South Charleston, a pretty and prosperous town in our
county, Clark, opened the war on the saloons the same way we did. Of the work in this
town, I find myself possessed of a description written, at my request, about the time I
sailed for England, by Mrs. Virginia Holmes, one of the most active laders. Reading it
this morning, more than a dozen years after the events so vividly portrayed, my heart
thrilled and the tears sprang to my eyes as it brought back the scenes of those wonderful
days.
She says:
The women of to-day have, through a baptism of
suffering, developed a new phase in the history of their sex. Men for ages have been
worshiping, not God, but a hideous serpent, whose mammoth proportions have enabled it to
swallow relentlessly myriads of votaries, who have offered themselves living sacrifices to
its insatiable demands.
The mother or wife readily recognizes in this creature
Strong Drink, and in its victims, father, husband, sons. In the fear of the Lord, and
praying for his guidance and protection, taking the sword of the Spirit, and the shield of
faith, with the helmet of salvation, and the banner of our Savior's love over us, we
marched straight into the presence of our enemy. He raised his head, shot out his forked
tongue and thought to frighten us.
But we said in the name of the Lord Jesus and suffering
humanity we come. And as the mouths of the lions of old were stopped, so was the power of
this beast to harm restrained, and the semblance of death fell upon him for about the
space of four months. But, alas, even in this seeming death he deceived the too confident,
who were thereby thrown off their watch-tower. Nevertheless the nation has been aroused as
never before,and though we did not succeed in entirely conquering our enemy, we did awaken
the public sentiment, and the work goes on and will till we do gain the victory.
Fancy the strangeness of the work; we, who had never in all
our lives entered one of the dens, where the beast made his lair, were brought face to
face with him day and night, till his hated visage became familiar. We did also make the
discovery that some rum-sellers at least were susceptible of better impulses than their
business engendered or fostered. Though we watched their bars incessantly to prevent the
traffic, they treated us with uniform courtesy with but few exceptions. One instance I
think of on a bitter cold morning, when our patrols were almost perishing with cold, two
ladies entered one of the most dreaded saloons. The keeper professed great solicitude for
their comfort, and proceeded to close all ventilation, and with bar-room stove at
whiteheat, and about a dozen stalwart tobacco-chewers spitting all over it, the situation
was fearful. They came near fainting, but they did not yield their post till, fortunately,
a couple of their sisters hearing of their situation, came and called them away to another
point. The wife of this man assisted him in the sale of liquor, and vindicated the female
character even in wickedness, for while the men were usually polite she was abusive.
But the charity that endureth all things, hopeth all
things, sustained this consecrated band of women through all trials, whether of patience,
faith or physical endurance.
Our Crusade lasted eight weeks, in the months of February
and March, in the midst of the most inclement weather. Day after day we marched the
streets, watching inside and out of saloons, never allowing a moment in which an
unobserved sale could be made. We met alternately at the two churches for prayer and
business meetings in the morning, and again in the afternoon, in order to form our line of
march to the saloons, at each of which we formed our positions into two lines, one on each
side of the pavement. Then we sang those precious hymns that will always be remembered as
the rallying cry of the army that expect yet to take the citadel of this archenemy of
mankind. And then such petitions would ascend as have seldom touched the great heart of
the Father, because they were carried straight to the throne on the strong pinions of
faith in His beloved Son, and direct answers came as a benediction to all hearts.
We were armed with the various pledges for saloonkeepers,
property-holders, druggists and drinkers, and constantly presented them through committees
appointed for the purpose. We sought in all our intercourse with those engaged in the
business to have our hearts controlled by the charity that suffereth long and is kind,
that is not easily provoked. And we relied firmly upon our Savior's promise, "My
grace is sufficient for you," and we were not confounded. Our male citizens did all
they could under the circumstances for our comfort and the advancement of our cause. In
one instance they achieved almost a miracle. We held two mass-meetings each week in the
renown Hall, which were the largest and most enthusiastic meetings ever held in our place.
