influence scientific temperance instruction laws have been secured in every State and Territory. Curfew laws have been secured in four hundred towns and cities. It aided in securing the anti-canteen amendment to the army bill, which prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors in all army posts. It secured the appointment of police matrons, now required in many of the large cities of the United §tates. It keeps a superintendent of legislation in Washington during the entire session of Congress, to look after reform bills.
Eight thousand petitions have lately been sent by the W. C. T. U. to the physicians of the United States, asking that their medical practice and teaching, as well as their personal example, be upon the side of safety in regard to the use of alcohol. By petitions and protests Congressman-elect Roberts, the polygamist, was prevented from taking his seat in the United States Congress. Similar effort was made by the W. C. T. U. to retire Mr. Smoot, and the influence of this organization helped to bring about the Congressional investigation concerning modern Mormonism and polygamy. Because of protests the prohibitory law in Indian Territory was not repealed nor openly attacked. For the same reason the prohibitory constitution of Maine was not resubmitted. The National W. C.T. U. secures more petitions than any other society in the world. It is estimated that not fewer than twenty million of signatures and attestations have been secured by the W. C. T. U., including the polyglot petition. Other societies work largely through W. C. T. U. machinery in circulating petitions. The thought of the polyglot petition originated with Miss Willard, and it was written by her. It has seven million signatures and attestations.
The W. C. T. U. will continue to petition for federal legislation to protect native races in our own territory and in foreign lands. It will continue to protest against the bringing of Chinese girls to this country for immoral purposes, and against the enslaving of the same, and against the legalizing of all crime, especially that of prostitution and liquor selling. It will continue to protest against the sale of liquor in Soldiers' Homes, where an aggregate of two hundred and fifty-three thousand and twenty-seven dollars is spent annually for intoxicating drinks, only about one-fifth of the soldiers' pension money being sent home to their families. It will continue to protest against the United States government receiving a revenue for liquors sold within prohibitory territory, either local or State, and against all complicity of the federal government with the liquor traffic. It will continue to protest against lynching, and will lend its aid in favor of the enforcement of law. It will continue to work for the highest well-being of our soldiers and sailors, and especially for suitable temperance canteens and liberal rations.
It will continue to work for the protection of the home against its enemy, the liquor traffic, and for the redemption of our government from this curse, which redemption can only come, it believes, by the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes. It is pledged to the highest interests of the great institutions of the world — the home, the school, the Church, the State.
ABBY KELLEY FOSTER was the descendant of a long line of Quaker ancestry, English on the mother's side, Irish on the father's. From the former came her unflinching determination, her almost dogged persistence, her unyielding will where a principle was at stake, her severe judgment of all who failed to reach her lofty standards of morality. With the Celtic blood came her cheerfulness, her ingenuousness, her childlike simplicity, and utter lack of self-consciousness. Her inability to keep a secret, even when of an important character, was the source of much amusement and occasional annoyance to her friends. Of Irish wit she had not a trace, though she could thoroughly enjoy a joke when it was explained to her.
Mrs. Foster had a clear, though perhaps, an unusual, conception of the distinction between the possible and the impossible. Whatever was right and just she firmly believed to be possible. To right a wrong or to accomplish an important object, she would move heaven and earth; but she wasted no energy in useless repining over the inevitable. It was
