063 
 510 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE SANDOWN VICTORY. 
 
 A TEMPERANCE STORY, 
 
 IE 1 O IR, O Xj 13 
 
 3T O TJ 3ST O- . 
 
 BY CHARLOTTE S, HILBOURNE, 
 
 PORTLAND: 
 F. G.'RICH, PRINTER AND PUBLISHED, 
 
 Colt. EXCIIAXOE AXD FoKE SxilEETS. 
 
 1807.
 
 ALICE WATERS; 
 
 OE, 
 
 THE SANDOWN VICTORY 
 
 A TEMPERANCE STORY, 
 
 IFOIR/ OLID .A-HSriD Y O TJ 3sT G- 
 
 BY CHARLOTTE S, HILBOURNE, 
 
 POETLAND: 
 F. G. EICH, PBINTEE AND PUBLISHER, 
 
 COE. EXCHANGE AND FORE STREETS. 
 1867.
 
 TO MY EVERARD 
 
 IN HEAVEN, 
 WHO, BY NO INDUCEMENT OR BRIBERY IN HEALTH, 
 
 OR THE EXCRUCIATING PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS 
 
 
 
 THROUGH HIS LAST SICKNESS, 
 
 COULD BE TEMPTEDTO PRESS THE INEBRIATING CUP 
 
 TO HIS PURE LIPS, 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK IS FONDLY INSCRIBLED 
 
 ) Ins 
 
 Enterd according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by CHARLOTTE S. HILBOURNE, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine.
 
 ALICE WATERS. 
 
 BY CHARLOTTE S. IIILBOURNE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Mother !" exclaimed our heroine, her flaxen ringlets in wild 
 disorder ; her dimpled cheeks glowing with intense excite- 
 ment, as she bounded lightly, and almost breathlessly into 
 the room of her cottage-home, where her mother was preparing the 
 scanty meal for her little ones, on their return from school. 
 
 "Oh, Mother ! I ran away from Jennie and Josie, and Lettie ; for 
 I was in such a hurry to tell you the news, Miss Manners, our teach- 
 er told us, that there was going to be a Temperance Lecture in the 
 Town Hall this evening; and she said that we must all be there, 
 and not forget to tell our parents and friends to come, too. And 
 Oh ! Mother ! it is a woman that is going to lecture, and I am sure 
 you will go, and Father, and all of us; please Mother mayn't we? 
 I know that a Avoman never has lectured in Sandown; has there 
 Mother?" Mrs. Waters did not reply, for there was a heavy shadow 
 on her brow, and bright crystal tears were chasing each other 
 merrily down her pale, sunken cheeks ; and a heavy sob escaped 
 from her lips, as she caught a glimpse of her inebriate husband, 
 reeling and muttering mrough the broken doorway of their delapi- 
 dated abode. 
 
 He was just in the prime of manhood ; tall and well proportioned ; 
 with dark, brilliant eyes, a high, broad forehead, around which clus- 
 tered a rich redundence of dark curly hair ; and in his sober mom- 
 ents a smile of almost irresistible beauty, played around his hand- 
 some mouth and intellectual brow. 
 
 Fifteen years before, Mrs. Waters, then the Belle of Saudown, 
 had stood at the bridal altar and intrusted her life happiness to the 
 keeping of him who had vowed to cherish and protect her, so long 
 as they both should live. 
 
 She was then the envy of many a rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed dam- 
 sel, for miles around. For none would have hesitated to become 
 the bride of Joseph Waters, the successful mechanic, whose fair 
 fame not even the finger of scandal had dared to mar. 
 
 The summer's sun never looked down upon a bridal pair more 
 gloriously than it did upon them when they entered their cottage- 
 
 2067999
 
 4 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUVDOWJV VICTORY. 
 
 home, amid the cheers, congratulations, and heart welcomes of the 
 youth and maidens, whose skillful devises and floral gifts had im- 
 parted to it, the magical beauty of a fairy's retreat. 
 
 Like a flashing meteor, all those scenes passed through Mrs. Wat- 
 ers' mind, as she raised her tearful eyes to the besotted form, reel- 
 ing through the doorway, muttering imprecations upon the rude 
 school-boys, who had pelted him with brick-bats, pebbles, and mud- 
 cakes ; jeering and shotting, "There goes old Joe Waters, drunk 
 as an owl. Won't we have fun with him boys, up to his old hovel 
 to-night, when he gets into his delirium tantrums." "I say, wife, 
 I ain't drunk, only a leetle over. The fact is, Uncle Ben, down to 
 the man and beast entertainment; that is, the "Bottle and Sheaf," 
 got an old article in a new bottle; and I tried it, and found it jest 
 the thing, that's all ; only it made me a little dizzy, and I gave him 
 a quarter for a sixpence ; Ha, ha, ha ; that's a good way to empty 
 a feller's pocket. 
 
 The boys thought I was drunk, because the ballast was all gone, 
 and I rolled a little, just like a half inflated balloon. But you have 
 anticipated my wants zactly, wife, wil<h a good cup of tea. Now 
 dry up your tears, and give us a sprinkle of sunshine, and a bit of 
 bye-gone, and I'll come out second best yet." 
 
 "O, yes," said A lie, stepping coaxingly to his side. "And I'll 
 Avash all the dust and perspiration from your face. Bathe your head 
 with water just from the little spring down in the hollow; comb 
 your hair 'till it looks bright and glossy as it did long ago; brush 
 all the mud nicely from your besmattered clothes ; and then Father, 
 won't you go with us? Oh, Father dear, do say yes, this once, to 
 your little Alie; for Mother will be so glad. And Jennie, and 
 Josie, and Lettie, and I will be so happy. 
 
 John Lawton told me to-day, that I was nothing but a drunkard's 
 child. And Laura Lee wouldn't play with rne, because she said that 
 my Father was a toper, and we lived in an old shanty, and didn't 
 have anything to eat but bannock and browse ; and she didn't think 
 that the School Committee or Miss Manners either, ought to allow 
 us to go to school with Ministers' and Lawyers' and Doctors' and 
 Merchants' children. And her Father was Esquire Lee ; and her 
 Mother said this morning when Ben. Blurt's wife called from the 
 "Bottle and Sheaf," that she thought something ought to be done 
 about it." Mrs. Blurt said, for her part, she had about made up her 
 mind to send her daughters to "Moss Hill," or "Riverside," for she 
 was sure that they never would know much about refinement, if 
 they did have a Miss Manners for a teacher, so long as such children 
 as old toper Waters' went there to school." 
 
 "And they made fun of our old clothes that Mother keeps so 
 clean, and patches so nicely; and called us rag-muftins, and said 
 that a regiment of us would scare Jeff. Davis out of Richmond, and 
 every Eebel out of Dixie. And they thought it would be the cheap- 
 est way that Government could end the war, by putting us under 
 some enterprising General, and marching us down into the land of 
 niggers and cotton-bags. Miss Manners didn't hear them talking 
 so to me ; but just before the school was done, she said that a Lady 
 was going to give a Temperance Lecture in the Town Hall this eve-
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUVDOWJf VICTORY. 5 
 
 ning, and wished us to tell everybody that we saw, to go and hear 
 her. I was so glad Father, that I ran all the way home to tell 
 Mother and you. Won't you go, Father, just this once, with Moth- 
 er and all of us, to hear a Lady give a Temperance Lecture ?" 
 
 "It's all a pack of nonsense, Alie; all this fulderol; got up just 
 to make money, just as Ben. Blurt sells rum, to pick our pockets : 
 and then sends his wife and children out to hoot at us, and call us 
 rag-muffins and scarecrows. No, Alie, I hain't got money to fool 
 away on that sort o' stuff. "O, but Miss Manners said that we 
 shouldn't have to pay anything for going in. She said that the 
 Lady was working for God and the good of her fellow-beings ; and 
 she knew that He who told His Disciples flbt to take scrip nor staff 
 with them, would provide for her journey. Yes, Father, she wants 
 just such as we, who have no money to give, to come to her Lec- 
 tui'e ; please Father, just this once." 
 
