfare calmly and with resignation, and met with patience and trust and courage " the last enemy," though she endured great physical suffering. During these months of sickness her husband gave her his constant attention, and every material comfort was supplied to her with unsparing hand. The two nieces in the home were loving, careful, and faithful, and the nurse tended her patient with an affectionate interest. Nothing that money could purchase was left untried, but for all medical skill or faithful care she grew weaker day by day, and Jan. 3, 1895, with her vision of the eternal world bright, and with this mes- sage to her friends on earth, " It is all right," repeated many times during the last hours of life, she fell asleep without a struggle. She died of universal neuralgia. She had given instructions to the family as to how she should be clad, and many other details con- cerning the funeral service, and her requests were carried out even to the smallest detail. THE CLOSE OF A BRILLIANT CAREER. 33 Her remains lay in state at her home Saturday, January 4, from i to 4 P. M., but scores of friends came at all times to see them. She was clad in a tasteful black dress, on her heart the bow of ribbon white with flowers ; also flowers on the lining of the casket. It was a beautiful casket, trimmed in white and lavender. By her special re- quest there was no crape no black of any kind. The room in which she lay was bright and sunny, as were all the rooms about the house. There was no suggestion of death about the house, only the lifeless form. The triumphant smile that was natural to her, abode still upon the features. The floral offerings were rich and numerous. A committee of ten from the Jackson Union acted as a guard of honor ; also a committee from the State Prohibition Club. At i o'clock, January 7, relatives, guards of honor, and State officers gath- ered for a brief home service and proceeded thence to the M. E. church for a public service. Four pure white horses, caparisoned in delicate black net and with white ribbons waving over their heads, carried the precious burden. Their very step and carriage symbolized a victorious going away ; and as they took their place as leaders of this long train of carriages, nearly all of which were drawn by white horses, we thought of the victorious soul's glad " sweeping through the gate." Jackson never witnessed so long a line of carriages as this in honor of a departed citizen. The M. E. church, of which she was a member, was beautifully decorated, all in white, and with nature's most rare gifts of flower and plant. It was crowded to its utmost, and the street for a long way was thronged with people who could not get in. The Jackson Morning Patriot said : " Never was greater sorrow witnessed at the First M. E. church than yester- day at the funeral services of Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap, and yet, mingled with all this sadness was a feeling of triumph over the glorious life closed to earth, but leaving a memory dear to all. The seating capacity of the church was not large enough for the many who assembled to do honor to the deceased, and a large num- ber stood during the entire service, which lasted two hours. The services were most impressive and solemn, and affected many to tears. Telegrams and messages of sympathy were received and read from all parts of the United States. The secular and religious press 34 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. of the country had given columns in honor of Michigan's fallen leader. The Industrial Home for Girls at Adrian had the flag at half-mast while she lay cold in death in her home. Brief addresses were made at the public service in the church by L. R. Fiske, LL. D., president of Albion College, Dr. Callen and Rev. John Graham, her pastors ; Mrs. Jane M. Kinney, National Superin- tendent of penal work in the W. C. T. U. ; Mrs. Julia R. Parish, State Corresponding Secretary of the Michigan W. C. T. U. ; Hon. Samuel Dickie, Chairman of the National Prohibition Committee. The remains were laid to rest in beautiful Mt. Evergreen, just out of the city of Jackson, in a lovely part of the cemetery. After the brief burial services, members of the State Board, her "gray-haired girls," and other State workers, each plucked a rose and threw it upon the uncovered casket, and each took away a flower from the profusion scattering about. We left the beautiful spot, Mt. Evergreen, to wage our peaceful war ; and as we had turned from the turmoil for a few brief hours to pay our last tribute to our promoted leader, we thanked God for the inspiration that we had received from her leadership. Every detail of this last rite was just as she would have had it. The entire plan was carried out in a way that suggested life, and life only. The beautiful hands are folded, the silent reaper has stayed their further work, but in the hearts of two hundred thousand White Ribboners in the nation a name will live as long as the cause for which we labor lives and tha f name is Mary T. Lathrap. ADDENDUM. Miss ANNA GORDON went from Boston to Jackson and back again as a token of her great love for Mrs. Lathrap, to attend the funeral and to carry and read the messages from Frances E. Willard, Presi- dent of the World's and National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and from Lady Henry Somerset, President of the British Woman's Temperance Association. These elect ladies were unable to be present, and it was fitting that Miss Gordon thus represent them, as she stands in official relation to both the World's and the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The messages are among the character sketches in this volume. EDITOR. INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. EFORE the funeral service for Mrs. Lathrap a woman from the country drove in several miles and begged the privilege of seeing the remains. This privilege was readily granted, and the woman related the following, in substance : " My husband was a drinking man and our home was poor and desolate. I had little to encourage me to live. It was reported that a woman was to speak in the schoolhouse, and my husband with a sneer said, ' Let 's go and hear what that woman will say anyway,' and we went. " He soon became interested in Mrs. Lathrap's sermon, and listened to every word. When the services were over, he and I lingered in the vestibule ; and as she came down the aisle, he said, ' I wonder if she will speak to me.' She shook hands with me, and then turning to him said, ' My brother, you look as if you were having a hard time serving the devil. O come to the Lord and be saved. Will you kneel here with me and seek the salvation of your soul ? ' The man, deeply moved, consented, and they knelt in the vestibule on the dirty, floor, and she prayed ; he yielded and was converted. Now, we have a happy, prosperous home ; my husband is a sober, industrious, Christian man, and I want to see her face once more." The poem, " A Woman's Answer to a Man's Question," went through the papers entitled, "A Woman's Question," and was credited to several other authors. Notably among these, was Elizabeth Bar- rett Browning. To one of these papers Mrs. Lathrap wrote as follows : "DEAR EDITOR: I am moved once more to claim another bit of my brain estate. The poem published in the April Union entitled, ' A Woman's Question,' was written, not by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but by Mary T. Lathrap. When first set afloat, it was ' A Woman's Answer to a Man's Question,' and was written in reply to a man's poetic unfolding of what he conceived to be a woman's duty." " M. T. L." [35] 36 LtTERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. A brother preacher, after listening to one of Mrs. Lathrap's phi- lippics, ejaculated, "Lord, give us more back-bone." " Mrs. Lathrap made the ' fur fly ' in her fearless and faithful de- nunciation of the practice of bringing liquor on the sly into Ocean Grove, and the prevalence among otherwise decent people of using tobacco. She pleaded on her own behalf for a breath of God's pure air down along the beach, unmingled with the smell of cigar smoke. The people approved by spontaneous plaudits, wishing her to ' lay on ' and ' spare not.' Her chief rebuke was aimed point blank at some of the preachers." Mrs. Torrans says : " Mary was one always devoted to books, study, and writing ; she always was hunting out the reason of things." The ease with which Mrs. Lathrap picks up her Democratic and Republican antagonists and pitches them out of the window and clear over the fence is enjoyable ; for it was done deftly, gently, without a suggestion of the slugger, or a word that was not an honor to the lips that spoke it. She gives some mighty solid chunks of rea- son for the ground taken by the Prohibitionists. Daily News, Springfield, III. Mrs. R. A. Campbell relates the following : " I once told Mrs- Lathrap, after hearing one of her grand sermons, that I believed I could live a true Christian life if I could hear her preach once in three months. I afterward heard her refer to the remark as a source of strength to her, she having forgotten who it was that made it. She often said, ' Do not save all the flowers until the people are dead.' I personally, among many pleasant recollections, had a whole wreath of flowers bestowed upon me by her. Coming in during the session at the Chicago Convention, after an absence of two years from the State, she quietly slipped her hand into mine saying, ' As welcome as roses in June.' " [Plain Dealer Special, Wellington, O.] In Wellington there is a society of temperance women ; . . . and these ladies wanted a public meeting in the interest of temperance not a political Prohibition meeting to make votes for Prohibition can- INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 37 didates. They engaged Mrs. Mary Lathrap, of Michigan, to deliver a temperance address. . . . The next thing in order was to find a place wherein to hold it. Since the removal of the old town hall, there is no suitable p!ace for holding public meetings except the church. Mrs. Lathrap being an ordained Methodist preacher, and the Meth- odist church being pledged by discipline to temperance and to Prohi- bition even, what more natural than for these ladies to go to the house of their friends in search of a place to hold a temperance meeting ? Their committee accordingly waited upon the trustees of the church with a petition that Mrs. Lathrap be allowed the privilege of speaking on temperance in the church. But when these temperance Esthers touched the top of the scepter, it was not held out unto them, and it pleased not the trustees to grant their petition ; and in language of holy writ the trustees said substantially : "Thou foolish woman, seest thou not our mourning and what is happening to the G. O. P.? How that the G. O. P. is full of heaviness and sore distressed because of the wicked Prohibitionists ? And how that the G. O. P. is neither for nor against prohibition? And how the G. O. P. is trying to ride two temperance nags at once, and is even now split almost in twain with much straddling? Moreover, we bethink ourselves of how Parson Burchard slopped over, and what assurance have we that Parson Mollie Lathrap won't come and do likewise ? While, therefore, we roll temperance under our tongues, as a sweet morsel, and are grieved over the abomination of the liquor traffic, yet we dare not have a temperance lecture in our church, for fear it might make votes for Parson Leonard [Prohibition candidate.] Nevertheless we bid you temperance ladies God-speed in your noble work." The temperance ladies turned Mrs. Lathrap over to the Prohibi- tionists for whom she gave an outdoor lecture. [O. P. H. in Nashville Advocate, Washington City, April 2, 1890.] Mrs. Lathrap, of Michigan, waked up that audience with an ora- torical cyclone set to music. She was epigrammatic, dramatic, and most emphatic. She was argumentative, witty, rhetorical, sarcastic, and pathetic. Mrs. Lathrap's synopsis of a lecture given by Mrs. against the enfranchisement of women is as follows : 38 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Women should not vote because 1. They cannot sing base. 2. It would degrade them, and ruin the country. 3. They do n't know what the ballot means. 4. They are so contrary they would not vote like their husbands and fathers. 5. Men don't like to have them. 6. The women are so mean in New Jersey. 7. Men would have to rock the babies. 8. If women make clubs trumps, they would have to play clubs. 9. Women have all the property rights, etc., that men have now. 10. The ship of State would swamp with women aboard. n. The elective franchise has the effect of making women ride horseback without side saddles in Wyoming. 12. Men do n't like it. 13. The ivy can't grow without clinging to the oak. 14. Women will have to stand up in street and railway cars. 15. Men will be afraid to marry, and most women want to marry real bad. It is not right to live single. 16. Men don't like it. Remarks : If Mrs. is honest in her sentiments, why do n't she stay at home, sing treble, and cling around somebody ? Mrs. Emma A. Wheeler, for eight years the State corresponding secretary, says: "After my mother died, and my husband's business kept him from home, she wrote, ' You are alone a good bit, that is a fact, and I do n't quite like to have it so. I think you need chirking up a bit in some way. I wish you could travel with me for two months this summer, and see how it goes.' A frequent expression of hers was, ' God bless our women.' Among a large package of letters I find one written while Speaking in the West Virginia campaign, in which she says: 'I feel a bit tired these days, not quite the vim I would like. I wish I could rest a year.' "After directing what articles should be sent from Michigan to be placed in the corner stone of the Temple, she wrote : ' Where will we all be when the records are opened.' In her merry moods (and she had them often, for she was of a sunny disposition) she was child-like in her mirth. These playful moods were oftenest seen in her own home, where I have spent many happy hours." INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 39 FIRST PUBLIC WORK. Mrs. Lathrap read her first missionary let- ter on the " Women of India " in the Jackson Church. She says : " I was unwillingly ' tugged ' out on the seas of all lands, thus entering on my work for the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. Within four miles of this church I preached my first six sermons, in the little Congregational church at Michigan Center. It was in this building I was licensed to preach the gospel after such profound religious expe- riences as yet lie in the great silence between God and my own soul. AN early schoolmate says : " In our ten-year-old check-apron days, no schoolmate was so dear to me. Her sturdy independence and utter fearlessness of the pupils, who assumed airs of superiority, used to fairly awe me. She had an utter abhorrence of any sort of sham or pretence, and on play-ground and in school room she considered honor and self-respect far above any advantages of wealth or position. She was leader in composition and debate. Four months my junior, she seemed the elder, and led while I followed. LATHRAP HALL AT HACKLEY PARK. In 1893 the Michigan Wom- an's Christian Temperance Union built a beautiful hall for educa- tional purposes in our work at Hackley Park, near Muskegon, Michigan ; and by vote of the annual convention held in Muskegon in that year, the hall was named Mary T. Lathrap Hall in honor of her. She put time, thought, and money into this work. She spared no effort to make it a house beautiful ; and the persistency and care with which she looked after all of the details was a surprise to those who thought they knew already about her wonderful painstaking. The building was dedicated, Aug. i, 1893, by Mrs. Lathrap, who said, among other things, " The hour of consummation has come ; let the struggle cease. We dedicate this hall to God and Home and Native Land." To-day the House Beautiful stands a substantial structure, a White Ribbon home, another powerful agency for waging our peace- ful warfare. Lathrap Hall stands, sheltered on the one side by a wooded hill, and facing Lake Michigan on the other side, a fitting type of her in whose honor it is named sheltered by the everlasting God but bravely facing stern realities as relentless as the ceaseless ebb and flow of the waves of Lake Michigan. Nestled under the shelter of the 40 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. hill, Mary T. Lathrap Hall is in a beautiful location for Michigan W. C. T. U. Educational headquarters. LATHRAP CHAPEL, at Harriman, Tenn., now in process of erection, will seat 1500 persons, and is named in honor of Mrs. Lathrap, who was one of the University trustees. No more fitting or beautiful monument could be erected to her memory. [Extracts from letters to Emma A. Wheeler.] JACKSON, MICH., Nov. 4, 1890. ..." The battle is going on as I write. I wonder how far ahead our cause will go to-day. It is slow, is it not ? " AUBURN, July 11, 1890. ..." I want to send a floral offering to Coldwater, Saturday, to the new-made grave of General Fisk. What a loss to the church, to the country, and to me ; he has been such a good, true friend since the years when I worked with him in New Jersey." [Copy of letter to Mrs. Fisk. When General Fisk was nominated for President on the Prohibition ticket.] COLDWATER, MICH., May 22, 1888. " DEAR MRS. FISK : I have been thinking of writing you for many days, and feel like saying to you some things I have on my heart. The eyes of all this country are turning toward General Fisk, and already I believe he is the choice of a million voters, with more to follow if no mistakes are made; and I solemnly believe the choice is not so much human as divine. "I have wondered these days, when your husband's name is on our lips ami in our prayers, if we have thought of you as much as we should. I sat one day with Mrs. St. John, in an art gallery in Rochester, while she told me of the trial days when her husband was candidate, and she said, ' You did not care for all I felt about it, and I was angry at you.' But the temperance people did care. They saw the sacrifice, and see it yet. But I replied, ' If you had sat in the convention at Pittsburgh and seen the choice come down upon Governor St. John, you would not have dared to raise an objection; you would have felt that these things are not of human contriving.' And she answered, 'Well, perhaps you are right; but it has all been so hard.' "I remember some things I heard you say in the campaign in New Jersey. I remember my feeling about you and the general while in your elegant home those few hours; and I know there is nothing for him or for you of honor in the choice which has been foreshadowed now four years. I know a little of your feeling con- cerning the present situation. I swiftly guess at more, because I am a woman. I think I could think and say all you would utter of objection, health, friends, INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 41 money, the unspeakable unkindness of our political methods, all touching a home so sweet, and a life so royal as that of General Fisk. But, my friend, this nation is making history as grand as when Wendall Phillips was egged and hissed for the truth, and Sumner was stricken down in Congress. And, as God could not write the history of freedom for the slave, and emancipation from its wrong, for the nation, without Seward, Sumner, and Lincoln, no more can he write this new history with- out a group of men, of which just now your husband is the center. I pray you see it this way, for your own comfort. All these personal considerations are but small, measured by the destiny of a great people and the coming of Christ to his own in the world. "You are very strong, so I make a strong appeal. You are needed, not only in slow consent for him to be the candidate of the prohibition party, but as the best strength at his side. I pray you be willing. It will be almost treason to your country, dear, to be otherwise. This is enough. Before you are tried with me for this, think, I write with eyes dim with tears. Be great, my friend. " MARY T. LATHRAP." EARLIER POEMS. (Under Nom de Plume of"Lena."