It was at one of these, after the work had been progressing some time, and the weather
bitterly inclement, that a large-hearted gentleman proposed to raise funds for the
building of a church right in the enemy's stronghold, there being a vacant lot just suited
for the purpose. This occurred on Friday night. The money was raised, and all the
carpenters and men gave an herculean lift to the wheel,and the next day-Saturday-at 2
o'clock, our church was regularly dedicated to the service of God, and stood there before
us a monument of faith and works, with floor, roof, windows,seats and glowing stove,all
complete.
How thankful we felt for this special providence in our
favor. Our Church overlooked the whole rum traffic in our place. :From it the
saloon-keepers could hear the voices of prayer and supplication ascending in their behalf,
and in its erection they saw a determination of purpose that thoroughly awed them. It was
not long till they began signing our pledge, one at a time, tin every saloon was emptied,
swept and garnished-scrubbed out, I should say, and groceries put in.
Never shall I forget the night on which we received the
intelligence of our first very important surrender. Our meeting was unusually crowded that
night, and near the close a messenger brought us the glad tidings, when instantly all were
on their feet; and accompanied by our brass band, we poured forth like the sound of many
waters,
"Praise God from whom all blessings
flow."
We then formed a triumphal procession, and men and women
and children marched to the saloon. The band serenaded them while those most interested
shook hands with and congratulated them as they stood in their door. Who will blame us for
feeling unspeakably happy, for we saw the light gleaming over the hill tops.
At each surrender we had all the church and school-bells
ring out their loudest peals. All our ladies who could, went into the work, for this was
no partisan movement ยก all distinction of church, politics and cast was ignored, and the
sound of thanksgiving went up as that of one voice. Religiously speaking, we had a short
millennium. Oh, how glorious it was!
But this sin-cursed world of ours is not well adapted to a
millennial condition. The arch enemy has not yet been chained, or entirely shorn of his
power to hurt, or work evil. What a consolation it is to the weary toiler that the Savior
has said, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom," with the blessed assurance, "Ye shall reap if ye faint not ' After our
village was entirely purged, we found our work very much damaged by a small country saloon
about three miles out. So we called a council of war and decided to march against it. And
here again our brethren came to our aid. They hauled great quantities of wood and piled it
near this house, and furnished us with conveyances. Thus aided, we boldly moved out into
the woods and weather, and commenced our camping gypsy fashion. We made a log fire well
heaped up, drew our conveyance near the fire, and having provided ourselves with heavy
wraps,we commenced our picket guard, never omitting our religious services.
The melting snow made the ground uncomfortable. so we
procured some boards, and what with our buffaloes and comforts we managed nicely. The many
had by this time dwindled to the few, the true and the tried, those who had put on the
whole armor. A strange sight we must have presented in our gypsy camp, minus the tents.
Singing, praying and eating, for we did not forget each day to partake of our picnic
dinner, jointly contributed. Our hearts were warm and glad. For were we not instruments in
the Father's hands for the pulling down of the strongholds of crime and sin?
I must tell of one bitter morning when the snow had fallen
so deep, and it was altogether so unpropitious that only two of us went out. We found no
blazing fire,but dead, black logs, all covered over with snow. I went through the snow and
asked for a broom, which was kindly lent me. We then swept off the snow as well as we
could, and with some kindlings we had brought with us, we proceeded to kindle a fire. Slow
work, but accomplished at last. We drew our carriage near the fire, then unfastened our
horse and found him as sheltered a place as possible. But the poor creature was a pet and
a hot-house plant, and protested vigorously against crusading in such dreadful weather. We
encouraged him with kind words, and did our own duty and came home at night with health
unimpaired, which seemed to us a most special providence. Several similar demonstrations
of determination convinced the besieged that we were inexorable as fate, and in two week's
time we had the pleasure of bringing his liquors to our church, where with singing, prayer
and much thanksgiving we poured it into the street, fondly but foolishly hoping that the
last stream of poison that had so long desolated our fair heritage was forever dried up.
For a short time our village seemed an Eden. But soon the same old serpent lifted his head
again, and our forces were no longer in the field to dispute his right. Well may we cry,
"How long, oh Lord, how long?"