 The water, combs, and brushes were brought into requisition by 
 Alie's nimble fingers, which seemed to possess a magical power ; 
 for long before the Lecture hour, she had transformed that be- 
 smeared, besotted face into the image of a man. And the clothes, 
 though thread-bare and coarse, looked trim and tidy, from the ani- 
 mated application of Alie's renovating, skillful exertions. 
 
 Even Mrs. Waters seemed to catch the electric inspiration which 
 animated her child, for she moved around with something of the 
 elacrity of other days, in clearing away the .fragments of their scan- 
 ty meal and arranging the clean dishes in the most attractive posi- 
 tion, upon the little shelf. There was, too, a hopeful light beaming 
 in her tear-faded eyes, as something of the bye-gone seemed float- 
 ing back into her heart, surging through and through every fibre, 
 with an elevating, life-giving power, which had so long been a 
 stranger there. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 fHE Town Hall was 'densly crowded, for it was an unheard of 
 event for a woman to lecture in Sandown ; arid everybody, 
 from the aristocracy down to the dregs, mingled in one com- 
 mon mass for the nonce. Even Mrs. Blurt looked in, just to see 
 what the woman would have to say against selling rum. "For her 
 part, she thought that business just as good as any other ; and when 
 anybody had a license to sell it, she didn't see what business any- 
 body had to interfere. And how in the world her Ben. could keep 
 a public house without selling rum, she was sure she didn't know. 
 Why, it was the main stay of the house, and did more towards 
 clothing and feeding the family, than all the money that they ever 
 took from temperance folks, she was sure. If folks were a mind to 
 make fools of themselves by getting drunk, she didn't see what that 
 was to them ; they held their license by permission of the Legisla- 
 ture; and what's law, is law." Her harangue was cut short by a 
 little commotion at the door, and a low whispering at the door, of, 
 "She's come ; she's come." All eyes were turned in that direction,
 
 6 ULICE WATERS; OR, THE SAJYDOWJY VICTORY. 
 
 to observe a plain, unostentatious looking Lady in sable garments, 
 conducted to the speaker's stand by one of the parish ministers, who 
 had taken an active interest in the temperance cause, and also be- 
 lieved in the efficacy of a woman's effort, in suppressing the great ^ 
 evil which was sweeping like the devastating tornado, over the 
 length and breadth of our native land. 
 
 "Look there," said John Lawton, who had just then caught a 
 glimpse of another group, crouching timidly down, in the most re- 
 mote corner of the Hall, as if afraid of the glaring light, which fell 
 from the central lamps ; and the peering eyes of the heartless 
 throng, which filled the spacious room. 
 
 "Look there, Jim Lee ; if there ain't old Joe Waters and his 
 whole brood, sneaking off into that corner, just as if they had a 
 right to come into the Hall, with all the first families of Sandown. 
 Well, we may look for a flood next, after this unexpected flowing in 
 of the Waters. He, he, he" 
 
 "I shall look for the bursting of a rum-barrel first, John," said 
 Jim, casting a malicious glance over to the occupants of that humble 
 seat, in the corner. f 
 
 "A hogshead,- you mean," said Laura, catching up the strain of 
 their sneering remarks. 
 
 "Wouldn't there be an explosion ; and conflagration too. if he 
 should come in contact with an electric spark, from one of those 
 lighted chandeliers ?" 
 
 "I guess," said John, "that is why he chooses such an obscure 
 seat. Well, I only hope he won't make his appearance this way in 
 mercy to all lovers of pure air and free ventilation, while our egress 
 is blockaded, as it is at present, by the swaying crowd." 
 
 Calm and dignified 'rose the speaker ; clear and distinct her voice 
 reverberated throughout the spacious Hall, attracting the attention 
 of the audience, and even arresting the rude remarks upon the hum- 
 ble group, screening themselves from the public gaze, in the shadow 
 of that humble seat in the corner. They, too, were intently listen- 
 ing to the speaker's remarks. Every word that floated through and 
 through the spacious Hall, found its wa^ to that little friendless 
 group, as though to them alone, was their mission of peace and 
 hope to be performed. 
 
 First, she spoke of the obstructions which were thrown in the 
 way of woman, as a public speaker or reformer, by many powerful 
 and influential opponents, and many, very many whose presence at a 
 public Lecture on temperance, would do much towards turning the 
 scale in the right direction, would remain at home, rather than give 
 countenance to a thing so absurd and ridiculous as a woman giving 
 a public Lecture on any subject, however important. 
 
 "But," she continued, all are needed in this warfare. Some for 
 picket-duty ; some for advance-guards ; some for rear-guards ; some 
 for life-guards ; and some for home-guards. If we cannot drive the 
 invaders from the field by a hand to hand fight, let us have divisions 
 here and there, to flank him, and make him our prisoner. The foe 
 is all around us ; striding dauntlessly through our highways and by- 
 ways, crouching stealthily around our dwellings, thrusting the dag- 
 ger fatally to the heart's core, of our Fathers and Sons. Desecrat-
 
 JlLICE WATERS; OB, THE S.WDOWJY VICTORY. <J 
 
 ing our hearth-stones, arid laying waste all the beautiful idols we 
 have enshrined in our hearts and homes. Their sacrilegious hands 
 have polluted our sanctuaries; have stricken down the watchmen 
 upoii the walls of Zion, and rent assunder, the holiest ties of home 
 and love. Have made Mothers widows, and children orphans. 
 Have made rich men beggars, and filled the church-yard with the 
 victims they have slain. They have crowded the penitentiaries with 
 loathsome occupants, and many have swung from the hang-man's 
 noose, an appalling spectacle to some heart-broken wife ; some aged 
 mother ; or homeless orphan. Hearts have bled at the approach of 
 this mighty invader ; cheeks have paled when the sound of his 
 chariot wheels have been heard in the distance. Burning lips have 
 sent forth the cry of anguish, and the wild pleadings of despair have 
 rent the air, when his desolating shadow has fallen like Egyptian 
 darkness upon the threshold' of their once happy home. But he 
 strides on von deaf to the cries of despair ; blind to the tears 
 which drench his pathway, from heart-broken widows and homeless 
 orphans. On on through this field of carnage he strides victorious ; 
 gloating on the withering desolations his power has wrought. 
 Where are his opponents'?" she asked, looking earnestly around 
 over the sea of faces, upturned with rapt attention, to the one who 
 addressed them. "Who will stay the hand of this mighty conquer- 
 or 1 Is there no little David amongst you ? W T ho will dare to go 
 forth with the sling and the pebble, to meet, and to slay this invad- 
 ing giant ? To palsy the strong arm which is raised w r ith such de- 
 precating power, over our homes and the loved ones there?" 
 
 Again her eyes wandered inquiringly over the audience, as if 
 waiting for a response to the earnest questions which had fallen from 
 her lips. Far away in the shadow of a remote corner, she caught 
 the scintillations of two earnest eyes, radiating from the upturned 
 brow of a little rounded face, all aglow with intense interest and ex- 
 citement. For a moment the speaker paused ; her eyes rivetted upon 
 that little earnest face and the group which surrounded it. Then 
 she added : 
 
 "Woman's influence has decided the fate of many a battle-field, 
 and sent the wild shout of victory to the broken ranks of the vic- 
 tors and vanquished. Shall she now remain inactive, when sire 
 and son are bound unresisting victims, by her side, and led captive 
 to a bondage more cruel and hopeless than death and the grave? 
 When the breath of the monster mingles like the scorching lava 
 'mongst the fragrant flower-buds which have sprung up in and around 
 our life path ? Where his shadow falls like the plagues of Egypt, 
 upon our hearts and homes ? 
 