} TO ONE WHO WISHES FAME. THOU wishest fame ! in thy life sky afar Shines there in glory that strange burning star, Whose light has sometimes led the good man's way Upward ; but ah ! more frequent led astray. Thou wishest fame ! ambition in thy soul Bids thee toil onward to the distant goal, And holds the dazzling prize before the view, Fought for by many ; gained by ah, how few ! But some there be now in the silent land, Who long have slept with coldly folded hands; Their names we breathe with bitter shame or pride, They, they began to live the day they died. All used a magic pen, a fadeless scroll ; Wrote their great heart-throb on the human soul, Then died ; but each strong wave for good or ill They raised, along time's shore, is washing still. They lived and died, but did the tide-like flow Of their deep thoughts bring more of joy than woe ? Ask the long past, whose page has many a blot It would not have, were some great names forgot. And thou wouldst stand upon that dizzy height, Around which rests a halo glory bright, And wear the chaplet whose undying ray Would glow undimmned when thou hadst passed away. [42] EARLIER POEMS. 43 But shouldst thou win the wreath, would it when worn Prove one of roses, and without a thorn ? And would it be to an immortal soul, The crowning top-stone to the purest goal ? No ! thou mayest toil till on that brow of thine, Thought, that strange sculptor, chisels many a line ; And find how poor a boon is empty fame, And of how little worth a titled name. No ! let thine be a holier mission here, To bless earth's erring, and earth's mourners cheer ; Then when thy hands are folded into rest, No voice shall curse the name that many bless. Marshall, Dec. i, EVENING. The meek stars are brightening up heaven's blue deep, The low winds are rocking the flowers to sleep, And the leaflet's soft, rustling melody seems Like some echo that comes from a beautiful dream. The evening has stolen the sunset's last hue, And changed all the sky to a motionless blue, Save where the white cloudlets their snowy fold fling Across the deep azure, like angels on wing. The lakelet throws back in its gentle unrest, The light that falls soft on its billowy breast, And it seems like another sky calm, and as blue As the one that bends o'er us the stars shining through. Each sound that breathed discord at length has grown still, And quiet is bathing the vale and the hill. All that breaks on the ear is a low, dreamy hum, As sweet as the roll of the Indian drum. 44 LITER ABY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. As rose the pure incense from Israel's fires, So the gold-tinted mist curls around the church spires, And seems like that cloud just waiting to bear To the throne of " Our Father " the heart's evening prayer. Marshall, May 31, 1859. TO MR. AND MRS. W. W. MOORE. In memory of their boy WILLIE whose path to Heaven was only ten years long these lines are affectionately dedicated. A brow that was spotless as marble, Eyes that were gentle and true, Lips that were brimfull of sweetness, A heart that was pure as the dew ; A form that our fond arms have folded, Dear hands that are cold as the frost; The promise and hope of the future These are the things we have lost. A home in God's beautiful summer, A place 'neath the dear Saviour's eyes, Where blossoms are rare and eternal, And never a single one dies ; A land free from darkness and sinning, Where the heart is ne'er saddened or pained, Escape from life's possible burdens These are the things he has gained. So right in the night-time of sorrow Gleameth God's balance of gold, Weighing the seen and the earthly, With that out of sight, and untold ; Weighing the gain and the losses, That hearts he has smitten, may see That his love runneth all through the trial, And his way is the best that can be. EARLIER POEMS. 45 Willie's form lies asleep on the hillside, 'Neath the sunshine and blossoms of spring ; But his soul is awake where the seasons No possible winter can bring. Take comfort, sad hearts, in thy mourning, Heaven's nearer thee, now, than before, Willie's steps light the way to the portal, Tho' he has passed in at the door. Jackson, April 29, 1870. I HAVE NO MOTHER NOW." I see him now, A half-veiled look of heaven upon his face, That heavenlier seemed baptized in recent tears ; And that peculiar shadow, brightness traced Alone where sorrows come with childhood's years Was on his brow. The sunlight shone Down with a loving kiss upon the hair That fell in gold-waves round the half-bent head, As if it would replace a mother's care, That mother lain yestreen among the dead, To sleep alone. And low I bent To kiss the upturned brow so pure and white, And called his name ; but still the drooping lid Shut close within the soul its wonted light, While on the silken lash a tear unshed Hung eloquent. The trembling tone Was like a bird wail, O, so sadly sweet ; In five short words the simple tale he told ; Told why his rosy cheeks with tears were wet, And why like dew upon his locks of gold They brightly shone. 46 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. And this the tale : " I have no mother now ; " he said no more, But I looked down upon the shadowed brow, And then away into the years before, When he must weep e'en bitterer tears than now, And sadder feel. Through all the years I thought how he must live and never know The warm caress a mother's hand can give, And miss her blessing amid weal or woe, And missing these, still onward toil and live, Without her prayers. I see him yet, And hear the murmur of those music tones, " I have no mother now." May those sweet eyes Keep still that upward look toward thy home, And their appealing blue lead to the skies, Thy wandering steps. Marshall, April 29, 1859. [For the Daily Citizen.} WHAT OF THE SHIP? We thought that the day of our conflict was passed, That the day of our triumph had come ; We thought that the ship of the Union, at last, Had swept out from the breakers among. We heard the boom, boom of the rock-fretted surf, As it struck on the dangerous shore, While we sailed, as we thought, from the peril behind Out into the glory before. We were out on the tide, at its uttermost flood, And a world stood to see if we failed ; While above all the human, the great eye of God Looked down on the right, as she sailed. EARLIER POEMS. 47 High up at the mast-head our flag was afloat, All riven and torn by the blast ; But its motto of " Freedom and Manhood to Man" Flashed out on the world as it passed. All this was but yesterday vict'ry and song ; Our foes bending suppliant knee ; And the race whose dark faces looked God-ward so long, Standing up where all manhood could see, All this was but yesterday ! What of to-day ? " The clouds return after the rain ; " Boom, boom ! to our ears comes the sound of the surf, And we drift to the breakers again ! u Right about with the ship," cries Freedom on watch ; "Away ! " from the rocks and the sand. " Down with the helm ! " but the call's disobeyed 4 On that helm lies a traitorous hand ! The pilot is false to the words written out Upon our sacred banner in blood ; He is false to the living, and false to the dead ! False to justice, and honor, and God ! Tho' we're out on the tide, at its uttermost flood Rocks are near us then what shall we do? Our pilot's great soul in those breakers went down, The man in his place must be true ! [ For the Advertiser and Tribune ] THE DEED AND THE flEN. Up, up to the curtains of darkness Leaped the tongues of the pitiless flame, Mapping out on the sky of the evening A horror too deep for a name ; Filling the air with a terrible gloom, Blotting from heaven the stars and the moon, Spreading its smoke far above like a pall, Below, busy wrapping a ruin round all. 48 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Below were the dark, angry faces Of what God intended for men ; But the hate in their eyes made them demons, And blotted out all, but revenge. The curses of passion went up to the sky, And through them, beside them, ascended the cry, The cry of a great and terrible wrong The wail of the weak He who heard it is strong ! Below rolled the surges of passion, Above the calm heavens looked down ; Below glared the human misdoing, Above, gloomed the infinite frown. Below, rocked the billows of passion that night, Above, paused the angel of record to write ; Madly below did these hands light the flames, Sternly above wrote the angel their names. The anger and tumult are over, The names and the deeds that were done, Are connected forever and ever They '11 meet in a time that will come. They built in their madness a tower of shame ; The wrong and injustice are written in flame ; O did they think, in their rage 'gainst the weak, That God who will judge, willed the hue of the cheek ? Detroit, March 12, 1863. [For the Advertiser and Tribune.] OUT OF THE DEPTHS WE CRY TO THEE." Because in the past we were mighty, And our pathway was glory so long, We forgot to look upward and God-ward, And thought all alone we were strong. Faithless and sinning and proud were we; Now, " Out of the depths we cry to Thee." EARLIER POEMS. 49 Because of the splendid uprising Of hearts when our danger drew nigh ; Because of the oaths they recorded, For our country to dare and to die, We still kept our pride self-trusting were we ; Now, "Out of the depths we cry to Thee." Because that the tread of our army Had power to startle the world ; Because on the ocean no banner More proud than our own was unfurled ; The cause nor the help from Jehovah sought we ; Now, " Out of the depths we cry to Thee." Because that the shadow has deepened And our hands are too frail to bring light ; Because now our trial is bitter, We 've learned to look up through the night ; We have found there is something stronger than we, And, " Out of the depths we cry to Thee." Because man has failed when we trusted, And our sod has been sprinkled with gore ; Because of the brave hearts who left us So many will come back no more In tears and our weakness more humble are we, And, " Out of the depths we cry to Thee." Because Thou hast taught us our frailness, And told us Thy hand is so strong; Because Thou hast promised salvation, Though Thy people forget Thee so long Now lowly, trusting, and hopeful are we, As, " Out of the depths we cry to Thee." Detroit, April jo, 1863. 50 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. [ For the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune.} FOR THOSE WHO ARE AFRAID. Cannot conquer the South ! Are they stronger than we, That you 'd tamely submit to their treason ? Call pride to your rescue, poor soul, if you 've lost The whole of your courage and reason. Look over the strong and magnificent North, Will it bow before treason so humble ? No, no ! better that every freeman should die Than that Freedom's proud temple should crumble. Cannot conquer the South ! Is it better than ours The cause for which they are contending ? Are honor and liberty, country and home, And our banner not worth the defending ? Would you see their dark flag o'er your capitol wave While they hurl their proud scorn in your faces, And rivet your chains as they claim their high right To rule the " inferior races / " Cannot conquer the South ! Are they braver than we ? Go stand where our fallen are lying, Go ask for the hearts that have died for our cause, And those, just as brave, who are dying. Go count ye the thinned ranks to-day in the field, Do their lips look like saying, " Surrender " ? Do such daring and doing deserve for reward Your cowardly, pitiful slander ? Cannot conquer the South ! Are they winners to-day ? Which flag is the brightest with glory? Mississippi flows onward unchained to the sea ; Ask its waters to tell you the story. From Vicksburg and Hudson the shout of the brave With that from the eastward is swelling, And Morgan's repose (?) is disturbed I presume, By the tale which the chorus is telling. EARLIER POEMS. 51 Cannot conquer the South ! Talk loud as you will, The guns at Fort Sumter speak louder ; The. flag over Charleston is proud, I admit, But the one that will be there is prouder. Cannot conquer the South ! Yes we can, and we will, For true to our country her sons are ; But before they come home, you who say that " they can't," Had better go over to Windsor. East Saginaw, Aug. 21, 1863. [For the Expounder. ] VACANT CHAIRS. I 'm thinking how the temples of our nation rang to-day, With the anthems of thanksgiving that have scarcely died away ; How back to many homesteads the wandering feet have come, And 'round the hearthstone gathers the grandsire and the son. I am thinking how the bounties, by Nature's hand out-poured, Have crowned with good and plenty, the gay and festal board ; How love's dear light is burning, its language in each eye, And hearts forget what may be in the hidden by-and-by. I 'm dreaming o'er the mem'ries, those amaranthine flowers That fill with rarest fragrance these velvet-footed hours ; But I turn from all the gladness of this and other years, To think of what is filling too many eyes with tears. There 's an undertone of sadness in our song of praise to-day, For a cloud has gathered o'er us, in the year just passed away ; How much of joy is clouded by the hearthstones everywhere, As shadowed eyes turn fondly toward the vacant chair. There 's war within our borders, and many homes are sad, For lack of manly voices which last year made them glad ; For lack of eyes now turning from the camp-fire's light to hide The tears which show that memory is stronger far than pride. 52 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. I ween the mirth was quiet by many boards to-day, As the smile shone through the tear-drops, for soldiers far away ; And voices of thanksgiving sank lower to a prayer, As eyes with wistful yearning fell on the vacant chair. There 's war within our borders, and there are homes to-night From which its awful shadow has shut out all the light ; The loved and brave have perished in the battle's fiery rain, And the chairs which they left vacant, will ne'er be filled again. There are hearts all o'er our country, too sad for songs of praise, Whose light and joy are lying within a soldier's grave, And other hearts whose gladness is darkened by the fear Of what may be their portion before another year. Some voices have sung anthems in the house of God to-day, But more have bowed in silence, with saddened hearts to pray That God would make up losses to the mourner, by his care, And bring once more the loved ones to fill the vacant chair. Thanksgiving Day, i86r. [For the Washington Post.~\ BREAKING OF THE ICE. Under the winter moon they lay Frozen river, and frozen bay, Stretching for miles and miles away. An ocean of silver With waves of gold, By the prodigal moonlight, Over it rolled, As under their shackles of molten light, The bay and river throbbed on that night. EARLIER POEMS. 53 Winter was old ; a great round sun, All day long, in the skies had hung, Promising blossoms soon to come ; Till the heart of the waters Had caught the light, And was singing of freedom Now, in the night, Learning the song through its icy bars, And chanting it up to the listening stars. Skaters skimmed o'er the silver sea, Idle argosies, winged with glee, Heeding never the minstrelsy That was heard in the water's Impatient dips, As they lapped the fetters With hungry lips, While hurrying onward, with muffled feet, To pour their wrong in the heart of the deep. Under the stretches of moonlight sweet, Under the skaters' careless feet, Under the icy, silvered sheet, The river was singing That old, old song The world has been singing, For ages long ; Defiantly asking in name of the right, God's boundless freedom, God's loving light. So, when the skaters all were gone, Leaving the moonlight gleaming on, I stayed yet by the shore alone ; For the tale it was telling, Had power to hold Like that by the " ancient Mariner " told ; River and moonlight were holding me still, And like the weird mariner, had their will. 54 LITKRARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. What could I do but choose to stay, Hearing all the waters might say, Hearing the booming miles away Of the great deep ocean, That 's always free, As it sent its pulsations Far up to me, Through the vein-like river, that felt the swell Of its mighty heart as it rose and fell? By and by from toward the sea, Twixt the golden splendor and me, Broad winged mists floated lazily ; While a wind that was lonesome And wet with brine, Slowly moaned up the river, Bending the pines ; And the moonlight's wonderful sheen of gold Grew pale and wan in the mists' gray fold. Then pealed louder the wind's great bells, Higher the heart of the river swelled, Grayer the mist over all things fell ; And up through the pauses There came the roar Of the surf as it trampled Along the shore ; And the shackles trembled on river and bay, Trembled and loosened for miles away. Trembled and loosened more and more, Shrieked and parted from shore to shore, Until the free waters, with maddened roar, O'er the chains that had bound them, Sang the glad song, The world will be singing Some day ere long ; When it, like the river, unbound and free, Shall bury its chains in the fathomless sea. EARLIER POEMS. 