goaded to desperation, implored him for her sake and for her child, if nothing more, to sell her husband no more drink. With brazen impudence he took hold of her roughly and pointed to the street, when she, not heeding where she went, fell down several stone steps, from the painful effects of which she never recovered. There was no more weakness, no more trembling, no more hesitation,—only the bitter memories of the past now filled her mind.
"Friends," said she, "you may think an apology is due from me for presuming to address you, young and inexperienced as I am, unqualified as I feel myself to be for the position I now occupy,—but, my friends, there are sorrows before which weakness and inefficiency rise into strength and indomitable perseverance, circumstances under which timidity and doubt vanish before the sure and irresistible tread of that invincible courage born of suffering and despair.
"I am not here to tell you of single instances of cruelty and starvation, or midnight broils that have resulted in the prison or the gallows, all of which are as familiar to you as the stars that twinkle over our heads to-night.
"I am here to speak in the name of woman for all that she holds dear and sacred in the heaven of domestic life;—to plead for the rights of innocent childhood, which have been violated by those who, in assuming the highest responsibilities God has imposed, have turned traitors to the holiest instincts of their being, by consigning Ao a life of misery and degradation, those immortal germs which they had no right to accept from the Father's hand, save to