 "But you ask, Who is this mighty invader ? This great monarch 
 who threatens such devastations to our homes and dear ones ? And 
 from whence does he gather his forces, so fearful in their battle array ? 
 
 "His name is Alcohol ! His parade grounds are Rum-shops and 
 Bar-rooms, and gilded Saloons, and dark cellar's, where the wine 
 sparkles temptingly in crystal goblets, and the drunkard's song min- 
 gles wiih the clashing of decanters and the jingle of the gambler s 
 dice. His Generals are the Liquor dealers. His badge of honor, 
 the bottle of Rum ; and his martial tread, the drunkard's reel.
 
 3 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SANDOWN VICTORY. 
 
 "Shall we gwe him the right of our highways and byways, that he 
 may lead his formidable hosts unmolested, through the land, where 
 the proud Banners of Freedom is swaying in the pure mountain 
 breezes, over our homes and loved ones? Shall we give him the 
 flattering acclamations of greeting, though he ride in gorgeous state, 
 upon his gilded car, when our dear ones are crushed in hideous mass- 
 es, beneath his iron wheels ? Shall we say to him, Abide with us, 
 when his pestilential breath is slaying its thousands by our side ; deso- 
 lating and darkening the homes once gorgeous with happiness and 
 love 1 Shall we install him in our high places of honor and power ? 
 And place at his command, the destinies of the present and future 
 generations of this great Republic ? No ! no ! If you do, he will 
 despoil you of your birthright, and brand you with a name more in- 
 glorious than that Avhich sent the guilty Cain a vagabond, from his 
 father's tented fields. Will YOU dare to raise men to official power, 
 who will hold the poisonous cop to his lips ? Who will aid, or give 
 countenance to a Rum-seller, or his nafarious, soul-destroying traffic 1 
 If so, some day its curse will fall upon your own head. It may be 
 the casting of your single vote for a Rum-seller or his abettor, which 
 has made your Brother, or Son ; or may be Wife, a drunkard. 
 Which has frenzied the brain of the midnight assassin ; and caused 
 him to thrust the dagger to the heart of his friend, or brother man. 
 And for your single vote, many wives have been made widows 
 many children, orphans. And many orphans have been made beg- 
 gars. Many a gray-haired parent has gone down with sorrow to the 
 grave. Many a hillock has been reared in the potter's field. Many 
 a broken heart has throbbed its last sigh of bitterness, within the 
 gloomy walls of an Alms House, or Lunatic Asylum, just for the 
 casting of your single vote for a votary of Rum. Rather let the 
 hand be palsied by thy side, than raised to the ballot-box in vindica- 
 tion of the Rum-seller. 
 
 "Did you ever think that the casting of that single vote was just 
 the one which decides the destinies of our homes; of our nation's 
 welfare ? That its influence moves on on gathering strength and 
 impetus on its way, 'till it mingles with the mighty evolutions which 
 control the Universe ; just as the little minutes make up the vast ages 
 of Eternity?" 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 
 ) you ever?" said the mistress of the "Bottle and Sheaf," 
 ^^ to the grocer's wife, who sat in close proximity to that dis- 
 tinguished individual. "Well, the massy only knows what 
 we are coining to, for I don't, when our husbands can't carry on a 
 legitimate business, without having women make stump-speeches 
 about it. I believe with good old Paul, that a woman had never 
 ought to speak in public ; but if she wants to know anything, let 
 her ask her husband at home, il she has got any ; if not, let her be 
 silent." . 
 
 "But," continued the speaker, "I would not have you understand 
 that the man who barters away his manhood at the ballot-box, in
 
 ALICE WATERS: OR, THE SANDOWJV VICTORY. 9 
 
 favor of this soul-tlestroying traffic, is alone responsible for the blight- 
 ing curse which it brings upon our homes, find idols there. Women, 
 either directly or indirectly, is the secret and controlling power which 
 nerves his arm and guides his hand in the exciting contest. 
 
 "It is even so. Few men will withstand, or controvert the wise 
 councilings of an affectionate Mother. Few will turn a deaf ear to 
 the tender pleadings of a wife whom he adores, or to the betrothed 
 who stands by his side, gorgeous in her vouth, beauty, innocence 
 arid love. Know, then, it is woman whom he serves. It is her in- 
 fluence by which he i.s controlled. It is by her approval that the 
 death-waters are deluging our streets ; burying beneath its lava 
 tide, the beautiful fabrications of a thousand hearts and homes. 
 She has no need to crowd around the ballot-box, or occupy the 
 official chair in Congress Halls; for a husband, a son, or brother, 
 if worthy of that claim and position, will do her bidding, and faith- 
 fully represent her to the law-givers of the Land. 
 
 " 'Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise 
 her in the gates,' shall be the proud message which will return to 
 you upon the pure breezes of Heaven, and which shall be caught 
 up and promulgated by every son and daughter you have redeemed 
 from the bondage of this terrible monster. Gray-haired parents 
 will bless you when they see their Prodigal Son returning trium- 
 phantly to manhood and honor. Broken-hearted wives will sing 
 your praises, as they wipe the last tears of anguish from their pal- 
 lid cheeks, when they stand again by the side ot a husband your 
 influence has reclaimed. Desolate widows will arise from their 
 depths of despair, throw off their garments of sackcloth and ashes, 
 when the joyful tidings reach their ears, that the Son who was dead, 
 is alive again. Alms-houses will be vacated; Lunatic Asylums will 
 not so often be made hideous by the wild screams of insanity, min- 
 gled with the ominous clanking of heavy chains. The dark, damp 
 walls of a criminal's cell will oftener be tenantless. The desert will 
 blossom as the rose, when this monster has been dethroned. And 
 a jubilee, such as never before has been known in the Land, will 
 resound from the East and the West, from the North and the South, 
 in honor of the glorious achievement, wrought by the mothers and 
 daughters of our American homes. And there will be joy in Heav- 
 en ; and the approval of the great Alpha and Omega will shine 
 upon us as did the glorious Star over the plains of Bethlehem, 
 cheering and encouraging with its signs of promise, the Watchmen 
 from afar. Is not this enough to stimulate every mother and daugh- 
 ter to action ? To move forward undauntedly in this great work of 
 reform and redemption ? To annihilate the Dragon who has thrown 
 up his lofty bulwarks against the advancement of national enter- 
 prise and freedom ? For we are not free men, when bound by the 
 degrading shackles of Rum and intemperance. 
 
 "No enterprise is successful, where Eum is the stimulous to action. 
 No home is a paradise, where the demon's dark shadow has fallen 
 upon the threshold. No community is safe, where its vile and loath- 
 some traffic is tolerated. Yet notwithstanding you will raise men to 
 important offices, whose distilleries or extensive traffic in this instru-
 
 JO ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SAJVDOWJV VICTORY. 
 
 ment of death, open the flood-gates of destruction, from whence 
 flow the tens of thousands of poisonous rills through the Land. 
 
 ' "Ought we to have rum-drinkers, rum-sellers, or their abettors, to 
 become Rulers or Law-makers of the land ? Who, amort j'ou, 
 will answer yes ? It should become a fixed principle among you. 
 Nay, more. It should become a Statute Law ; a National Law ; 
 firm and unchanging as that of the Medes and Persians, that no 
 rum-drinker ; no vindicator of the rum traffic, should ever be raised 
 to or tolerated in official power, within our borders. Such a Law 
 would prove the life-preserver of this great Republic. Then the 
 traffic would become unpopular. Rum-drinkers would be reclaimed, 
 distilleries would be demolished. And we should see the morning 
 star of melenial glory dawning upon us, irradiating with its lumi- 
 nous brilliancy, the entire Universe. 
 