55 For now, under many an icy creed, Murmurs the world its terrible needs, Looking for grander days and deeds ; But great waves of progress Boom on the shore ; The glad spring cometh, The wide world o'er ; The wild surf may trample the sands for a night, The mad winds ring loudly morn bringeth light. God's time is coming winter is old Fetters of iron nor chains of gold, No more than the ice, can forever hold ; For the heart of humanity Sings in its might Of a beautiful morning God shall make light ; But only the faithful who watch for the day, Shall see how grandly the ice gives way. BISHOP CLARK. What need hath he for praise whom God hath crowned? What use for tears, when all life's pain is o'er ? What need of anything from out our store Of little treasures, with all heaven just found ? What need have we to say how well he wrought ! Since God hath said : " Well done, come to thy rest ; " Since on the wondrous shores among the blest, The kingly soul has found all things it sought ? How poor the wreaths* we weave, or songs we sing, To him whose brow is touched with fadeless glory To him who listens to the angels' story, At home among God's chosen priests and kings. And yet, and yet, a stricken people stand Beside their hallowed graves with wond'ring grief ; For thrice the blow has fallen 'mong the chief, And we are smitten sorely by God's hand. 56 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHKAP. First, from white fields his hands did bravely reap, Came back the tidings, " Thompson is no more ; Then, 'mid strange blooms upon a foreign shore, Our precious Kingsley found a place to sleep. And now, before our cheeks are dry of tears, Another leader lays his armor down ; For us three graves for them the starry crown, And joy and glory, in God's endless years. O stricken church ! that mourn your dead to-day, A wondrous glory gleams your sorrow through ; Departing feet have left the path for you To heaven so bright, you cannot miss the way. Then onward bravely, up the shining road Toward the land that hath no death or loss. Remember that your great ones bore the cross, Before they grasped the deathless palms of God. [For the Detroit Tribune. ,] OUR HERO'S NATAL DAY. The sleeper at Mt. Vernon, Our hero, lives once more, The altar fires of freedom Burn brightly as of yore ; The patriot blood is stirring, In great, swift throbs to-day, As our glad and grateful homage To our Washington we pay. Foul traitors have polluted The spot on which he sleeps, That hallowed shrine they 've trodden, With sacreligious feet. EARLIER POEMS. 57 But the day of vengeance cometh, The soil that keeps his dust Shall be as free as sunlight, For our country's God is just. Ring out, glad bells, your paean, On this his natal day ; Let music's grandest numbers Along our breezes play. Unfurl our flag and gather Beneath its folds with pride ; He bathed that flag in glory And freedom, e'er he died. What tho' the clouds are o'er us f They cannot quench the flame That burns in freemen's bosoms 'T is deathless as his name ; Another year, and brightly Shall shine our clouded sun, No shadow o'er our country, The land of Washington. Detroit, Feb. 22, 1862. [For the Advertiser and Tribune.] MAN'S WORK IN GOD'S WORLD. Below us the evergreen valleys are lying, Around us all beauty is given, Down near to our souls is the Infinite bending,' And above just above us is heaven. And this is man's dower even mortal existence, Aglow with a beauty divine ; Where far, far above, waits a glory eternal, Where "lights unapproachable" shine. 5 58 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. But alas for the dark in the evergreen valley, Alas for decay on the hills, Alas for the gloom on the wonderful mountains, Alas for the mildew that kills ! The earth and the air, to the height of our steeples, Is full of humanity's woe ; The earth and the air, up as high as man reaches, Are damp with the tear-drops that flow. Above, far above, looketh down the blue heavens Alit with mysterious stars ; And almost we ken, as with still hearts we 're gazing, That angels look down through the bars. Below, far below, the hoarse tumult is raging, As if Mercy from mortals had fled ; Mad Passion drives on with his car o'er a highway A highway all paved with the dead. Man puts his proud heel on the heart of his brother, And smiles at the work he has done ; And the wrongs that cry up to a pitying Heaven, Might blot from its arches the sun. Around us the evergreen valleys are lying, Unto us all beauty is given, Down near to our souls is the Infinite bending, And above, just above us, is heaven. But the tumult goes on, man defying the Highest, And trampling on things all divine ; Forgets in his rashness the vengeance that waiteth To come in Jehovah's good time. Alas for my country, thy evergreen valleys, Are wet with a tide that is red, Alas for thy hills for they shudd'ringly cover War's sacrifice, bloody and dread ! EARLIER POEMS. 59 Alas for my country ; thine ensign of glory Thy sons have baptized with their blood; Alas for us now, in the gloom of this darkness, If above, over all, was not God ! Detroit, Sept. 10, 1862. [For the Expounder] RETROSPECTION. Standing by the school-room window all the idle hour of noon, Tapping off with listless fingers on the pane an olden tune, Wandering, wandering ever backward, far into the heretofore, Gathering up the pebbles lying all along on memory's shore ; Through the ways I 've trodden over, where my footsteps yet are seen, Footsteps that e'er long will mingle ever more with what has been, Through the spots so sadly haunted only by an echo now, I have wandered, only finding faded garlands for my brow. From the low roof-tree whose shelter was above my youthful head, From the trees and flowers I cherished from their beauty I have fled ; Trees and flowers will keep on growing, tended by another's care, Sifting through their leaves the moonlight, as they did when I was there. From the church whose quiet altar was an ever dear retreat, Through the years whose passing sobered fast my childhood's restless feet, And from friends who loved me truly, true in happiness and tears, I have passed to tread another pathway through the vale of years. 60 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Ties are broken ; I have drifted from the haven sweet of home And across its hallowed threshold, stranger feet will go and come ; And the dear ones who were gathered by the fires in days of yore Now by fortune widely scattered, will, I ween, meet there no more. All of this have I been thinking, in the idle hour of noon, Standing, listless, at the window, humming o'er a pensive tune ; And I thanked the great All-Father, that the parted ways will meet, In the calm, eternal sunshine where He '11 bring our wand'ring feet. Detroit, March I, 1862. [ For the Detroit Tribune. ~\ FORT DONALDSON AND VICTORY. Our flag is afloat on the breezes to-night, Our country's dear colors float free, And the cannon's deep throat peals the victory won, By her brave sons in old Tennessee. Our flag is afloat upon turret and spire, Hung out by the loyal and true, A nation's great heart at the 'sight of it beats, For it floats at Fort Donaldson, too. Our flag is afloat, e'en where treason's dark sign Has hung like a blot in the sky ; And traitors have found there are thousands who '11 stand By the flag of our country, or die. Our banner is out upon turret and spire, Hung out by the loyal and true, A nation's great heart at the sight of it beats, For it floats at Fort Donaldson, too. And music peals clear, through the gloaming to-night, Its paean of triumph and pride ; But our hearts, beating high in their victory and hope, Must sigh for the brave who have died. EARLIER POEMS. 61 Our flag is afloat upon turret and spire, Hung out by the brave and the true, A nation's great heart at the sight of it weeps, For it floats o'er our fallen ones, too. Our march is still onward, for down where the sea Breaks restless on Roanoke's strand, The foul friends of treason our ensign must see, By the breath of their own breezes fanned, Our banner is out upon turret and spire, Placed there by the loyal and true ; The heart of a nation beats high in its joy, 'T is floating at Roanoke, too. On, on to the Southward, till treason lies dead On the soil that is black with its stain ; On, on, till each spot, from the Lakes to the Gulf, Is bound in our Union again. Our banner is out where have fallen the brave, And unto the death were they true ; O'er Roanoke's Isle and Fort Henry it waves, And now at Fort Donaldson, too. [Written for the Advertiser and Tribune. ~\ LIGHT THROUGH THE CLOUD. Long time our country for her shadowed glory, Amid the murky, muffling clouds has wept ; Long time to God each breeze has borne the story Of her deep woe but it is dark as yet. Long time upon her mountains and her valleys Has lain rich dew that came not from above ; Long time beside her desecrated altars, Brave hearts have laid their life to prove their love. Long time in shadowed homes the wife and mother Have prayed for loved ones with each sobbing breath, Loved ones that stand or fall, where war's wild voices, With their long shriek, talk never but of death. 62 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Long time the calmer breath of prayers unnumbered Have pierced above the clouds that gloom our sky, Prayers strong and pure, that bind our cause and country Unto the Power that rules and guides on high. Long time the empty hands that gave their treasures Have held these earnest pleadings up to God, And comes there yet no echo of his footsteps ? Methinks of late somewhere his feet have trod. For the bugle notes have sounded The " Forward March " once more, And along Potomac's waters, Echo speaks it o'er and o'er ; Strong as the tides of ocean Moved our columns as they shone, And by our hopes of heaven, They went not forth alone. They have met the foe, and round them Now falls the fiery rain, But God encamps about them, They shall not fail again ; We '11 welcome them as victors When the day of strife is o'er, And God will watch the sleepers, Who will come to us no more. Detroit, May 12, 1864. [ For the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune. ] THE PARTING WITH SUMMER. The beautiful feet of the summer, So late by the woodland and rill, With slow, lingering movement are going Down the brown, southern slopes of the hills ; Her dreamy-eyed sister, the autumn, Looks down at the summer-clad trees, And, 'neath her cool breathing, a garment Of brown is put on by the leaves. EARLIER POEMS. 63 A soft haze comes up from the valleys, And floats between landscape and sky, And the sun, looking down through the lacework Of mist, has a tenderer eye. The azure of heaven grows deeper, More vivid the sunset's last glow, And the clouds at the gates of the morning Have mingled some gray with their snow. 'er the fields and the slopes of the meadows, The swift-footed sunshine and shade, In frolic are chasing each other, Far away to the dim forest glade. There 's quieter light on the waters, A many-hued robe on the trees, And the anthem the wild winds are playing, Runs down on the low minor keys. It is beautiful, all, in its going, This wonderful, sweet summer time ; The leaflets glide down through the sunshine, As poet thoughts glide into rhyme. Sweet Summer looks over her shoulder, And whispers once more her farewells 1 wonder if Peace will come with her When her feet are again on the hills. Detroit, Sept. 24, 1863. [F'or the Advertiser and Tribune.] THANKFULNESS. I Sam. 2 : i-u. My heart rejoiceth in the Lord ; Exalted by his hand, My mouth all full of thankfulness, Above my foes I stand. 64 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Because of my salvation, My heart and lips rejoice, Do I, o'er all, in praises Lift up to thee my voice? There is none holy as the Lord, And there is none beside, Neither for us is there a rock, Like God, our shield and guide. Then talk no more so proudly, Let arrogance be still, The Lord, a God of knowledge, Weighs all our acts at will. Broken the bows of mighty men, Girt are the weak with strength ; And they who toiled and hungered long Are satisfied at length. The Lord, he taketh life away And bringeth to the grave, Or maketh them alive again Whom he desires to save. The Lord, he makes the poor and rich, To all his power doth go ; He lifts the beggar from the dust, And lays the mighty low. The poor he sets on glory's throne, While princes are forgot ; The pillars of the earth are his, The world man ruleth not. He keeps the feet of all his saints, By strength shall none prevail ; In darkness shall the wicked hide, His foes destroyed shall fail. Out of the heavens his thunder speaks, And he shall judge the earth, Exalting his anointed ones To glory and to worth. Detroit, May, 1863. EARLIER POEMS. 65 [Written for the Monthly Association of Detroit Teachers.] THE TEACHER'S HISSION. BY MISS MARY TORRANS. All writers have a preface, so must I, But I '11 not, like them, tell a modest lie About how poor the work is I have done, Because the thing is new and I am young, But I will write because the powers that be, Sans ceremonie, gave that task to me. And I believe a great truth told one day That those who govern well must first obey. So, spite of looks vexatious on your part, And spite of palpitations round my heart I '11 just believe in self-complacent pride, Myself the admired, and you the edified. The teacher's mission, what is it ? and how Can we best fulfil that mission now, That we who write on human hearts may not Leave there a line we '11 ever wish to blot ? To-day, we mold them to what form we will, To-morrow, they are adamant beyond our skill. I might let fancy have her will to-day, And soar on lofty wing her wildest way, And tell how solemn is the work we do, How grand a duty rests on me and you ; How much we hold the weal of human kind, Whose hands sweep daily o 'er the chords of mind. But for awhile I '11 fancy's wings control, For tho' we 're guiding human heart and soul, Still, I remember, 't will not be denied Our lofty mission has its humble side. They gather round us with their restless feet, These restless children that we have to teach ; They come from homes, some happy and some sad, From hearthstones dreary, and from firesides glad ; Some trained at home to lovingly obey, Others, neglected, early taught to stray. 66 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. I looked on teaching with a poet's eye ; To me 't was always grand and high, A field of labor somewhat nearer heaven Than most the work to human beings given ; A garden to make beautiful with care, And to be watched with love that grows from prayer. I sought my new school-room but few moons ago, And found my dream as fleet as spring-time snow ; Not that I lost my beautiful ideal, But daily practice made it grow more real. Some came with clothes and faces clean and bright, And some presented but a sorry sight. And looking o'er my portion of young minds, I found each urchin humanly inclined ; They all could play a game of marbles well, But found it far a harder task to spell, And easier work by far to whirl a top Than finding if the world turns round or not. With restless spirit, chafing at control, Children are children same from pole to pole. I 've heard the theories, sounding and sublime, For guiding up to fulness human mind, Listened to words, both eloquent and new, From hearts that to the work are leal and true. But we all can tell others how to teach Better than we can practice what we preach ; And theories, like stars upon the sky, Are very fair and yet a trifle high. There 's daily labor, humble and unknown, And cares uncounted by the looker on ; There 's crosses lifted in our daily way For which the gold of Croesus would not pay It may be pleasant human thoughts to till, But not so pleasant bending human will. A theory full often will take wings Before the presence of some childish things, And leave us face to face with simple fact Where naught avails us but a host of tact. Talk as you will of all o'ermastering love, The Spirit that rules all so well above, EARLIER POEMS. 67 But I have found where love will rule one Dick, A dozen Toms and Harrys need a stick. Could these romancing minds, for just one term, Teach urchins who have got all things to learn, Taken from homes where discipline 's unknown, And order is a thing forever flown, They 'd find, perhaps, as you and I have done, That talk, like moonshine, fades in real sun. I 'd like to see them right among the troop Of threescore boys, and see them scan the group To find ideal diamonds in the rough, Until their patience is just tired enough To make them look to less of stilted thought On those whose labors are with care so fraught ; I 'd like to see them look with thought on faces Most plainly traced with pancakes and molasses, . And leading them by hands whose dusky dye Shows adepts at mixing of mud pie. 'T is very easy standing off one side In self-complaisence, cool and dignified, And tell poor teachers what they ought to do, And when we fail, forsooth, as if 't were new ; To know responsibility is in our work, From which we may not ever try to shirk. 'T is very easy teaching little things, So easy managed that it only brings Relief from ennui, and if you have pure And philanthropic purposes, why then sure Two-forty is enough for clothes and food They must be sacrificing who do good. Just one thing more upon the lowly side Of the grand mission that we name with pride. I mean the gruffness of the sage papas, And outraged love of overkind mamas. The little cherubs must be made to mind, Must learn a great deal in a little time, Their minds and manners we must cultivate, And put refinement in each heedless pate, Must teach them what they ought to learn at home, And have a nursery in each first-grade room, 68 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. And yet, forsooth, we must not ever tire Or ever show one bit of human ire, For if you just look crooked at the dears, You meet with papa's growl and mama's tears, Then if we speak a self-defensive word They recommend us to our " honored Board." Each parent thinks his children are the best, They must be favored spite of all the rest, And each one thinks his own so very smart If they do n't learn, the teacher has no art, When at their homes, a dozen times a day, He 'd push the plague in anger from his way And call them blockheads if some hard command The heedless mischief failed to understand, But we are teachers and must patient bear, Not three, but three-score blockheads for our share. But, teachers, there's a holier side and true, A loftier look of gladness left for you; We sow to day, perhaps with weary hands, The harvest comes apace, the promise stands. There 's darkness in the little heart we guide, But careful hands will find the " angel side " ; Their feet are wayward, ever more astray, But can be guided in the better way, Out from the darkness to pure light, Out from the ignorance which makes all night, Up to a manhood noble and sublime, Up to a womanhood blessing human kind, Up to the pathway all the good have trod, Up higher still, to purity and God. We labor thankfully, with many fears, But our reward is coming with the years. What may lie now beyond our wisest ken, Is hidden in the destinies of men. These days are wax we mold to any cast, But are eternal adamant when past. The world needs earnest work from teachers now, Because it needs uplifting from the slough EARLIER POEMS. 69 Of sinful darkness to the purer light Of that celestial sun which has no night. Our country needs our earnest work to-day, Our schools will be guardians of her way, Her shame or honor will soon rest on them, And oh ! our country needs more honest men ; More men who stand above mere mammon's nod, Whose manhood knows no worship save its God. If our dear land shall keep her upward way The promise is encircled in to-day. Our future men the now must educate Or else our glory finds a wreck on fate. Look at the specimens we sometimes meet, From shining beavers down to kid-cased feet, Got up by tailors with the barbers' aid, Instead of being honest and self-made, Society takes in these brainless foes, And judges worth full often by its clothes. O, I have wondered in indignant pride How long mere money must be dignified. How long 't will buy the counsels of the land And place its honor in dishonor's hand, If ever to us comes an honest age Of honest men, 'twould surely take no sage To tell that round the children must be brought That which shall rear them to unbiased thought. This is no mawkish sentiment to me, 'Tis what is possible, and what should be. Unthinking pates dressed up in hat and curls, But burlesque manhood and degrade the world. Led here and there alike, to good or ill, By just the force of some strong will Without the power of self sustaining thought, Are doing all alone the things they ought. The years must find these children weak or strong In right's defence, or in destroying wrong; The years will bring them work enough to do, 'T is ours to make them to this labor true. I 've spoke of rearing manhood up to power. Has womanhood a less important dower? 70 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. A frail hand she has and yet its grasp Has held and molded history in the past ; A lower voice, and yet its every tone Has had a wider power than that of home ; 'T were better for the world if woman stood True evermore unto her womanhood. Had we more women with their guiding spell, And less of ladies, 't would be quite as well. Our modern girls must learn to parlez vous, The latest fancy dances must go through, Play grand pianos with their useless hands Until they catch some unspecting man, And, like a moth, in fashion's tempting glare, Destroy a life that might be true and fair. Accomplishments are good, but what 's a blink At this and that if we do n't learn to think ? And what are all things if the heart and eye Go not beyond them with an earnest, Why ? Why tread the world so deaf to every sound, When choirs of voices palpitate around ? Why blindly walk with eyes that do not see, When every footfall covers mystery ? Why waste the vigor and light of youth, In folly's way just side by side with truth ? We lose the strength and granduer of the mind Because its truest use we fail to find. And lose so many lessons, wisdom fraught, Because we do not find the power of thought. Our pupils' future will be what our care Shall make their pathway ; it will lead them, where ? I 've tried to stand from theory apart, And say what 's welling from an honest heart. I love our work, and 'twere enough forme, Were I the teacher that I long to be, Could I perform my duty just as well As I desire, but have not power to tell. We may grow weary often in our way, But strength will come to clothe us every day. Courage ! Look upward with unfaltering eye, The lives we bless will bless us by and by. EARLIER POEMS. 71 Courage ! There is an eye and hand above Who knows each trial in our work of love, And guardian angels hovering overhead, Will garner up the sheaves when we are dead. [Written for the Detroit Tribune.'} A SUNSET ON DETROIT RIVER. Through the air twixt earth and heaven Autumn spreads her veil unseen, And the sunlight falling through it, Had a soft and tender sheen, Floating gayly, floating idly, In the golden sunset time, Rocked we gently to the rythm, Of the water's perfect rhyme. Up the river with the sunlight Laughing at us from each wave, Drinking in the wealth of gladness, That the hand of nature gave. Up the river, floating idly, In the sunset's golden glow ; On the west the clouds were crimson, On the east as white as snow. Up the river where " Belle Island " Parts the waters with its green ; Round and past its wave-locked beauty There we glided down the stream. Down the river, floating idly, With the river and the sky Both baptized in perfect beauty, Colored both with richest dye. Down the river swept the steamer, Down the westward swept the sun ; Of the faces then around me, I remember now but one. 72 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Floating gayly, floating idly, I 'm not certain but the skies Looked to me a little brighter, For the glance of other eyes. Down the river toward the steeples And the noises of the town, I 'm not certain but I 'd liked it Just a little farther down. Down the river, floating idly, Gazing at the sunset's glow, And with not a lesser pleasure, Looking at a face I know. Down the river swept the steamer, Down the westward swept the sun, And before I hardly knew it Had the grayer twilight come. Floating gayly, floating idly, I remember still the day ; And I wonder if the picture From one mind has passed away. Detroit, March, 1862. [For the Advertiser and Tribune.] IS IT A TIME FOR MIRTH? Is it a time for mirth, when o'er us glooming Rolls the dark cloud and angry voice of war? When from our skies the long, long gloom has driven Almost the only ray of hope's bright star? Is it a time for mirth, when ties are broken, And lips all chiseled to a stony calm Speak farewells that make hearthstones sadly dreary, And darken hearts that God-ward look for balm ? EARLIER POEMS. 73 Is it a time for mirth, when all the wires That bring us tidings, now but tell of death ? When fear drifts into homes, e 'en with the sunlight, And printed pages hush the very breath ? Is it a time for mirth, when pale hands weary Of the long conflict ; and the bitter strife Told over hearts that far from home's dear comfort, From some low couch of pain go into life ? Or when upon some field the day has reddened, Cold, marble faces at the nightfall lie With no tear save the pitying dew of heaven, No watcher save the stars, so far and high ? They went from 'mong us, and we wept their going; Each roll-call finds some brave hearts missing there ; It seems to me Columbia's sons and daughters Have little time for anything but prayer. Is it a time for mirth, when Right and Freedom, The world's last hope, are in the field to-day? When all we love, our country and her glory, Turns on the hour, for grandeur or decay ? 'Tis time for patient hope and earnest courage, A time for faith in Him who rules the earth ; A time for deeds and words, all strong and manly, But 'neath God's chastening, is it time for mirth ? Detroit, Feb. 17, 1863. SHADOWS. I have watched the twilight fading, Like a joy upon the wall ; And like a memory round me Have seen the shadows fall. 74 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. I have sat here, just remembering, Until the shadowy night Stole silent o 'er the threshold, As outward passed the light. Upon the shores of Memory I have seen the ebb and flow ; And heard the mystic murmurs Of the waves of long ago. But the dream at last was broken By a footfall at the door, And I looked and saw a shadow, As it lay upon the floor. And it was but a shadow, For that light, familiar tread Sought long ago, and early, The pathway of the dead. But like some song, whose key-note The heart long, long has felt, So I 've treasured up the music Of that low and gentle step. And full often when the sunset Is just mingling with the night, The darkness overlaying, And shutting out the light, Then I hear the muffled footfall Come softly, as of yore Can you tell me why it pauses Forever at the door ? Marshall, Mich., 1859. EARLIER POEMS. 75 [From the Jackson Citizen, June 5-] DIED. At East Saginaw, May i8th, SARAH J., wife of W. R. Burt, and sister of Mrs. C. C. Lathrap, of this city. We laid her away in her beauty The fair, young mother and wife. She who had done her duty And passed to an endless life. We folded her white hands softly Over the heart at rest, And clasping like palms of victory The green leaves over her breast. We laid her away in her beauty, And she looked so rested at last, Mid the silken folds of her coffin, We knew that all pain was past. We wept as we looked upon her, But gazing, our tears grew dry. For her, was the way all trodden ; For her, all the night gone by. For her, was the land of morning, The snowy robe and the palm. For us, was the pain and the shadow, And the heart's great cryjor balm. She dwells in God's beautiful summer God's endless, wonderful year But alas ! for the feet that journey Without her, the pathway here. Alas ! for the motherless wee ones, Since she wakens not to their call. Alas ! for the strong heart that 's smitten, Of him she loved better than all. 76 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Alas ! for us all that have loved her, As the old pain comes back at the dawn, When waking, we sum up our sorrow, "Another night she has been gone." We laid her away in her beauty, But the last of such farewells shall fall, When unto the " rest she has entered," She welcomes the last of us all. [For the Expounder .] SO SOON! IN MEMORY OF JAMES M. PARSONS. So soon from the weary marches, So soon from the toil and pain, So soon from the sad, stern conflict, He comes to us once again. He comes, for the battle's ended, A wonderful peace came down As the soldier obeyed the order From the conflict to the crown. He comes from his post of duty, Back to his home to-day, And oh ! it is so much sooner Than we dreamed when he went away. He went, with his young, strong manhood, All ready to do and dare ; He comes with a strange, strange quiet, A hush on the brow so fair. So soon, with his hands all folded Across in so calm a sleep, It stirs not the eyelids laying Their fringe on the quiet cheek. EARLIER POEMS. 77 So soon is the work all finished, So soon have the dear feet trod The path that leads through the shadow Out into the light of God. What matters it that his going Was not where the loving band Of his own, own home might watch him, On his way to the other land ? What matters it, when a better Than father or mother was there, When round him the watching angels Gave more than a sister's care ? He sleeps, and our hearts are grieving O'er hopes that are unfulfilled ; He sleeps and our hearts are crying Out after the heart that 's stilled. He sleeps our passionate sorrow He only who smote can tell. But can we, when looking upward, Still fail to say, " It is well " ? Farewell in the night we linger, But the morning land is thine, Through the shadows now between us We '11 pass in our Father's time. Farewell tho' deep was our loving He loved thee better than we, So sent his messenger saying : " Beloved come higher " to me. Detroit, Jan. 24, 1863. AS THY DAY, SO SHALL THY STRENGTH BE," Hark ! a solemn voice is speaking , To the dwellers here below ; Softly on the air 'tis stealing, Like some harp-note, soft and low, LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. And its gentle words are breathing Hope and joy divinely free, As 'tis ever, ever whispering, " As thy day, thy strength shall be." Listen, weary, way-worn pilgrim Trav'ler o'er life's toilsome way ; Unto thee the promise given, " Strength sufficient for thy day." Youth, whose fondest hopes are blighted, Hark ! that sweet voice speaks to thee ; Tho' thy trusting heart be slighted, "As thy day, thy strength shall be." Mortal, say, art thou earth weary, Has thy path been lone and dark, Are thy future prospects dreary ? Comfort comes unto your heart ; Our life-dream is not all pleasure, Sorrow there must mingled be ; But the promise faileth never " As thy day, thy strength shall be." Courage ! faint one, know thy mission, Though thou here may suffer long ; Teach thy heart life's sternest lesson, How to " suffer and be strong." Has thy past been full of sorrow ? So thy future way may be ; As to-day, so on the morrow, " As thy day, thy strength shall be." Mortal, hush thy heart's wild murmur, Draw not future's veil aside ; Let earth's trials make thee firmer God is ever near thy side. Though the wail of true hearts broken, On the air is borne to thee, Yet remember God hath spoken, "As thy day, thy strength shall be." Marshall, July 6, 1857. EARLIER POEMS. 79 [For the Expounder.] LIFE. What is life? is it an hour Of vain and idle dreaming? Is this world a solemn real, Or a transient seeming? Is our destiny a thing With which we here may trifle ? Or a deep and meaning charge, Teeming with the awful ? What is life ? a widening stream Adown which we are floating ; But, is it no matter where Our strange journey 's leading ? Every day a wave that bears Our frail life-boat farther ; Dare we, then, sweep heedless on, Never asking whither ? Is life naught, when every act Is a thing undying? And our thoughts, swift winged as light; Through the world are flying ? E'en our heart's low, measured beat, Sets some other throbbing, And the tear drops we let fall, Wake an echoed sobbing. We're not writing on the sand, By the shifting waters, But upon the fadeless scroll Of the hearts of others. Angels from the " other shore," Wonder much that mortals Sport where falls the shadow Of eternity's dim portals. 80 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. Life 's an anthem, and its strains Through three worlds are stealing, And along the arch of each, Every note is pealing. Death will speak the amen here, But beyond the river, Shall the ceaseless anthem tell, Joy or woe forever. Marshall, Jan. 31, 1859. [For the Republican.] AN ANSWER TO HISANTHROPE. Saddened heart amid life's shadows, Does thy lonely spirit stand, Weeping o'er some wreck that sorrow Left for thee upon life's strand ? Into darkness hast thou wandered, Haunted by a bitter doubt, Looking every way but upward, For some hand to lead thee out? I will tell thee why we mourn, Often, o'er our darkened fate ; 'Tis because our restless spirits Never, never learn to wait ; 'Tis because in pride we question If our Father's ways are just, Seeking ever for the reason Where He wills, that we shall trust. If we trusted in his goodness 'Mid the gloom of sorrow's night, Waiting for his hand to lead us Through the darkness into light ; Tho' we still wept o'er our treasures, We would know a blow from Him Came not save in love and mercy, Unto us, and unto them. EARLIER POEMS. 81 " Have I faith in a hereafter? " Yes, a strong o'er mastering faith, Looking with triumphant glances, Far beyond the stream of death ; I have seen the /0zr enter this organization and pronounce their shibboleth until "union" and "scab" have become the watch-words of injustice. Third, Labor professes to abhor monopoly, and yet stands for the liquor mo- nopoly, and with nickles and votes pours into the coffers six hundred- million dollars a year earned by sweat of brow, and sets its worst enemy on a throne of iniquity created by law. Labor can, if it will, make degradation and tyranny impossible ; rebuke injustice; lift the tariff tax from the nation's toilers, who pay the cost of protecting itsv monopolists, and thereby stop the main cause for the unequal dis- tribution of wealth. Labor can strike down the saloon which degrades boyhood, cheapens and destroys manhood, beggars the wage worker's home, and is the fruitful source of half the evils from which the bitter discontent of the present arises. The temperance question, which brings us together, stands not only in our midst like an unsolved riddle, seeking solution by the moral and educational forces we represent, but it stands with stern face and impervious gesture, in the halls of legislature, in the dignified presence of supreme judges, and the wider court where the people speak at the ballot box. In a superficial study of the present, it would seem that all which represents power is on the wrong side. The saloon is the enemy of the home and of all good and righteousness ; smitten manhood, walk- ing abroad in noisy shame, or crowding in the shadow of prison walls^. condemns it ; pale, broken-hearted women robbed of children, hus-- band, and home cry for its destruction ; children wronged and out- raged in this Christian land lay their pitiful sobs in that scale of" justice where the sob of a child curses deeper than a strong man in? his wrath ; and yet to set this iniquity on its licensed seat of power, the bribes of the liquor traffic cross the palm of not only the ignor- ant voter, but of the Senator, the office-seeker, and party manager,, until all the power they represent is given to perpetuate it. The: ballot-box is no longer the defense of the nation but the open sham- bles of political hucksters where its honor, its interest, and the bodies- and souls of men are sold for a longer lease of power. The recent 25 378 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. disclosures of the methods by which prohibition was defeated in Penn- sylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Michigan should arouse the conscience, the patriotism, and fear of our people, and bring a revolution. But this liquor traffic not only climbs to high places of legislative and executive power, but lays its hand on the judicial court of higher appeal, and binds that to its greedy self-interest. The better sense of the people has recently been startled by a decision of the supreme court, in which the police power of the State has been put under another limitation in dealing with the saloon business. How well we all remember the cry of the campaign of 1884, that the prohibition of the liquor traffic was not a national but a State question, lying within the province of the State, and to be finally decided in the smaller tribunals of county and township ; now the supreme-court of the federal government crosses this line of State rights, reverses its own decision held for forty years, and opens a legal way for the alcohol pirate to prey unchecked on prohibition territory. The right to ship liquors into prohibition States in un- broken packages has always been held, and has been the largest hindrance in the enforcement of the law, but heretofore the police power of the State could arrest its sale and make such shipment unprofitable. Now this right to thus ship liquors is extended to the first sale, and the State is powerless before a liquor agent with a supreme-court decision as his backing. This sword, however, over which the liquor dealers and their organs set up howls of delight, is two-edged, and cuts high license more deeply than prohibition. A decision on a case carried up from Michigan, involves the same point ; viz., that a wholesale dealer who sells in first packages needs no license other than the federal ; thus all protection is taken from the high-license-regulated, thousand-dollar men, and will certainly bring trouble into the camp of the enemy. But the devil was never a good lawmaker, and his kingdom is built for destruction. Another court decision which has shocked the conscience of the nation is the one from the supreme bench of Wisconsin, excluding the Bible from the public schools as an improper book on account of its sectarian character. The warfare against proper ethical and religious teaching in the schools has been hitherto covert and local ; this shows what may be after a few more millions of beer-drinking, Sabbath-breaking, church-hating, God-defying foreigners who are made citizens with dangerous haste, are given the liberty to rule to its ruin this American and so-called Christian nation. ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 379 All these things which for the present are reverses, bring us face to face with certain conditions : First. An apathy among good people which conies from real dis- couragement, and a belief that these evils are inevitable and that there is no use in keeping up the battle. Second. A relaxed sentiment which affects individual conviction and action, and in a wider way serves to tone down public morals. Third. A growing boldness on the part of those who oppose tem- perance principles and legislation, which shows itself in all those familiar forms of persecution which have followed the track of reforms from the preaching of Noah until now. Fourth. A division of sentiment and heart even among reform- ers, who in human discouragement and blindness find the cause of present defeat in the unwisdom of methods which they condemn, and call out again in this time of offence and bitterness the question once on the lips of Christ, " Will ye also go away ? " These conditions we are to deal with, my sisters ; are we ready for the contest ? The W. C. T. U. is a unit for total abstinence and prohibition. Beyond this we do not care to discuss the non-partisan movement. The arguments have been fully answered ; let us meet all these things with gentleness and faith. Why should the great work stop while we come down to hold parley with any ? It is for us to be the more earnest, and try to extend our organization until it is more and more a power. It is not strange that the radicalism of the W. C. T. U. is often called in question, for the reason that the principles back of that radicalism are so little understood. Distinctions are being clouded by the sophistry of the hour. Men profess to believe in temperance, and yet put wine on their tables, and drink socially before others to their harm, and these moderate users of alcoholic beverages insist that only excess is wrong. A political party may declare belief in temperance and morality, and yet stand for the perpetuation of the saloon by law. The principles represented here this hour sweep far beyond these positions, and there is present need of an aggressive promulgation of the things we hold, and our reason therefor. We are more than temperance people. We are total abstainers. That means an utter banishment from our lips and homes of any beverage of which alcohol is the center, and with a large majority of our women it means its banishment even as a medicine. This is not the result of a prejudice narrow and unreasonable, for years of 380 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. earnest study have cleared away the mists, and science is with our position. It is the man who drinks that is shut up to the ignorance of the past. Doctor Benjamin Richardson, of England, was a drinker when the London physicians assigned to him the task of investigating the action of alcohol on living tissues. He took a year for his experi- ments and came out a total abstainer; his science had convicted his conscience and controlled his life. What are the steps to a radical total abstinence ? These are some of them : Alcohol is a poison. It is never a necessity in health, is of doubtful utility in medicine. It creates an appetite for itself by its effect on the body. It breaks down the physical nature, poisoning the blood, unsettling the nerves, wearing out the heart and making the drinker liable to disease. The la grippe during the past winter has been especially severe among drinkers and tobacco-users as is every epidemic yet known. Alcohol goes farther and attacks the moral nature. The gnaw at the stomach conquers the will and enslaves the victim. The husband grows brutal, the father cruel, the son forgetful of his gray-haired sire. Not a relation in life can be thought of which is not marred and dishonored by the victim of drink. Then the poison in the blood of one generation goes on to the next, until even a nation comes to stagger under the burden of inherited appetite. These disasters are not simply possible, but probable in the case of all men and women who trifle with this danger. " It is not with us a question of wine vs. whisky, or beer vs. brandy, not of quantity, but of the choice of the moral nature in face of a monstrous evil. We be- lieve in presence of the light of to-day, that drinking is a singer se breaking God's law of personal safety and the sacredness of the body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and doing harm by example in all relations to other lives, thus touching with blight common weal. Appetite, dainty, well dressed and well bred, stands a link in the whole dark misery that to-day curses the nation, and calls for the visi- tation of God. With such reasons for being total abstainers, we must be prohibitionsts. We believe that which is harmful and wrong for one human being to use, is equally harmful and wrong for another to sell for his own advantage. We believe the license system is a throne of iniquity set up by law, and that in making legally right a thing that is morally wrong, the nation becomes partaker of the sins and infamy of the liquor traffic. It is not drunkenness which is our national sin ; drunkenness is the ugly outbreak of human weakness and appetite. It is licensing a sin by choice of the imperial power of ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 381 government, with which God takes issue, and on which his judgment waits. The nature of alcohol and its effects on the human system, its blight on the whole manhood of the victim and its entailment on those who come after him, have gone beyond sentiment, prejudice, or fanati- cism ; to question it, is to confess ignorance or dishonesty. When such a scientific truth is thus demonstrated to the intellect, it should take hold of the conscience and regulate the life, and God holds us responsible for sin against his law written in our bodies as well as those engraved on tablets of stone. We are often told that very good people differ in opinion about total abstinence and prohibition ; as well might we say that good people differ in opinion about stealing, or treason. The saloon is the organized expression of Satan's kingdom on earth. It breaks all the commandments and teaches men so to do. To protect and perpetuate it, is to defy God, to ruin men, and to be a traitor to the State by aiding and abetting its worst enemies. " No drunkard shall inherit eternal life," is the creed of the Christian, yet we license three hundred thousand men to make drunkards, put their gain in our coffers, their servants in power, their greed into government ; and this is made possible by the ballots of Christian men. The day of ignorance is past, and in the light of these times the drinker and the seller are sinners before God and men, and the voter who consents is " partaker of their crimes." There is need for fresh statement of these fundamental truths. We are facing relaxed senti- ment in habit and law. A reckless spirit is abroad on these vital questions, and as sure as God is righteous, we shall not go unpunished unless we repent. I have been studying recently with renewed in- terest the story of Belshazzar's feast, and seeking for the offense which brought the hand from God to write upon the wall. It was not the feast with its reckless and licentious splendor, all that had been before ; it was not the wine drinking and the debauchery, the revel was nothing new. What was it brought the hand with its sentence upon the wall ? It was taking the costly vessels that belonged to the King of kings, and prostituting them to the base uses of the hour and his own heaven-defying ambition. This moved Omnipotence against him and his crumbling throne. God allows men and nations to use their own values in sin's service, and fill up the measure of iniquity, but where they lay sacrilegious hands on that he calls his own, the Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, rings through palace halls, and thrones and kingdoms slip into dust. There is something like this 382 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. going on in our own land ; a revel of power and splendor is on ; our lords are drinking wine and praising the gods of high license and of revenue, but at this feast I see some vessels sacred unto .God the home he has ordained, the Sabbath he has hallowed, and the bodies and souls of men. Men may smile and revel in their places of power, but the handwriting will come, and God will rescue his own. In presence of these truths touching the value of individual life and the cost of a great civilization, we can be nothing else than radi- cal. Between right and wrong there is no ground save a battle- ground. [Grand Rapids, June 2, 1891. Extracts.] For the tenth time it is my honor and pleasure, as it is my duty, to come before the annual convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Michigan with a president's message, and speak such words of review, encouragement, and suggestion, as may aid the great work in which we are united. It is fitting, my sisters, that first of all we make loving and devout acknowledgment to God for his guiding hand and manifest care. He has given us through the years, remarkable oneness of purpose and harmony in our ranks. In a wide knowledge of our work and workers, I know of no State union made up of more independent thinkers than our own, and yet how slight and few have been the differences which have marred our councils ; and in such discussions our lines have never wavered nor been broken. Let us then be thankful that through the changing fortunes of the cause we love, and amid honest differences concerning methods, we have held unity of purpose in the bond of peace. We have had also unusual immunity from change and loss in our official ranks. None of us believe in a life-tenure of office in this society, and yet our loyal constituency in district and State has seemed to appre- ciate leaders trained by experience, and made wise for service. We believe a comparison of our own with other State unions would reveal the fact that no similar group of executive officers has remained so long with as few changes. This has given generalship at home, and such influence as knowledge brings to the national councils. I am not pleading for our policy as superior to all others, for it has its objections. Under the long stress of responsibility, brain and ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 383: heart sometimes grow weary, and the company of women on whom you have put this care from year to year exhaust ingenuity, and would often gladly give the task to fresher hands. These words, therefore, are spoken only for the purpose of calling attention to a fact, in order that we may rejoice in the long-tested unity of true hearts, and the preserving care of our heavenly Father, over useful and valued lives, We may also be thankful that the figures from convention to con- vention show a steady and substantial growth in unions, and financial 1 income. The treasurer's report, at the convention of 1881, shows unions, 133; dues, $329.36; total income, $773.11. In 1891, the record shows, unions, 365; dues, $1764; total income, $4252.37, which is the largest in the ten years. When we consider the stress of adverse influence which has been upon us in the more recent past, and the present status of the tem- perance and prohibition problems as related both to social and political conditions, this is indeed cause for thanksgiving ; yet I am- compelled to say that we might have pushed farther on if we had been stronger of faith, and more liberal of policy, and laid founda- tions in the past for which ground has never yet been broken. We have set up some modest monuments while passing on, but our own abode has been in tents, and we have never dared any official dwelling for our State organization, or undertaken to support a permanent philanthropy, and here less able States have gone beyond us. I feel impelled to say to my sisters of the executive committee that when we grow too conservative or timid to lead the brave constituency represented here to better thinking and new achievements, we have outlived our leadership, and should make room for braver souls. I believe the local unions are generally more ready to advance than we to lead. The work of ten years cannot be represented by results and victories easily pointed out ; much of that which makes for sustained consecration and power, lies out of sight, where hearts keep tryst with God, and make such sacrifice of self as has no annals save in the books above. Among achievements honestly coming from our work we may point to the Girls' Industrial School at Adrian, with one of our own number, well known and loved, at the head of its board of control ; to the Scientific Temperance Education law which, without the opposition such measures -have aroused in other States, has been. 384 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. steadily influencing the studies in the public schools ; and the law raising the age of consent to fourteen years, which although far below our ideal, marks an uplift in morals applied to statutes. It is beyond any power of language to speak the best thought of tny heart to you, my comrades, as we close a decade of this relation- ship in a difficult but sacred warfare. You have been gentle with my faults, patient with my mistakes, and kind and loyal beyond expression. You have taught me many valuable lessons since I came to be your president, and I bless you from my heart to-night. If I needed defense in this presence, I could say as in God's sight, that with all my work with you I have tried to be true, not only to the organiza- tion, but to its individual members, and have been single in my purpose to advance the cause we represent and make the Michigan W. C. T. U. a foremost power in that advance. If your heart is as my heart to-night, there is no need of further speech. Beyond the rim of the sweetest sound, Are silences yet unbroken, Below the line of the deepest word, Is a deeper yet unspoken ; After the holiest prayer is breathed, A holier still must linger ; And strains divinest within the soul Touch never the lips of the singer. The losses and gains of ten years are ever impressive ; many feet that once kept step with ours have reached the end of the journey ; and many voices we long for are silent forever. Who shall say they come not nearer than we think as we gather here, and are of that innumerable company of which Paul speaks : " Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and run with patience the race that is set before us." Others, once of our company, have turned back, and walk no farther with us ; thoughts of these sadden us more than the memory of the white-robed victors who were faithful unto death. We have gains of wisdom, patience, and experience, and gains of blessed friendship that enrich our lives, and we hold them as the golden harvest after toil. Our hope for the ultimate victory of the great truths for which we stand is not less strong, if it rests in these days more on faith in God than on the force of any human endeavor ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 385 or the fidelity of men. This firm foundation for our trust is a bless- ing truly when we remember that after these years of prayerful purpose and high endeavor, the State of Michigan stands in the same relation to the liquor traffic as ten years ago. During that time both political parties have been tried by State and nation ; side move- ments, industrial and monetary, have disturbed for a time the lines of policy and citizenship ; some forced moves have been compelled by the issue of prohibition, which will not down ; but all these have been made to escape, and not to answer the question, What shall we do with the dram shop ? It is here still, legalized and aggressive, the camping ground of evil forces ; the political pawn shop where honor is given in pledge for place and spoils ; the market house of a vicious, debauched, and un-American ballot, that, ever increasing, already threatens the safety of our free institutions, and smirches executive, and even judicial honor. Setting here a tenth milestone, I would ; speak no word colored by loss of faith, or toned to sadness by discouragement, for, searching my own soul, I find neither ; indeed, I grow more sure every day that the battle will be fought to the finish, and the saloon driven from the throne of law. It may not be done by a great uprising of moral and patriotic sen- timent, as once we hoped, as always we pray, but this government by the people is coming to its death struggle. Majorities that rule get final power from the worst populations of many lands, brought up and hurled against all righteousness. The nation is reaching its dead line, and there must be reform, or destruction. A vicious and brutal- ized majority is bound to be a tyrant, and the solemn testimony of history is that the sun of all tyranny sets in blood. I say frankly I am more puzzled at the present situation than in any of the years past. If I should analyze that situation as it appears to me, I should grieve and perhaps offend some of my own brave comrades in the battle; but complicated as relations seem, my faith never wavers, since the battle is not ours, but God's. Of three things I am well persuaded : First, that there has been no hour since the Crusade, when the W. C. T. U. was more needed among our moral and social forces than it is to-day. Second, It should be our first thought at this convention to strengthen every weak point, fling aside every hindrance, and prepare for more effec- tive service than ever before. Third, We are of no earthly, or heavenly 386 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. use either, unless we dare the farthest battle line in this contest, fling our banner where the smoke is thickest, and are faithful to the most aggressive truth and method. Far from us be the day when we shall have only a "name to live," and content ourselves with past achieve- ments, or sentimental dreams. I have chafed for many months over a certain lack of sharp effec- tiveness in our work. We are building forts, as if for long quarters, putting up earthworks, and laying out camps, as if there was a pause in the battle ; we are shooting at random many times. My sisters, let us this year " shoot to kill," in our warfare on rum drinking and rum selling, and find the heart of the enemy. To this end, will you give thoughtful attention to some things which will make for the efficiency we so much desire. We need for ourselves a great, new conviction concerning the blighting curse we face, and the principles without which this reform is meaningless. It is the law that human energy in the best channels of endeavor sometimes flags ; human strength weakens or wearies ; great truths once burdened as with fate, grow threadbare and