 "Should a man let me ask again be sustained in any communi- 
 ty, who engages in such a traffic ? Sowing broad-cast the seeds of 
 suffering, crime, and death. Desolating homes, blighting the fair- 
 est prospects, withering the brightest hopes, marring and defacing 
 the noblest works of God. Who, among you, will answer yes ? 
 Who will not rather say that the penalties which have ever been 
 imposed upon his victims, are more justly belonging to himself. 
 
 "When a man goes out from those dens of infamy and debauch, 
 with his brain maddened and deluged with the seething lava with 
 which the Rum-seller has tempted his burning and insatiate thirst, 
 is he more guilty if he thrusts the dagger to the heart of his fellow- 
 man, than the hopeless Lunatic, chained within his grated cell ? 
 Would he have committed that guilty act when clothed in his right 
 mind, ere he bartered away his reason for the wine which sparkled 
 in the Rurn-sellar's cup ? 
 
 "Who will not rather say that the guilt and the penalty belongs to 
 the man who furnished him with that instrument of death ? 
 
 "Too little sympathy has been shown to that unfortunate class 
 the Rum-drinkers. He has been cast out from the pales of respect- 
 able Society. He is despised and jostled to and fro ; trampled into 
 the filth of the gutter ; cast asido from your sympathies. And when 
 one reels along with bewildered uncertainty, towards the wretched 
 hovel, he calls his home, you smile encouragement to the horde of 
 saucy children who follow him with their taunts and jeers, now 
 and then tilting him against a lamp-post, or enveloping him in a 
 cloud of dust and sand, they have thrown out to annoy him. On, 
 on, they follow him, with their coarse, loud shouts and mockeries, 
 'till some petty official nabs him, drags him before a police Court, 
 to hear the verdict of three, six, or twelve months in the house of 
 correction. And this is to reform him and renovate the world. 
 
 "Where is the prime mover of this act of misdemeanor and de- 
 bauch ? Behind the screen of his rum-shop, gloating over the dimes 
 and dollars he has wrested from the hand palsied by the poisonous 
 beverage, he has tempted him to drink. Or, may be, repeating the 
 same act in this rum drama, with another victim. You don't think 
 of arresting him, and sending him to pick oakum for the space of a 
 few months, instead of his less guilty victim. Not at all ; he lives 
 in an elegant house ; belongs to your modern aristocracy, and is one
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUVDOWJC VICTORY. \\ 
 
 of the supporting pillars of your State, city, or town laws ; and may 
 be, is your Representative to Congress. He also gives large dona- 
 tions for benevolent purposes, when he is sure it will find its way 
 into some of the leading journals of the day. He is one of ihe 
 great wheels which keeps the whole machinery in operation. You 
 court his smiles and hang upon the words of his lips, as though they 
 were the inspirations of holy writ. Your vote has been cast to raise 
 him to official power, amongst the Rulers of the land. His occupa- 
 tion receives your sanction ; and the scorpian you are nourishing, 
 will some day coil himself in a deadly embrace, around the heart- 
 strings of your household jewels. Then, 'ere it is too late, go forth 
 to the contest, like men ; like women : firm in the determination to 
 conquor or die. 
 
 Demolish the strong holds and fortifications of the monster. 
 Strike down the weapons which have been reared by political strife. 
 Search out the Easau, who would barter away his country's birth- 
 right for a mess of pottage. Or the Judas, who would betray us in- 
 to the hands of our enemies, or sell us into eternal bondage, for the 
 thirty pieces of silver. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 . 
 
 HALL the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful cap- 
 ** ve delivered ? But thus saith the Lord, even the captives 
 of the mighty, shall be taken away ; and the prey of the 
 terrible, shall be delivered. For I will contend with him that con- 
 tendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. 
 
 " How can we wrest some of the children from the hand of the 
 terrible and mighty ? 
 
 "Go to the gutters ; raise from thence, your brother man. Dis- 
 robe him of his filth, degradation. 
 
 "Pour out upon the lacerations of his wounded spirit the soothing 
 balm of sympathy, of hope, and encouragement. 
 
 "Lead him with a brotherly hand to his comfortless home ; to his 
 heart broken wife : his starving children and there in the spirit of 
 love and kindness, wrestle with him, in his sober moments, as Ja- 
 cob wrestled with the Angel of God. 
 
 "Restore to him the home which has been mortgaged for the rum- 
 seller's poison. Restore to him the reason which has been dethron- 
 ed, by the wine which sparkled iii the wine-sellers cup. Restore to 
 him the manhood which forsook him in the gutter. Restore to him 
 the welcome greeting in your social circle. 
 
 ''Give to him the right hand of fellowship as a pledge of your 
 good faith in his restoration to sobriety and honor, and your labors 
 will not be fruitless. He needs your sympathy ; your encourage- 
 ment ; and the firm grasp of your manly arm. He, may be, has 
 struggled nobly and manfully against the temptations which have 
 dethroned his manhood. He has wept and prayed, where none but 
 the All-seeing witnessed his painful and agonizing heart-struggles. 
 He has resolved and re-resolved to abstain from the intoxicating cup, 
 and pledged himself anew, over his sleeping-babes, 'ere he left them 
 for a day of toil in his office or work-shop. But the Demon, who 
 coveted his gold, met him on his way. There was no kindly arm
 
 12 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUVDOWJf VICTORY. 
 
 outstretched to save, and again lie fell. Fell from his good resolves .- 
 from his honor ; his manhood ; his self-respect ; an 3 from the respect 
 of his brother man. 
 
 "Will you turn from him in this, his hour of bitter need? Will 
 you pass him by qn the other side? Or will you raise him from his- 
 depths of degradation ; lead him out of the filthy gutter and inirey 
 clay, and never desert him 'till you have set his feet upon the sure 
 arid firm rock of sobriety and honor." 
 
 There was a little commotion throughout that vast assemblage. A 
 swaying of forms, a turning of faces, which had been upturned to 
 the earnest speaker with intense interest. A low buzzing which 
 sounded like the fur-off waters upon a sandy beach. And then :t 
 deep, heavy, unsuppressed sob within the shadow of that remote 
 corner. 
 
 "I told you there would be -a flood, or an inundation, or some- 
 thing of the sort," said John Lawton, "when I sa\v the Waters' 
 coming in so freely. Look Jim, old Joe is crying ; or I am a little 
 so so ; one of the six." 
 
 ' "0, no," said Laura, "he's only been tapping his hogshead, to 
 let out a little of the gas; he will feel better presently, I dare say/' 
 And truly enough, old Joe Waters, as they called him, was crying, 
 and many eyes were turned in that direction to witness the won- 
 derful event. And little Alie, her pretty face bright, glowing, ancl 
 innocent as an Angel's, with now and then a sparkling tear-drop 
 rolling from out the heavy lashes, was kneeling at his side, wiping 
 away the tears which trickled through the lingers of her penitent 
 Father. 
 
 She heeded not the sea of faces bent upon them. She heard noth- 
 ing of the coarse jeers which passed from mouth to mouth, or the 
 half suppressed giggle which those vulgar jokes had called forth. 
 She only knew that for long, long years her Father had Ixeen wan- 
 dering astray ; and now he was returning, and in his right mind. 
 "Thanks, thanks be to God." 
 
 The speaker proceeds " Is there no balm-in-gilead ? Is there no 
 rain-bow of promise spanning these dark clouds which threaten to 
 engulf us by their gathering blackness .' Is there no iiaming sword 
 to guard the .Edens which are blooming here and there beneath the 
 broad tree of our boasted Republic ? There is. To the mothers 
 and daughters of our American homes, belong the mystic power of 
 this great reform and redemption. 
 