cheap in their seeming, from long and constant use, until even strong and inspired souls find themselves under the juniper tree with Elijah. It is at this point the true reformer stands revealed, and the chosen are fed from heaven. Let us not be greatly disturbed then, when in stress of battle mere camp-followers fall out, and false motives break like reeds. The divine feeding at the brook, in the solemn silences of the wilderness, is the only cure for the kind of discouragement the prophet felt, and the ravens always find the chosen of the Lord. The only source then of this great conviction which stirs all powers to untiring zeal, and leads the way like a pillar of fire, is with God. It is quite the fashion to exhort each other to personal consecra- tion, to earnest evangelism, and to prayer for the old Crusade fire ; but, my sisters, God never repeats himself. The Crusade was only the dawn notes of the reveille his way to arrest the thought of a careless and selfish nation, to a mighty struggle. We need a higher faith, a stronger courage, and a more prophetic vision than the Crusade women ever knew. Many who prayed in saloons are out of the contest to-day, because unwilling to go with God to the answering of crusade prayers. Divine power was not ex- hausted in 1873. God's to-morrows are ever greater than his yester- days. He has gifts and revelations for the temperance hosts they ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 387 never yet have known, and greater than any past must be the future before the victory is won. " There is a fount about to stream, There is a light about to gleam, There is a warmth about to glow, There is a flower about to blow, There is a midnight darkness changing into gray ; Souls with vision of the morning, clear the way." On the foundation of this high faith we must do better building in our local unions ; our need is not so much more members, as better members ; much of our weakness is with ourselves. I would like to see a new pledge presented in each local union which should read something like this : Believing, as we do, that the triumph of our principles would make for the peace of the home and the coming of Christ's kingdom, we hold our obligations to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as solemnly binding upon us, and promise to faithfully attend its meetings, sustain its work, and pray for its success. The whole situation has grown graver with each day since our last convention, and the only unclouded vision is upward where God reigns. Amid contending forces we pause to ask, Who are with us for a battle without compromise and to a finish, for temperance and prohibition. As we look about for allies, we find that the most ad- vanced science is on the side of our principles. Demonstration of the nature of alcohol and its effects on living tissues has arrested attention and" compelled belief. The medical profession has agreed in many of its large and influential councils with the verdict of abstract science, and has written down alcohol an irritant poison, to be dealt with as such in the treatment of disease. This scientific position has in ten years gone into effect in thirty- eight' States and territories, and more than three fourths of the children in the public schools are within the circle of this radical teaching. Does science then stand for the destruction of the poison shop ? Let us see. After the amendment campaign in Massachusetts, Joseph Cook declared that Harvard College was one of two great forces that defeated prohibition. In Connecticut, all Yale with her science was aggressively on the wrong side, as I myself know. And our own University has never 388 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. been known in this reform. Science is doubtful when we come to prohibition. Next, the church is with our position, North and South, colored and white ; nearly every denomination has spoken in disciplinary law for total abstinence, and in strongest condemnation of the liquor traffic. They have gone farther, and declared for political prohibi- tion in such language as this : " Legalizing the liquor traffic is sin ; " " License is vicious in principle and inadequate as a remedy." Some branches of the church have even advised their members to with- hold their influence and votes from parties that are controlled by the saloon. A collection of these resolutions hurled at this business of drunk- ard-making ought to annihilate it ; conference, synod, general assem- bly, association, all unite ; they approve our science, declare our principles, and hurl anathemas at the foe we fight. Do they mean it, these Christian churches of the Republic? Do they really mean it? or are these expressions ecclesiastical dress parade ? Let us see : After the amendment campaign in Massachusetts, Joseph Cook was quoted as saying that Phillips Brooks's church, with Harvard College, were the two great forces that defeated prohibition. In 1889, the highest council of the Congregational Church declared : "That the saloon is so great a menace to the peace of society, and so great a hindrance to the cause of our divine Master as to demand the employment of the wisest and most efficient means for its removal." But within the past two weeks the Congregational ministers of Chicago took the question of the " removal " of the saloon into their meeting, and passed a resolution asking the legislature of Illinois for a one-thousand-dollar high-license law. In May, 1888, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church declared the liquor traffic " cannot be legalized without sin." Two distinguished laymen, Gen. Clinton B. Fisk and Hon. Warner Miller, sat in the conference and voted for that resolution. Four months afterward, Warner Miller was stumping the State of New York as a high-license candidate for governor, on a high-license platform, and Gen. Fisk, as candidate of the Prohibition party, was standing for the professed and expressed principles of his own and other churches. Warner Miller and high license received 631,293 votes in New York, while General Fisk and Prohibition received but 33,621, and in the whole nation but 249,945 votes. ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 389 It was stated in the public press that leading Methodists and saloon keepers sat together on platforms in that high license cam- paign, and at a banquet given Mr. Miller after his defeat, he was eulogized as one of the noblest laymen of Methodism. Did they mean it when in May they said, " It cannot be legalized without sin," and then voted high license in November? In 1890 the M. E. Church South, at their general conference, resolved ; " The license system is a sin against society, its essential immorality cannot be affected by whether the license is high or low," and called on its ministers and members to agitate the question. During the same year, Dr. D. C. Kelley, of Tennessee, was sus- pended from his pulpit work in a most partisan and unjust way, because he felt it his duty to illustrate the resolutions of his church on the Prohibition platform ; and although the ruling of the presiding bishop has recently been reversed, he has suffered till the pathos of it will go with him to his grave. In 1889, the general assembly of the Presbyterians met in the church of which Dr. Howard Crosby was pastor, and after a splen- did contest over the report on temperance, passed the follow- ing : "We earnestly recommend to ministers and congregations in our connection, and all others, to persevere in vigorous efforts until laws shall be enacted in every State and territory in our beloved country, prohibiting entirely a traffic which is the principal cause of the drunk- enness and its consequent pauperism, crime, taxation, lamentations, war, and ruin to the bodies and souls of men, with which the country has so long been afflicted." In 1890, the general assembly again adopted a strong and vigorous report, submitted by its standing committee, in which was the following : " We enjoin our ministers and people to abate nothing in their zeal and effort in and out of the churches, to check the drinking habits of society, and by effort, voice, and vote, to oppose the traffic in intoxicants as a beverage." Recently the most distinguished Presbyterian in the country, the president of the United States, set an example from Washington to the Pacific Coast and back again, in direct antagonism to these utter- ances of the church of which he is a member ; we quote but one of the many things in proof : 390 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. "PRESIDENT HARRISON PROPOSES A CHAMPAGNE TOAST IN SAN FRANCISCO. "SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., May 14 (Special Correspondence). During President Harrison's visit to this city, he was invited to attend a banquet given by the recent Phi Delta Theta College fraternity, of which he was once a member. After a few remarks he lifted a glass of champagne and said : " 'I propose that we drink to the order to which we have given our allegiance and our love.' "The spectacle of the president of these United States inviting the citizens of this wine and rum-cursed city and State to indulge in intoxicating drinks, will no doubt be highly edifying to those Republicans who voted for him because of his repu- tation for temperance and piety." We pause for very sorrow and shame at these examples in high places, and ask once more, " Do they mean it, our more than three million Methodists, nearly three million Baptists, another million of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and many other churches from whose records we might quote hot condemnation of the liquor traffic? Are they really in the battle to the finish ? " Now, consider the attitude of these churches toward the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Our battle is their battle, if Christ's kingdom comes; our faith their faith, our principles their confessed belief; then why are we so often denied sympathy and help? why shut out of church buildings, and sometimes denounced as disturbers of the peace ? In my recent trip through the South, the State conventions of the W. C. T. U. were mostly held in courthouses and halls because of the attitude of the church, and the bitterest criticism was found in the religious press. We ask them for the why. At the South they answer, "We object to you because of your position on Woman's Suffrage." In this latitude they say, " You are a political society, and we will have none of you." As non-voters we are not in politics, and cannot be ; are we then to be persecuted for saying that if we were in, we would vote as we resolve, and as we pray ? Who is with us to fight this battle to the finish ? The church seems a little uncertain. Next the legislative forces of government seem with us, for by State statute, and local option method, the powers that be have endorsed the prohibitory principles. ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 391 The people are with us, for in many a hard-fought battle they have put county and commonwealth under prohibition, and carried it into fundamental law. Judicial decisions are with us. The United States Supreme Court has declared against, "the right of the citizen to sell intoxicating drinks," against the right of government " to bargain away public health and public morals," has given testimony that the traffic is a "danger, and the source of our greatest evils." All these seem with us as we look for allies. A great tidal wave has been gathering year after year and stands to-night off shore, a mile high, and wide as the horizon. Science, religion, morals, legisla- tion, law, are its threatening forces ; why then, in God's name, does it not come over and sweep the saloon from the face of our country ? What holds it back ? There is but one answer Party Politics. What makes a conductor for the lightning stroke of science? Party Politics. What keeps the Sinat thunder of the church resolution out of the ballot-box? Party Politics. What weakens law by half enforcement? Party Politics. What makes void the highest judicial decisions ? Party Politics. The temperance reform to-day stops short of political action and ballot-box decision, so the curse and guilt abide. This is a solemn hour. God never allows for very long the gath- ered forces of truth and righteousness to be the playthings of either cowardice or dishonesty. That wave of power must come onward to its mission by the action of citizenship, or it will recede, leaving us to darkness and confusion, a deadened moral sense, and the retribution of heaven. Every question that shakes the country to-day and threatens its life, has root in our religious and moral conditions ; we can only settle them by righteousness, or revolution. The political parties in power for thirty years are both in the grasp of the liquor party, and yet they hold the vote of the church, as well as the beer brewers' congress, and do what Victor Hugo charged on Napoleon " hinder God." Finally, my heart turns with longing to the strong men and women who kindly listen this hour to a discussion of themes of less interest to them than to these delegates gathered from all parts of the State. Some of you are in sympathy with our principles, but to you has never come the great conviction that calls to personal consecration and self-sacrifice ; or coming, it has been put away, and so you 392 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. stand apart, thinking of us kindly, but let this work cry in vain for your help. Some may agree with our principles, and take issue with our methods, and not only withhold kindly help, but discourage and weaken by criticism of minor things, this greatest reform of the hour. Others, still, are opposed to us altogether ; do not even accept the truths for which we make our battle. May I ask you to consider some things ? You find fault with our radicalism. Are we, then, more radical than the truth ? You criticise what you call our ob- stinacy. Are we more persistent than the evil we fight ? Will you consider as Christians, that "no drunkard can inherit eternal life." That God says, " Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink ; that putteth thy bottle to him and maketh him drunken also " ? And when He says woe, it means woe. Will you consider that this bottle is not only a saloon bottle, but a governmental bottle, set out to tempt by law, and that every man who votes for license has part ownership in the bottle, and employs a saloon-keeper to hand it out? Will yo.u consider that God's woe covers the results of vice, crime, and blood, and you are in the count, if by your example or consent, the bottle goes to a neighbor's lips? Men often object to this view of the case, but will you call to mind the judgment that fell on David for the death of Uriah ? David did not kill him ; he was miles away when Uriah fell, but he organ- ized the conditions that slew him. May I ask voters for license if you do not organize the condi- tions for all we deplore, when you set up the dram-shop and give it legal sanction? Let me ask you to consider as patriots that the saloon is the most un-American and dangerous thing in the country, and that in giving it the very key of political power, we hand not only our sons but the republic to the destroyer. May I plead, friends, that you no longer meet this reform with the cry of fanaticism, but ask for one honest hour, Are not these reform- ers right ? And if right, why am I not with them ? One word more to you, my sisters. Even reformers have no light for the world, except it be given them from above ; and the shining of that light is dimmed, or darkened, except we walk with Christ. ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 393 He was the truest reformer of the ages ; the truth he proclaimed was at war with his times ; the principles he advocated cut like a knife into the evils of his nation, and neither guilt in purple nor in rags escaped. He trod a lonely path, and was never popular from the manger to Calvary, and at the cross it looked as if not only the Reformer, but his cause was slain. But beyond Calvary was Olivet, and after crucifixion came victory. In our humble way we follow him, but when we lose his spirit, we miss the divinity of our mission and the power to bless the world. Our divine Leader had faith in his mission, made absolute self- surrender for others, was in perfect harmony with his Father's will, was patient with the slow faith of his chosen co-workers, and lived and worked and died because he loved. May grace be given us to follow in his footsteps, for yet the world is weary, and hearts wait for the morning. Be it ours to say, before other eyes see the gold across the gray, Behold the morning cometh. [ Detroit, May 23, 1892. Extracts.] There comes to me to-night a tender memory of years ago when a quiet and rather sober girl, I daily trod the long stretches of Lamed street or the more fashionable ways of Jefferson avenue to the old tenth ward schoolhouse, where for three years I sought as a teacher to add to the sum of intelligence in Michigan and the sum of wealth in my pocketbook. I remember also the Sabbath days in Dr. Hogarth's church, when sermon, prayer, and psalm charmed the fret of the week out of my spirit and fitted for the duties yet to come; almost across the spaces of experience and years I touch once more the rim of that unforgotten time. Here, too, was spent the first weeks of my honeymoon with my soldier husband, when the tide of warlike preparation beat along these streets, while at depot and wharf were the sounds of martial music, and the 'fall of woman's tears. Since then I have wandered far, have seen all the large and many of the small cities of the country, and speak from knowledge when naming Detroit the " Pearl City of many States." She has never boomed, flared, and fizzled, but stable and elegant, has sat at the gateway of our inland seas, a city worthy of our pride. 26 394 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. She has been charged with being a trifle slow, but if the cable and trolley-cars have not roared along these broad avenues, they have been the more homelike, and some of the citizens may have missed what Chicago often furnishes, a too " rapid transit " to immortality. It is truly a joy, dear sisters, to be welcomed in such royal fashion to this beautiful city ; let us so pray and work through these days as to leave behind a blessing when we depart. For eighteen years we have kept step with the ever growing and progressive host of women who have temperance, purity, and prohibi- tion as watchwords, and the white ribbon for their token, in a battle that has been no gala-day or dress parade. We do not gather here in .these pleasant places as veterans at a camp-fire, to talk over the scenes of a finished battle and rejoice in victories won or dangers past ; we are yet on the field, facing an enemy never more bold or aggressive than to-day ; while oh ! the pity of it, the " fire in the rear " and " you can never do it " people, are thicker than they were in 1861, when that other great conflict of the century was on. We gather for better preparation ; the work of the days is to rub off the rust and grind away the dulness from every weapon of truth ; to bring the new recruits to the firm step of regulars, and all to a nobler courage, a finer motive, and a better trust in the God of battles. With us are the " Daughters of Veterans," our gentle Y's not here to listen to a thrice-told tale of how their father saved the country thirty years ago, but to get ready for the conflict as their elders fall, and gird on the armor that must be worn by those who save the nation of to-morrow from the evils that threaten. Almost I hear some of my comrades who have fought so long and bravely, sigh, Shall we soon or sometime shout the victory ? Nay, dear hearts, many of us never. It remains only to be faithful until death, unless the Lord comes soon, and after toil sing the song of joy with the glorified. We are told that Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, and a host of the elders, " subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the vio- lence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens." But " these having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promises," the "better things" being left to us who live in later ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 395 times. So to the end it may be ours to find in faith the " evidence of things not seen" and bequeath to those who follow us the triumphs our unrewarded toil shall help to bring. I am conscious of a degree of hesitation as I begin to urge you onward to new effort and fresh conquest. In the quiet place where these words were written, my heart said solemnly, What have these women not dared and sacrificed to help banish the saloon and save the home ? The beaten gold of time from crowded lives, the beaten oil of thought from tired brains, the costly percentage of gifts from narrow incomes ; all these have been laid on this altar of reform, and when all was done, it has been left them to stand in silence and pain while criticism and opposition swept over, and blame often instead of praise was their reward. But I know we seek together the wisest method and the best equip- ment, so have thought for many days that there comes a stage in every great work where it is profitable to consider some reforms for reformers. In the first intense days of our history, we had perfect unity of heart and action ; the methods were few, the purpose one, and bap- tized into the same spirit, "the watchmen saw eye to eye." In that early time no one came to us whose heart God had not touched, and with the saloon floor as an altar place and the rescue of the lowest as the aim, there was no room for personal ambition. When organization followed the first great impulse of baptized souls, there came into it only those whose feet touched the rock of evangelical faith. Christ for the reformer, a living, vital force within; the Holy Spirit as a conscious power, with God and men and the Bible as the text- book and guide, these were the foundations on which the work stood, while the law of the spirit and the sword of truth guarded the doors of the W. C. T. U. The sweep of power in those early days, who that was in it can forget ? I remember one night during a summer meeting at Ocean Grove when more than a hundred knelt at the altar seeking Christ ; and it was said three hundred were converted during the ten days. That was a School of Methods " in salvation, and we had many of the kind. But organization widened conception and study until our energies found new channels not purely spiritual, and science, sociology, and 396 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. law brought new methods. Humanitarianism came to stand with Christianity in shaping the work of reform, and brain power in some degree supplanted heart power. With the broader creed came other thinkers whose souls had not been touched with the old fire, and the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union needs to-day what the church needs, a baptism from on high of evangelical faith and pentecostal power. I say this because it needs to be said, and we of all others should be reckless for the truth's sake. Sometimes these days our unions are dominated by ambitious spirits, who misrepresent the genius of our mission. I said to you long ago, elect only godly women to office," and plead for Christian leaders everywhere. The question was raised then in criticism, as it will be now: How can we judge who are Christians? Let God and the Bible judge. "Other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ." No man cometh to the Father but by me ; "he that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his ; " and " by their fruits shall ye know them." You will remember that when Moses was to build the tabernacle for God's abiding, he was shown the pattern of it in the mount ; every post and curtain, the holy of holies, the home of cherubim and seraphim, and the place of worship and of sacrifice. The command to the builder was, "See that ye make it according to the pattern shown in the mount." I presume Moses had advisers who thought they could improve on the pattern, but he built it to the end, by the upper vision shown him, and when it was complete, the divine presence crowded the place until Moses stood outside to worship. "Dear sisters, it was given us to see the pattern in the mount ; are we building by it in our own lives and in our organized work ? O, let us have a care, since we so need the coming of Him who alone can give the victory. We have appealed to the drunkard and the saloon-keeper, to the voter and the legislator, to the court and the jury, to the church and the preacher, but still the curse abides on all the land, and often we seem hedged in on every side. Shall we not seek the hidings of God's power, as we have not in all our past ? for, as I said to you one year ago, we need a higher faith, a stronger courage, and more prophetic vision than the crusade ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 397 women ever knew. We could afford to give up all methods of our own, all human friendships and human trust, to find the " what next " lying in the will of God. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has made some his- tory the past year. The meeting of the world's and national unions at Boston brought together an assemblage of women the like of which was never known before. The press was generous and impressive in the story it told of those days at Faneuil Hall and Tremont Temple, but no words could do them justice. The visit of Lady Henry Somerset has been a great blessing to the white ribbon women, and we believe to many yet outside our ranks. How impressively this daughter of an earl, in her finished elegance of culture and wealth, has rebuked the cheap assumption of some of our American ladies who consider the temperance reform very far beneath their attention, and taught the lesson of service for Him " who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ran- som for many." Several large questions involved in our work, have, during the past year, been pushed to the height of national recognition, and lift like mountain peaks from the plain of ordinary effort ; one is the Sunday question, as related to the life of our Christian nation and the Colum- bian Exposition. The reckless mood of our people was expressed by a Chicago busi- ness man when interviewed, as follows : " I believe in opening the gates on Sunday and granting the sale of liquor under proper restrictions; the people of the world are com- ing to see us and must have what they want." The thoughtful mood is expressed in the three thousand petitions which have gone to the directory, and many to Congress, happily not without effect. Among the petitions are the National Farmer's Alliance and some divisions of the Knights of Labor, who thus make answer to the plea for open gates, in the interest of the working people. Ten States have acted upon the question of closing their State exhibit, and nine of the ten have voted to close them. A determined anti-Sunday-closing movement has gathered into the brotherhood the infidel and lawless, with certain devout people who do not believe in the first day of the week as the Biblical Sabbath. These, under a taking name, in which, as usual, " liberty " figures, are 398 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. distributing tracts and making argument wherever an opportunity can be found. The old " Church and State cry," the lament for "working men," and several other moldy pleas are brought forward to sustain their ungodly demand. But in this Christian land Sunday stands not only for God's right to rule according to Christian belief, but for man's right to rest ac- cording to everybody's need, and we should push the battle for the American zs. whisky, or beer vs. brandy, not of quantity, but of the choice of the moral nature in face of a monstrous evil. We believe, in presence of the light to-day, that drinking is a sin per se, breaking God's law of personal safety and the sacredness of the body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and doing harm by example in all relations to other lives, thus touching with blight the commonweal. With such reasons for being total abstainers we must be prohibitionists. We believe that which is harmful and wrong for one human being to use, is equally harmful and wrong for another to sell for his own advantage. We believe the license system is an iniquity, and that in making legally right a thing morally wrong, the nation becomes partaker of the sins-and infamy of the liquor traffic. It is not drunkenness which is our national sin ; drunkenness is the ugly outbreak of human weakness and appetite. It is licensing a sin by choice of the imperial power of government, with which God takes issue, and on which his judgment waits. We are often told that very good people differ in opinion about total abstinence and prohibition ; as well might we say that good people differ in opinion about stealing or treason. The saloon is the organized expression of Satan's king- dom on earth. It breaks all the ten commandments and teaches men so to do. To protect and perpetuate it is to defy God, to ruin men r and to be a traitor to the State by aiding and abetting its worst enemies. " No drunkard shall inherit eternal life," is the creed of the Christian, yet we license three hundred thousand men to make drunk- ards, put their gain in our coffers, their servants in power, and their greed into government, and this is made possible by the ballots of Christian men. 420 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. In presence of these truths touching the value of individual life and the cost of a great civilization, we can be nothing else than radical. Between right and wrong there is no ground save a battle- ground. We are often told that principles have cost us popularity ; very well, such a result was expected. When the reformer grows popu- lar, he has missed his mission, and made terms with the enemy. Next in elements of power, we name organization ; its methods run in connectional lines, from the local union through county, district, and State, to the edge of the republic, then afar to the world outside. This was the first organization sufficiently national in spirit to cross the sword line between North and South, bearing the lilies of peace to homes and hearts on both sides of the line, until the past was beguiled of its sting in the high endeavor of a common cause. Every State and territory in the union is now within the circle of crystallized power. To make this an accomplished fact has taken such courage, patience, and self-sacrifice as will never find proper record, save in the story of eternity. This nation-wide movement is much more than local associations of women bound together by a national tie, although that were enough to rejoice in ; it means also the organization of ideas and ideals vital to individual and public well-being, and the organized forces are but the living home of another power mightier still ; viz., the great truths for which they exist- Wendell Philips once said, " Agitation is the atmosphere of brains," and agitation is impossible without ideas, the size and lofti- ness of which usually measure their usefulness to the world. What then are the ideals for which battle is made ? Briefly, an individual self-governed, with brain, blood, and nerves free from poison ; a home, love-governed, where purity glorifies life and the curses of the alcohol maniac are never heard ; a church, Christ-governed, that stands with him for the prohibition of evil, and dares to rebuke sin in high places by ballot as well as exhortation ; a State, justice- governed, that scorns to fill its coffers with the price of virtue, by license high or low, on an acknowledged infamy ; a nation, God- governed, the commerce and civilization of which can touch heathen peoples without sending them to a lower savagery, and meet the stranger within its gates with other welcome than the open doors of the legalized saloon. Are these ideals high ? Nay, they are possi- ble ; what is possible and right, is duty, and duty brings us to judgment. ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL. 421 These allied forces are not only nation-wide but earth-wide, and the gracious woman who presides over this Council is the president of a federation of the world. For swift vision of growing domain I quote from Miss Williard's address before the Atlanta Convention. Speak- ing of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, she says : " Twenty-one countries have translated our motto, ' For God and Home and Native Land ' ; it was seen in Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Norwegian, Dutch, French, and Maori, at the World's Exposition. Seven sacrificing years have strewn the earth with local unions, thirty-four different nations are now federated against opium, alco- hol, and tobacco." My pen falters at the outlook ; add to this in every land the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Unions which are training the true succession of these older apostles of a new dispensation ; add the children, thousands upon thousands of the Loyal Temperance Legions with the pledge in the hand, a reason in the head, and a conviction in the heart, think of such wide influences and answer if the day of redemption from appetite has not dawned. It seems to me the sunrise gun was fired last year by the Arabs, when in an anti-rum congress they passed the following : " Resolved, To surround the entire coast of Africa with a cordon of armed ships to confiscate every European vessel containing liquors, and sell the crew into slavery." No wonder Miss Williard says of this action, " Would that some of the Boston ships that carry rum might fall into the hands of these righteously indignant Arab heathen." The third element of power I shall call Harmonious Individu- ality. Miss Williard's vivid and impressive personality has been photographed not only on the hearts of her co-workers who love her, but on the history of her time, in lines that shall never be effaced ; and some of the sharpest shading which makes for this noble immor- tality has been done by the hands of her enemies in their jealous but impotent rage. But strong as she is in her own place, it is one of the marvels of her leadership that she has drawn about herself other women, in their way equally strong. What a temptation in the council of women to eulogize the hero- ines of the White Ribbon ! Some are the fearless path- finders of new empire ; some are separated agitators who allow no hand to be laid upon them which brings obligation to be silent ; some are statesman- like, to whom the great truths of this reform are so clear that their very might holds them calm ; some are the singers of song, even in the night ; some are prophets with a long vision for the morning ; 422 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. some, like priestesses, learn in secret places the will of God. I hesi- tate to name any, because of necessity forbidden to name all. My work, however, would not be complete if I did not record the fact that science and not fanaticism has fixed the standards for total abstinence and against intoxicants ; that these advanced scientific positions are to-day acknowledged in the laws of thirty-seven States and Territories, and in the text-books studied by three fourths of the children of the republic. Can this he said without writing the name of Mary H. Hunt ? The school of the church, that temple of childhood and youth, where brain and conscience are educated together, has been also reached, until the high moral philosophy of scientific truth is being brought to ten millions of the people's children in their Bible studies. How can this be written and no mention made of Lucia Kimball ? The great outside world of childhood so often denied all careful training has been partly gathered, and the carefully reared called out for a special purpose, until the " marching songs " of the Loyal Legions are sung around the world. Who can tell the story of these heirs of to-morrow and not write the names' of Helen G. Rice and Anna A. Gorden ? One day of every year the prisons, jails, and almshouses of the country are filled with the fragrant gifts of the flower mission, and many days of the year the gospel of love and hope is preached to those whose feet have gone astray into crime, which shuts them from the common brotherhood of men. Who can make report of such a ministry and withhold words of reverent praise from Jennie Cassidy, whose years of invalid life have blossomed into a benediction on those who most need it ; and Mrs. J. K. Barney, who believes in Christ for criminals ? The Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union has kept abreast of all right thinking on the woman's question, and the story of its evolution along the line will always sug- gest with a thrill of enthusiasm noble Zerelda G. Wallace, with her fine gray head, the statesmanlike speech, which disarms the doubter and wins the opponent in spite of their prejudice, and her younger and gifted associate of other days, Dr. Anna Shaw. These in department work are but examples of the fine individu- ality which runs through all classes of toilers in this many-sided society, organizers, evangelists, lecturers, a great company, but each an intense personality, while the State presidents with their real zeal, tempered with wisdom, compose for its president a cabinet worthy of her peerless self. You might as well try to sneer down the sun- light in the interest of darkness, or scold down the bolts of God's ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL. 423 lightning, as to use these impotent weapons against such inspired and intrepid souls, intent on a divine mission. Finally, in representing this society, we wish to call attention to certain great facts which have been demonstrated, and large interests which have grown out of its life and work. Among these facts are : First, The friendship of