 " Upon you depends the weal or woe of the youth who are cluster- 
 ing like olive plants around your board, or the generations which 
 are yet to walk in the highways you may cast up for their feet, or 
 grope along the dark forest-windings where the thick brushwood 
 you have stumbled over, conceals the pitfalls which will entrap them. 
 or deliver them to the ferocious beasts, crouching there lor their 
 prey. 
 
 "You do not shrink from the blast-ing, desolating breath of the 
 plague or pestilence which sweeps like the fearful tornado around 
 and within your dwellings. 
 
 "You do not turn with trembling and dismay from the ghastly 
 spectacle which disease and death presents to you, in a neighbor's
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SAVDOU\V VICTORY. ]_)} 
 
 home. You do not dose your doors that the wild cry of despair 
 may not mingle with your household mirth; men tlee in dismay 
 from the homes of pestilence and death, but woman rushes ear- 
 lessly into the midst, to the rescue of its helpless victims. 
 
 " Softly and spirit-like she glides from one apartment to another, 
 laveing the throbbing tnples : holding the cooling beverage to the 
 parched and bloodless lips ; soothing with her low whisperings the 
 frenzied impatience of helpless victims: closing the eyes of the dy- 
 ing, and shrouding the form that lies cold and stiif in the repose 
 of death. 
 
 " Firm and fearless to the last, she stands at her post, midst that 
 scene of devastation and woe. In many a home, some loved one 
 has been wrenched from the monster's grasp, and the yawning tomb, 
 by her timely efibrts and self-sacrificing love. 
 
 "And then, when the epidemic has passed away, and healthier 
 breezes are sweeping over the land, she feels that her mission is not 
 all performed. Widows are left homeless, and children are left or- 
 phans. And like the good Samaritan, she mingles her tears with 
 their' s, and pours the balm of consolation into their crushed and 
 bleeding hearts, while she generously divides with them the abun- 
 dance which God has kindly intrusted to her keeping. 
 
 " She shrinks not from the appalling spectacle within a prisoner's 
 cell. And where man has deserted, there she whispers to the mana- 
 cled criminal, of Hope of Heaven, 'till, like electricity, her voice 
 thrills every iibre of his heart and soul, and he wrestles in faith with 
 the God to whom she has directed him, and receives the joyful as- 
 surance that his sins, though many, are forgiven him ; and all through 
 the instrumentality and gentle teachings of a true and faithful 
 woman. 
 
 "She fears not the scorching rays of a far-off heathen clime, where 
 many an unhappy wife has been wrenched from the funeral pyre; 
 many an innocent babe from the Ganges wave, by her timely efibrts. 
 Many a sooty mother, as she chants her evening song to her rescued 
 babe, raises her heart in thankful praise to the Christian's God, for 
 the timely teachings of a true and noble woman. 
 
 "The widow and the fatherless follow her with words of praise and 
 grateful emotions. For they wei'e hungry, and she fed them ; nak- 
 ed, and she clothed them ; and their prayers go iip to Heaven, like 
 a cloud of incense in behalf of her, and her God-like efforts. 
 
 "Even upon the battle-field, she has rushed unappalled, through the 
 ranks of soldiery and the blinding smoke, undaunted by the thun- 
 ders of cannon and musketry, to the rescue and relief of the Avoun- 
 ded and dying. If woman has done all this, can she not do more? 
 Will she not do more ? Will she not arise against the mighty forces 
 which are arrayed against the honorable advancement of her cher- 
 ished ones I Will she not d:ish the poisonous chalice, raised tempt- 
 ingly to the lips of her promising boy 1 Or cast out from their se- 
 cret nooks, the instruments of death, concealed to slay her noble 
 husband in the noontide of usefulness and manhood I 
 
 Never tolerate the first glass at home or abroad. Never suffer the 
 wine-bottle to be called into requisition, at your fashionable banquets. 
 Never smile encouragement) when the glasses pass jovially around
 
 14 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJljVDOWJV VICTORY. 
 
 at another's sumptuous table. For, remember that a woman's smile 
 of encouragement has led many a man, and woman, too, to inebri- 
 ation, and to perdition. Yes, many a woman is as much a drunkard 
 as the sot who lies buried in the filth of the gutter." 
 
 " These are frightful assertions, but nevertheless, there are many 
 who know their truthfulness." 
 
 "Better be like the over-sensitive girl, who did not dare to smell of 
 the rose, for fear of being intoxicated by its delicious fragrance. Or 
 like the old lady who refused a rum-drinker the loan of her horse, 
 for fear it would get him into bad habits." 
 
 " Is it not a pity that their mantle' did not fall upon some of the 
 Ladies of the present day, who lavish their most witching smiles 
 upon a rum-barrel, because, perchance, it assumes the garb and ap- 
 pearance of a 'gentleman who sports a splendid equipage or occupies 
 a orgeous mansion?" 
 
 ' Never smile encouragement to the man who will press, with rap- 
 turous delight, the wine-cup to his youthful lips. Never give him 
 your heart and hand, 'till he gets an honorable divorce from the rum- 
 jug, and a quit-claim of rum-shops and gaming-saloons. Don't look 
 at his handsome face or genteel figure, while he hides the Demon 
 Rum beneath his rich vestments." 
 
 "But the sin is not altogether there. I have known ministei's to 
 keep their liquor-closets. And deacons their oil-jugs ; their tincture 
 of rhubarb ; their spiced' bitters, in case of an attack of some chronic 
 disease, with which their imagination was afflicted. What wonder, 
 then, that subordinate church-members get light-headed over the 
 fumes of brandy they make use of for a weak back or sprained limb '?" 
 
 " Is it then any longer a mystery how King Alcohol obtained his 
 seat of honor amongst us ? Is it longer a mystery how he sustains 
 it ? Or that he rides in gorgeous state upon his gilded car, unmo- 
 lested, through our streets and highways ?" 
 
 " Is it a marvel how the many little votes find their way into the 
 official ballot-box ? The majority of these votes are thrown careless- 
 ly in, not by professed rum-drinkers, but by men who keep their 
 liquor-closets in a sly corner, for the accommodation of the house- 
 hold, or for medical, purposes." 
 
 ' He is more of a man who wallows in the filth of the gutter, than 
 the one who sneakingly hides himself behind the screen of his liquor- 
 closet." 
 
 " So long as you suffer the interests of the rum-party to be decided 
 by the ballot-box, just so long will the majority of votes be cast for 
 the rum traffic. Let it no longer be made a hobby to obtain official 
 power. Look at the result of your blind proceedings. For surely 
 the increasing Distilleries and Rurn-shops, Alms-houses, Peniten- 
 tiaries, the wives and children of inebriates, the victims of this po- 
 litical rum-traffic, and police Courts, will answer. Away with this 
 terrible monster ; let him find no foothold or hiding-place amongst 
 the honorable Law-givers of this, our boasted Republic." 
 
 " And I am sure there are temperance men and temperance women 
 enough, to drive him from this field of carnage, where he now strides 
 victorious, drunken with the blood of the victims he has slain, and 
 crushed beneath the wheels of his moving iu 
 
 ~
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SjJJ\"DOH 7 j\" VICTORY. ]_ 
 
 "Courageous work and faith combined, are the materials to kill the 
 monster Alcohol ; to destroy his lite-guards ; beat back the strong 
 forces stationed to defend him, all over our beautiful land. Only 
 make use of these materials, and the work is done; the monster is 
 dethroned. Our homes are redeemed, and we are free. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 /^S 3 ^ 
 
 M f '(TpyNE of the materials is this," she continued, at the close of her 
 . .%j%) Lecture, unfolding a large roll, which contained a temper- 
 ance pledge, and the names of hundreds who had thus 
 manifested their intention of becoming laborers in the great harvest 
 field of a temperance reform. 
 
 " How many Volunteers will enlist in the glorious cause amongst 
 ..you ? Remember it is to redeem your homes and love ones from 
 the most deadly and devastating foe, that has even invaded our 
 shores ; from a bondage more cruel than the the grave, that has 
 cursed, and desecrated our hearth-stones. Where is the lady, or the 
 gentleman, who will signify to the audience, and the World, that 
 they have taken their stand on the side of Temperance, and reform I 
 
 .,Have you intemperate friends? None just ready to plunge 
 over the. terrible abyss, with outstretched arms, crying, "Save me! 
 save me! or I perish." Are you all riding safely and smoothly 
 over the sea of life ? Past the breakers, and the sand bars, and 
 whirlpools, which have swallowed up thousands upon thousands, 
 which were floating fearlessly as yourselves, all in sight of the am- 
 brosial flowers, elysian fields, and sunlit shores of fame and for- 
 tune. 
 
 "But the little cloud, floating in the azure depths of a summer sky 
 like a fleecy vapor, above the smooth surface of the sparkling tide, 
 gathered here and there an atom, from the foamy spray until it be- 
 came fearful in its magnitude and strength ; shutting out the 
 glorious sunlight; the beautiful fields, gorgeous flowers, and coveted 
 shore, lashing with its furious breath the wild waste of water, into 
 the dangerous whirlpools, mocking even the wild cry of " Save 
 me! save me!" as they found themselves iu the deadly grasp of the 
 yawning gulf." 
 
 She had come down from the speaker's desk, and was standing 
 upon the edge of the platform, with her hands extended, and her 
 form bent entreatingly to the audience, with her massive scroll sway- 
 ing to and fro, coaxingly and invitingly over that sea of wondering, 
 anxious, undecided faces, upturned to the earnest speaker, listening 
 with intense interest to the inspirations which fell from her lips, as 
 though she were indeed, some spirit of mercy, extending her arms 
 to pluck them from the gulf which was yawning to receive them. 
 
 For a moment a hushed and breathless stillness pervaded the en- 
 tire assemblage ; then a slight rustling far away in the obscurity of 
 a remote corner, nearer and nearer, like a soft summer zephyr, it 
 seemed floating through that hushed assemblage. 
 
 Alie Waters had edged her way with trembling timidity through 
 the long aisle, 'till she stood beneath the swaying scroll, her little
 
 IQ ALICE WATERS; OR, THE S AND O 'WJV riCTORY. 
 
 round face upturned, all aglow with excitement, her beautiful eyes 
 sparkling wi r h emotion, her ruby lips tremulous with fear and un- 
 certainty, as she whispered : *,-: 
 
 "Please, mam, can little girls and little boys sign your temperance 
 pledge? O, I want to be a temperance girl so much ; and so 4 does 
 Jennie and Josie. and Lettie all of us. And I have come up to 
 ask you if I may write all our names down on that paper. O, I 
 know we shall be so happy when we are temperance children ; and 
 then we shan't care if John Lawton does call us rag-muffins and 
 scare-crows. O, if my Father would only feign your pledge, too ; 
 and I know my mother will," she continued, after having traced 
 tho.se four pretty names upon the vacant space. 
 
 " I Avill come back again," she said, whispering to the Lady upon 
 the stand, as a new thought seemed to pervade her mind. And 
 away like a iloating zephyr, she glided on on 'till she knelt in a 
 beseeching attitude, by her weeping Father. 
 
 "Dear Father," she whispered, " I have signed the pledge, and so 
 has Jennie and Josie, and Lettie. And now, Father, dear, please 
 sign it too, and we shall be so happy; and Mother won't cry any 
 more;, and the boys won't throw mud-cakes and brick-bats, and say, 
 ' there goes old Joe Waters, drunk as an owl.' And Ben. Bluri. 
 won't take any more of your quarters that we need for bread; and 
 we shall never, never be called scare-crows again ; nor the children 
 of an old drunken Father. 
 
 " And you'll grow good and healthy, and handsome, and happy. 
 And we shall all be proud that our Father is a temperance man ; and 
 we needn't live in that old shanty any longer, because you will be 
 proud and good, as you was before you went into old Ben. Blurt's 
 bar-room. And, dear Father, Mother is going, too; don't stay here 
 all alone, please don't," She took her Father's trembling hand and 
 led him unresistingly through the wondering crowd, up to the speak- 
 er's stand, and with a look of proud triumph, she said, "My Father 
 is going to be a temperance man." 
 
 For a moment Joseph Waters stood erect, wiping away the blind- 
 ing tears; then casting one sweeping look over the astonished mul- 
 titude, answered, firmly and distinctly, " Yes, thanks be to God, to 
 this woman and little Alie, I am going to be a temperance man. 
 Nothing but the wine that God brews, shall henceforth sparkle in 
 the cup that is raised to my lips. 
 
 "I have drank to the bitter dregs. I was just on the verge of the 
 whirlpool, which never lets go its deadly grasp. I had got into the 
 strong current, and was rushing down, down, over the horrible 
 breakers, where no mortal arm could save me. Wife, children and 
 home were forgotten, in the wild excitement and madness which 
 hurried me on on to destruction and perdition. 
 
 k; The child has grasped the Lion by the mane, and trampled the 
 Adder beneath her feet ; and through her instrumentality I am saved. 
 The name of Joseph Waters, traced upon this pledge, shall attest 
 the truthfulness of my assertions. 
 
 " Who, of my old associates, will bear me company ? Come now, 
 my comrades of the bacchanalian bowl; come now, 'ere your cry of, 
 ' save me, save me, or I perish,' goes out too late."
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SA<V>01FJ\~ VICTORY. ]_7 
 
 Another little commotion was visible through the dense crowd, 
 and one after another, of Sundown's tipplers, grasped their old com- 
 rad, Joseph Waters, by the hand, saying, "we have long borne each 
 other company, and we will not part to-night. "VVe will not wallow 
 in the gutter while you are pursuing the highway which leads to tor- 
 tune and honor. We, too, have been plucked from the consuming 
 fire ; from the yawning gulf, by the little hand and earnest entrea- 
 ties of a true and noble woman." 
 
 Many more followed the good example of Alice Waters, w r ho?e 
 name stood first on the temperance list of Sandown, on that event- 
 ful evening of a (female) temperance Lecture. 
 
 " And now," said they all, who that evening had taken a stand 
 on the side of temperance and reform, " now let us give three cheers : 
 three rousing cheers for the Lady who has dared to do what woman 
 lias never done before : come into Sandown, right in the midst of 
 our Rum-shops, Bowling-saloons and Shanties, reeking with the 
 fumes of Distilleries and debauch ; black with infamy and neglect ; 
 noisy and clamerous 'till the midnight hour; hideous with appalling 
 curses and the bacchanalian songs. With homes deluged by the 
 overflowings of the turbid waves of intemperance, rolling their dark 
 shadows of death over the length and breadth of this entire com- 
 munity." 
 
 "And for what? For the accommodation of rum-sellers and 
 their nefarious abbettors, notwithstanding the ruin and death caused 
 by its unhallowed influence and the hundreds of young men sacrificed 
 through their agency upon that bloody moloch. It was made a hob- 
 by to obtain official power ; and there was a Judas in the midst, who 
 had his eyes on the bag which contained the tribute money." 
 
 " From this night, let us tolerate no more rum-selling, nor rum- 
 drinking in our midst. And now let our cheers ring out, as cheers 
 never before reverberated through the aisles of Sandown Hall, for 
 the woman who, without money, and without price, has so faithfully 
 and so eloquently addressed us on this eventful evening. 
 
 " And three cheers more for Alie Waters, who has headed the 
 van to this great and glorious reform." ' Alie Waters.' Let that 
 be our pass-word, our watch-word, our countersign. And let her 
 name become a household-word in every home she has redeemed 
 from the curse of Rum. 
 