women for each other. Second, the capability of women to become leaders in the world of thought and action as soon as the opportunity is presented. Thirdj the genius of women for compact organization and sustained endeavor, under either the smile of prosperity or the fire of discour- agement and criticism. Fourth, the moral strength of women when related to public as well as private questions, which indicates what will be their value when endowed with the full rights of citizenship. Fifth, the capacity of women for business life and the successful management of large and important financial concerns. This thought lies at the threshold of certain great interests which have grown out of, and become part of, the history of the N. W. C. T. U.; viz., The Woman's Temperance Publishing House; the National Temperance Hospital, and the Woman's Temperance Tem- ple. It must be remembered that the effort of the years has been to win the world's heart by the way of its brain ; so a special, critical, and unique literature was demanded. When the work began, no such literature was in existence ; but it has been created, so choice, so versatile, so wide in range, that its leaves are literally for the healing of the nations ; and this comes to our great populations in seventeen different languages. Of the beginning of this notable publishing house in Chicago, I quote from Miss Willard's " Women and Temperance," and it introduces to you another remarkable personality. Miss Willard says : " Mrs. M. B. Carse will perhaps longest be remembered as founder of the Union Signal. I shall never forget the look of exultation with which she came to me at Old Orchard Beach, in 1879, when we were both attending the gospel temperance meeting in that lovely seaside resort, and with look inspired she said to me, ' I could not sleep last night. I had a waking vision of a paper we must have at the West to represent our broad and progressive work. It will not do to wait a whole month for news from our work. We must pass the word along at least once a week. Nothing will help the movement like this frequent interchange o/ thought, purpose, and sympathy ! ' and 424 MTERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. with beaming countenance and earnest words she laid her plan before me, adding impressively, 'I have prayed much. .about this, and it is going to be.' ' Those who know her magnificent energy, winning manners, and undoubted faith, will not wonder that Mrs. Carse raised five thousand dollars to serve as a nucleus for the new journalistic enterprise. It was not long until we had a weekly paper, the name of which was The Signal, and the motto, " Thou shalt give a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth " (Mary Bannister Willard, our first editor, gave us this significant and beautiful motto) ; and we had wider space and fresher news. In 1882, Our Union merged its destiny with that of its wide-awake sister of the West, coming with the headquarters of the N. W. C. T. U., to the city of Chicago. From this junction of force has resulted the largest tem- perance publishing house ever known to the annals of the great reform. This publishing association is now ten years old. It started with five thousand dollars ; now its capital stock is one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, over seventy-five thousand dollars of which is already sold to White Ribboners, and pays a yearly divi- dend of seven per cent. The National Temperance Hospital, located also at Chicago, was undertaken by some women of wealth who were willing to invest largely in order to demonstrate that alcohol is not a necessity in medicine. The unions in the whole country were interested ; beds were endowed, rooms furnished, and supplies sent in to help on the work. The Hospital and its method of treatment have had the active sympathy and help of some of the best physicians of Chicago, among them N. S. Davis, M. D., LL. D., who easily stands at the very head of the profession in the country. Mrs. J. B. Hobbs, of Chicago, is president of its board of managers. The Hospital is always full, and would be if twice the size. A new building is demanded, and will come in the near future ; so the enemy is dying in the scientific ditch as the light of demonstrated truth is dawning. The last and greatest venture of the W. C. T. U. is the Temper- ance Temple, the corner stone of which was laid with most impressive ceremonies, Nov.i, 1890. Three thousand children marched through the crowded streets of Chicago to the platform prepared for them on the wide foundation. Never will any who heard it forget the song from those musical throats. : ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL. 425 " Little eyes will watch you grow, Rise, Temple, rise; You are built for us, you know, Rise, Temple, rise." Back of this great enterprise its inspiration and its hope is the woman who was the projector of the W. T. P. A., Matilda B. Carse. It is to be hoped that in five years the Woman's Christian Tem- perance Union will come into full possession of their building. They have already given and pledged in gifts to the building fund, about two hundred thousand dollars, and money and pledges are coming in daily with increased rapidity. This great enterprise has been too great for the grasp and faith of some of|the women. They were not all born in Chicago and built on the large prophetic pattern of that marvelous city, but they do have faith in the woman who said, " Arise and build; " so, stone by stone, it grows and is already complete in its beauty to the lifted vision of Mrs. Carse. i7 All this is but a glimpse unworthy of that which I have tried to represent. Let us not miss the secret of such sustained and glorious endeavor. In that marvelous poem, " The Light of Asia," the poet tells of Buddha, the prince who gave his life for the world. He dwelt in a stately palace in the midst of fabulous magnificence ; he had for his bride the fairest among women ; joy, power, and security swept around his life like the full tide of the southern seas ; but through the music, across the royal splendor, came ever to his soul the cry of the world, the sad world that needed help, strong, changeless, and tender. So one night he stole out in the silence, away from sleep- ing wife and child ; turned his face from ease, ambition, and royalty, and gave up his kingdom to hush the moan that called him to self- sacrifice. The women for whom I speak to-day have learned this les- son, not from Buddha, but from Christ. When you read the letters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, say gently, " These are they who hear the cry of the world." 426 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. WOMEN IN THE METHODIST CHURCH. [Delivered February, 1891, in Washington, D. C. , at the first Triennial meeting of the National Council of Women in the absence of Jane M. Bancroft and Franc Elliot, who were to take this subject.] MADAM PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN : It is fair to say that I did not expect to represent the Methodist Church until coming on this platform a few moments ago ; and while I have many things which I might say, I expect to refer to a subject that just now has prominence not only in the minds of Methodist people but in the minds of people throughout the world. It has been recognized for a long while that the women are banging away at the doors of the church for admission. I desire to say that under this movement of the women for recognition there lies a philosophy that is wide and deep. It is now about forty years ago since Professor West, living in this city, wrote out the first curriculum of college study for women, and it raised a great storm of abuse about his ears. He was told that women were incapable of higher education, and that if women could master mathematics they ought not to be allowed to do so, because it would make them strong-minded. The fact is, that to-day many schools are open for the education of women ; as large a percentage is open to them as to their brothers, and it has proved to the world the fallacy of the idea that women are incapable of higher education. Our girls go to school, and come out and love and marry and make better wives and mothers, which proves that after mastering mathe- matics they are but women still. Forty years ago there were less than half a dozen avocations into which women could go and earn a scanty livelihood. Now there are more than three hundred. The women are entering the learned profes- sions, and are sweeping through the arts and sciences, and also reaping the golden rewards of the business world. Woman's altered relation to the world of education, and her changed relation to the material world, the money world, and the responsible world, shows that she can take care of herself, and this has within twenty-five years changed the relation of women to all things in this world. That is the philosophy which underlies this condition, and if you cannot stand this urgency of womanhood everywhere, for a recognition ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL. 427 among the powers and responsibilities and developments of the world, you would better move into a more solidified world than this. Now let us apply that philosophy to the church. The business world has recognized women, and opened its avocations to them. General Spinner recognized women, and pushed open the doors of these departments to them, doors that had never been opened to them before. The business world has recognized the women, and it seems strange that the church should be surprised, not to say em- bittered, in this discussion about women's right and power under these new conditions. Women have got their brains broadened by the same studies, demonstrations, and investigations that the men have. You have opened the doors of your colleges to the girl, and she has come back educated. What are you going to do with her after she comes back ? Do you suppose that she is going to sit down and crochet impossible dogs on tidies ? The women of to-day remind me sometimes of the scientific and humorous picture of a chicken which went round in the illustrated papers some time since. This chicken had just pecked its way out of the shell and stood with a piece of shell on its back ; shaking its wings, it began to look back at the little shell, and, stretching itself up, said, " Nobody can ever convince me that I have been in there." Brethren, we have pecked our way out. You might just as well be good-natured about it and help us along. Why should not the church feel this same recoil and change that the business world has felt? It should, for this reason, that three fourths of the church are women ; two thirds of the Sunday-school teachers are women ; they are doing its work as teachers, and supporting the church, paying its bills and elevating its societies ; and you, brethren, would not have enough church to be buried from if it were not for the efforts of the women. Now think of this little male contingency in the church; this little company of men in the official corner of the Methodist Church, or in any other church, considering themselves to be the whole church, suddenly saying to the Methodist women that they have not belonged to the laity all these years. Imagine them saying to us, " You do not belong in any regular way to the laity of the Methodist Church at all." Now look for a moment or two into the history of the Methodist Church. If it had not been for the mother of Wesley, we never would have had any Methodist Church. I do not mean simply because she was the mother of the founder of the church ; because if I used the 428 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATH RAP. remark in that sense, it would mean everything on the face of the earth ; but I mean that Wesley was tied up in his narrow ecclesiastical surroundings. Somebody was preaching a more wide gospel, and one that resulted in redeeming England. His mother said, "You would better go and listen and see what there is in it ; " and so that great man, brought up in the English Church, was converted, and his glorious work for the Lord Jesus Christ generated the power that was so grand and glorious that its influence has been heard around the world. When Methodism was transplanted from the old country, it took root and divided the people in this country, and to-day the Methodist denomination is the largest Christian denomination in the United States of America. In Wesley's time, in the societies and class-meetings there were religious exercises in which women were sometimes asked to open their lips in prayer and speech. It is true that women in Wesley's time were not licensed in an official capacity to preach, but they were called upon to do so sometimes. Upon one occasion they were warned not to preach near where a brother was preaching, for fear they would draw away his congregation. I was astonished when a reverend gentleman in the city of New York said to me that we have only a single church in this country that is American in its polity ; that the churches had all borrowed their ideas and polities from Europe. I thoroughly offended some of my friends by saying that the Methodist Church was but a second remove from the Roman Catho- lic Church, and was almost as close in its method of organization as even the Catholic Church itself. I .am not saying anything in the way of criticism of the Methodist Church. I am only stating what is a fact and cannot be disputed. The Methodist polity in its early day was the willingness of the men who had hold of it ; and in those days Methodism was a great propaganda that was seeking the salva- tion and redemption of souls. It means more than that to-day. It means great book concerns, valuable literary works, and great editors ; and it means a great many things it did not then mean. It means power and life. The women of that church in 1871 organized the Woman's For- eign Missionary Society, and have carried it on with marvelous suc- cess. Following that came the Woman's Home Missionary Society, which looked to the help of the Indians and the negroes, and the evangelization of the cities. I do not just now recall its date, but there came a time and I want you to notice this particularly when ADDRESSES BEFORE THE WOMAN'S COUNCIL. 429 the Methodist Church came to such a position that the laymen made a demand for representation in the General Conference. The Metho- dist Church has always been an ecclesiastical body. The brethren composing the laity began to knock away at the doors and say, " We think we ought to have representation in the conference as the lay body of the Church." Why did they do this? Bishop Simpson had said that they gave the money and they supported the great institutions of Methodism, and he thought they ought to have recognition in the main body of the church in order to say where and how their money should be expended. The laity said, "-We do the work, and we furnish the money to carry it out, and we think we ought to have something to say." At first the ecclesiastical board was unwilling to let the laity in, but finally they knocked so hard that the board was obliged to do so, and submitted the question of the admission of lay delegates to the conference of the church in this country. I thought I was one of the laymen too. thought when the doors of the General Conference were open, that they should be opened to the female laity too. So, about this time the women began to act, and five women were elected to the last General Conference, and among them was the honored president of this council, Frances E. Willard. I was honored by being one of the alternates. I saw Miss Willard, and asked her to come to the State of Michigan, and she said, " I am not going, because that is the month in which the Gen- eral Conference meets." I said, " O, do not be alarmed, you cannot get in. The brethren will not let you in." She said, " Why, Mary, do you think the brethren will shut us out?" I said, "Yes." And so they did. How was that accomplished ? The whole case was prejudged in the first place, and the most remarkable things were done in order to prejudice the case against us. Usually, bodies of men are organized at the outset, and the credentials are considered before the organization is perfected. The result in this case was that those five women, just as devoted and brainy and useful as any of the men that stood upon the floor of that conference, were shut out solely because they were women. The brethren did not say that, but they said the "law of the Methodist Church was not in shape at present to admit them ; " and the women were voted out on that technicality. I am glad they did it. Now face to face with this unusual organization of that General Conference, that body, by its action, declared that women were not 430 LITERARY WORK OF MARY T. LATHRAP. full members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and were not in the same relation to it as the men. A new law was put through to define the subordinate relation that we should henceforth hold in the Methodist Episcopal Church. I wish you to fix that clearly in your minds, because there are women going around, saying, "I don't want to be admitted to the General Conference." I want to say that the women are fully aroused, and tha when the laity in the Methodist Church deliberately declare in the face of the historical past of the Methodist churches, that women are in no full sense members of the church, when they were converted and baptized and were taken into the church, and that a new -law must be made in order to define woman's subordinate relation, or to lift her up to the privilege of full membership in the laity, is it any wonder that the world is astonished, as three fourths of the membership of the Methodist Church are women, nine tenths of its work is done by them, and seven tenths of its charity is being done by them ? I say, is it any wonder that the world expects to see the women admitted into the higher ecclesiasti- cal council of the largest Christian denomination in the United States of America ? What did this conference do when it organized in this extraordinary manner? It organized the order of deaconesses! They said the women should sit in straight gowns and plain bonnets and do their work for nothing. If I have gotten clearly before you two things, I will sit down, as the bell has rung. Two things I desire to fix in your minds. I am a Methodist and love my church, and I want to see it go on and forge ahead. Three fourths of its member- ship to-day are women ; and women always bring to the altar of Christ their best efforts and their love. I want you, if you are inter- ested in this question, to understand that the women by the usual method of getting into the Methodist Church are in every full sense members thereof, and that just now the church has enacted a new law to define their subordinate relation, or to lift them up to the privilege that womanhood has had in the Methodist Church since its organization in'this country. ; "C SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000672810 9