 " Let 'Alie Waters' be emblazened in letters of gold, upon every 
 badge which composes the regalia of the Sons and Daughters of 
 temperance and reform." 
 
 And the old Hall shook as never before, while the thunders of 
 applause, and cheer upon cheer, reverberated and re-reverberated 
 throughout its spacious walls. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 you ever ?" said Mrs. Blurt, to Mrs. Grocer Smith, as 
 they edged their way out from the excited throng 
 and deafning cheers, reverberating through the old Hall. 
 " Did you ever see such a whirlwind as that woman has got up 
 in Sandown this 1 evening ?" I don't believe in women Lectures, at
 
 
 18 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUfDOWJV VICTORY. 
 
 all. My Ben said no good would come of it, when he heard that 
 she was going to give a Lecture, without any admission fee. Why, 
 you know there have been a good many men along now and then, 
 to give Temperance Lectures, but they hired the hall and had a 
 good smart price for admission, and nobody went to hear them, on- 
 ly those who didn't drink at all, and those who had plenty of money 
 to spare and the like. 
 
 "But old Joe Waters and his clique la ! they never thought of 
 spending a quarter to go and hear a man tell them that they 
 mustn't drink any more rum. Why, I've heard old Joe Waters, 
 say many times, if these men were in earnest and wanted to reform 
 them, and do all the good they could, why did'nt they go out, as 
 the old Apostles went in olden times, without purse or scrip be- 
 cause, he said a laborer was worthy of his hire. And if they had 
 the good of their fellow beings in view, rather than filling their 
 pockets with filthy lucre ; and would labor without money and with- 
 out price, that their efforts would be rewarded, and the Master who 
 who sent them into the harvest field, would see that they didn't 
 want for bread. 
 
 "Well, .you see, none such ever came to Sandown, till this woman ; 
 and I don't believe in Woman's Rights at all, Mrs. Smith. Well 
 as I was going to say, till this woman drop't down fro-m, the Lord 
 knows where, I dont : right in our midst, and gave out a notice for 
 a free lecture in the Town Hall, inviting every rum-drinker and 
 drunken sot, to come and hear her. 
 
 "Did you ever see such audacity in a woman? And to stand up 
 before so many, with such a brazen face, and talk in the way she 
 did. How she put it on to Esquire Lee and Deacon Lawton. Why, 
 they buy more brandy, for the rheumatiz and dispepticks, than Joe 
 Waters and all his clique, for their appetites. All the difference is, 
 they go to bed, because their rheumatiz or dispepticks, or sun- 
 then is a little wus, and Joe Waters, lays down in the gutter. He's 
 drunk and they are sufferin from their ale-mints. It's nothing to 
 us you know, what use they make of it, so long as we get a pretty 
 good price, and hard cash at that. 
 
 "Why, my Ben says and we've kept the 'Bottle and Sheaf 
 some ten years, more or less that he's laid up a thousand dollars, 
 clear profit, from the liquor barrels every year. And he aller's 
 thought Sandown was the best place for his business, that he could 
 find anywhere this side of Mason and Dixie. 
 
 " And now to think that, that brazen-faced woman must come 
 and get up such a whirlwind in public sentiment, and turn all our 
 plans, topsy-turvy, just at this time, when Ben was going to build 
 that elegant house, on that piece of land, Joe Waters sold for rum, 
 and we got it terrible cheap too. I say, just at this time, when Betsy 
 Ann, was going to marry the richest man in town, and we wanted 
 to give her such a grand outfit, and all that." 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Blurt," answered Mrs. Grover Smith, it is a terrible 
 pity that that woman did come jest now ; for Mr. Smith never had 
 his cellars so full of liquors, in the twenty years that he's kept store 
 in Sandown. 
 
 " He said that prices were rising so fast, and so much senifc away
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE S.WDOWJY VICTORY. JQ 
 
 to the army here and there, that lie didn't think that he could lay 
 in too much of the critter, while 'twas cheap, and more'n that, he 
 expected to make the greatest spec thai he had ever made, since he 
 had moved into Sandown. 
 
 " And now, I'm afraid his fat is all in the fire, and he jest been to 
 the expense to renew his license, and then to lay in such a surplus 
 besides ; so that he could make great profits when the prices were 
 up. And we were jest fixin Sally Mariah and Victory Jane off* to 
 the city, for a winter campaign ; and John has got to go to another 
 college, because old Harvard took a notion to sniff up their nose, at 
 sornethin that he did or didn't do, I don't know which, and if that 
 liquor has to stay in the cellar without being sold, and who knows, 
 but what those new candidates or reprobates, or what do you call 
 them, of tempei'ance, may get so over zealous, that they will make 
 a bonfire of it, or wash out the old gutters, that Joe Waters and 
 Jack Long, and a score of others, have taken for a way side Inn. 
 
 " Well I don't know Avhat the world is coming to next. But 
 this I do know, that I don't like such liberal minded ministers, as 
 that Methodist Men-it. 
 
 " Only think of his toe-nailing that woman, into Sandown Hall, 
 and introducing her to such a crowd of spectators. Well I never 
 went to hear him^preach, and never shall. And asto woman's rights, 
 I don't believe in them at all Mrs. Blurt, and I motion that we peti- 
 tion Legislature to put a stop to it altogether, if they want to sell 
 any more licences for the liquor trade." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 morning following the memoriable event in Sandown Hall, 
 Alie Waters went tripping along lightly to the village School, 
 and with a heart throbbing with joyous emotions ; and a face 
 over which the happy smiles were dancing with the roses and dim- 
 ples and sunlight, which sparkled out from the clear depths of her 
 beautiful eyes, glided buoyantly into the school-room, grasping the 
 teacher by the hand, exclaiming, "O, Miss Manners, I wanted to 
 tell you so ; my Father is a temperance man, and I am so bappy. 
 Now we can go to school all the year 'round, and the children won't 
 say. ' There comes old Jo Waters' rag-jags and scare-crows.' 
 And mother says we shan't be hungry any more; and the old cot- 
 tage is going to look almost as good as new, and we can go to meet- 
 ing andi to the Sunday-school, where we went ever so long ago ; and 
 they won't call us names and say, 'How's your Dad;' and 'Does 
 your Marm know you are out T And make fun of our clothes and 
 our patched shoes, and our old Bible, and little Jennie's curls, and 
 Josie's hat. And Father never will go to old Ben. Blurt's again; 
 nor lay in the gutter, nor let John Lawton and Jim Lee pelt him 
 with mud-cakes. And he never will make my Mother cry, and keep 
 
 us up all night, with his delirium dandrums; and " 
 
 " And I know more than that," said Miss Manners, smiling at the 
 happy, earnest gestures and expressions of the noble child. " I 
 know a little Alie Waters, who teased her Father so prettily that he
 
 20 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SANDOWJV VICTORY. 
 
 could not say no, to go with her to the Town Hall. And then she 
 knelt and wiped away his tears so tenderly, and took his hand so 
 entreatingly when she asked him to throw away his rum-jug and 
 sign a temperance pledge; and told him that she and Jennie, and 
 Josie and Lettie, were temperance children ; and Mother was only 
 waiting for him to go with her ; and 'O, Father dear, do go, just 
 this'once, with little Alie, please.' 
 
 ' Then she led him through the jeering crowd, seeing nothing, 
 hearing nothing, but her poor, perishing Father, and his cries of, 
 ' Save me ! save me !' Yes, her little hand grasped him with a de- 
 termination to hold on, until his feet were on the firm rock of safety 
 and in the high road to sobriety and honor. f 
 
 "Who of all my school," she continued, casting her eyes over the 
 well filled seats, " who of my school, has achieved such a victory 
 as Alie Waters f ' , 
 
 " She has led on a band of the most degraded and hopeless of 
 Sandown's tipplers to victory and reform, with a zeal and determi- 
 nation that has known no parallel in the annals of the world. 
 
 ''And Alie Waters, gentle Alie Waters, is destined to become a 
 ouschold oracle, wherever a son or daughter of temperance and 
 reform, have planted their glorious standard." 
 
 Two years have passed away since the eventful evening when & 
 woman gave a Temperance Lecture in Sandown Hall, where the 
 name of Alie Waters was first upon the pledge. 
 
 Has old Joe Waters broken his pledge ? Has he ever become 
 intoxicated ? Or lain in the gutter ? Or had any of his " delirium, 
 dandrums?" Never! From that evening he set his face as a flint 
 against every temptation. He walked hand in hand with his old 
 comrads ; but not over to Ben. Blurt's bar-room ; not into the gut- 
 ter ; nor even into grocer Smith's cellar. 
 
 But he took an opposite direction, high and dry, where the sun- 
 beams sparkled in gorgeous splendor, 'midst the fragrant blossoms 
 that bestrewed his pathway. It was very evident that Joseph Wat- 
 ers had got to go up,* if he went at all, for he was down, down to 
 the foot of the hill, and even wallowed in the mire. 
 
 There were some good men in Sandown, and they helped him 
 a step or two, up the hill. First, they all went to give him the right 
 hand of fellowship, as the Lecturer had suggested. But every hand 
 had a gift to bestow upon some member of the household. 
 
 The liberal minded, minister, Mr. Merrit, had a new Biblo with 
 purple velvet cover and golden clasp, for Alie. His wife and some 
 of her sister church-members astonished her with a complete Sun- 
 day outfit, for which she knew not how to express her thanks and 
 admiration only by a flood of sparkling, laughing, frolicking 
 tears, that would chase each other in merry mood around the dim- 
 ples of her rosy cheeks. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Waters were made the recipients of many a gener- 
 ous and needful gift ; and in a few weeks the drunkard's hovel was 
 transformed into a beautiful little fairy-like, looking cottage, all by 
 the generous exertions of the liberal-minded minister, and some by 
 his warm hearted, active temperance friends, who were ready to 
 roll away every stumbling block which obstructed the rugged ascent
 
 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJlJVDOWJV VICTORY. 21 
 
 of Joseph Waters, which little Alie, aided by the eloquence of her 
 who labored not for hire, had led him into. 
 
 And old Judge Bliss, who had labored with all his might and 
 main to overthrow the usurper which had taken such a conspicuous 
 position in Sandown, and sent in eloquent appeals and petitions in 
 vain, to the Legislature, against the license system, was so elated 
 with the little whirlwind, that a woman had set in motion, and the 
 hurly burly which it caused amongst the votaries of rum, that he 
 went right up to Joe Waters' hovel and shook him with such a 
 hearty grasp that Alie thought he had got into another delirium 
 dandrum. 
 
 But she soon found out her mistake, when the old Judge, after 
 the introduction of a hearty shake in which his bandanna was called 
 into requisition several times, pulled out a huge roll of Uncle Sam's 
 "promise to pay," and told him that he was commissioned to deliv- 
 er that to the man who had thrown off the yoke of the old monster 
 Alcohol, and taken a decided position on the other side of the house. 
 
 Joe Waters couldn't stand that, and he fell right down on his 
 knees, as he had many times before, in the old gutter, grasping the 
 old Judge by the knees, trying with all his might to say something 
 that wouldn't come through the cobwebs in his throat. But the old 
 Judge said it was no matter about that, and he would see him a 
 sometime, when this little squall had blown over. He was evident- 
 ly in a hurry, for he made his exit through the hovel-door, flourish- 
 ing his bandanna vigorously in a style that would compete with 
 any "two forty" this side of Dixie. 
 
 Two years have passed away since the memoriable event of a 
 temperance whirlwind at Sandown Hall. That now neat, little 
 flourishing village doesn't look as if it had ever been blackened with 
 the fumes of distilleries and rum-shops, noisy and clamorous with 
 the bacchanalian's song and muttered curse. Vice has hid her dark 
 visage within some stealthy covert, or emigrated to a more genial 
 locality. The drunkard's chaplet of thorns has been trampled in the 
 dust by many a youth and veteran of the sparkling cup. 
 
 The smile of hope and happiness, once more mantles the cheek of 
 many a mother and wife, erst drenched $vith the tears of anguish, 
 rung out from their bleeding hearts. 
 
 Children no longer beggared, ask for the crumbs which fall from 
 the rich man's table. 
 
 Churches have been reared, and the Sabbath-bell chimes melodious- 
 ly around their happy homes. The pure mountain breezes bear upon 
 their renovated pinions, the glad voices of the redeemed, chanting 
 their songs of temperance, freedom and reform. 
 
 The gutter is deserted ; rum-shops few and far between. And a 
 Temperance House has been erected in the public square ; and its 
 sign is a female form, half enveloped in the foamy spray of a clear, 
 sparkling, gushing fountain, holding in her outstretched hand, a 
 mystic scroll to a little girl who vastly resembles Alie Waters, lead- 
 ing from out a Blthy gutter, a band of reeling inebriates. The sign 
 ofthe "Bottle and Sheaf," hangs by just one solitary hinge, creak- 
 ing and moaning as it sways to and fro in the angry blast, like some
 
 22 ALICE WATERS; OR, THE SJUVDOWN VICTORY. 
 
 lost spirit, bemoaning the retribution which guilt and crime can no 
 longer avert. 
 
 Somehow, things didn't go with Ben. Blurt, as once they did. 
 That little whirlwind kicked up a terrible mess in his porridge-dish, 
 and he never after could get things just to his mind. 
 
 To be sure, Esq. Lee and Deacon LaAvton got something now and 
 then, when they had a bad spell of their alemints ; but the spells 
 didn't come on quite as often, nor last quite as long as they did, but 
 "La! 'twas nothing to what it used to be." 
 
 It was very evident that the liquor trade was over, in Sandown. 
 So the "Bottle and Sheaf" and "Grocer's Cellar," put their heads 
 together and sent a sealed proposal to Uncle Sam. But whether 
 the proposal got lost, or exploded after its arrival, no one ever knew; 
 and it was a greater mystery to Uncle Ben and neighbor Smith, 
 than it was to his opponent in the Village Square. 
 
 Betsey Ann somehow, hasn't got married yet, and they say, the 
 richest man in town don't go there half as often"' as he did; and 
 there is some talk of his going down to the Federal lines, with a 
 load of " greenbacks," conscripts, I believe they call them. 
 
 "Sally Mariah and Victory Jane, didn't make such an all-killing 
 dash in the city as they expected to." So Mrs. Grocer Smith said : 
 " For all the young men that they would look at, had gone to war ; 
 tind the rest wasn't good for nothing at all. And so they came 
 home, jest as they went, after having spent a thousand or two, for 
 an outfit and expenses, and 'twas terrible dear living in Boston this 
 winter. 
 
 " And then John, he got into another scrape after that Harvard 
 affair, jest as we had got him into another college which cost us a 
 good round sum, besides his expensive wine parties and the money 
 that he has lost gambling. Well, all this you know, coming as it did, 
 after that unprofitable speculation and heavy invoice of liquors, has 
 well nigh set us afloat; and I don't think that Sandown is a good 
 place, for either of us to make much of a spec, Mrs. Blurt." 
 
 " Ben said so, sometime ago; but then he's been holding on, 
 hoping that Betsey Ann might get married, but that conscript ex- 
 pedition has put him a little aback, and he says there is no other 
 way for him, than to move 'over into Chancery, and your husband 
 is going too; so we can be neighbors aud keep up our old acquain- 
 tance as well as if we were in the ' Bottle and Sheaf and Grocer 
 establishment. And this all comes of liberal -minded ministers ; of 
 female lectures ; Alie Waters, and what they call the SANDOWX 
 VICTORY."

 
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