woman has been proving this true. Since the dark day when "there
stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother," and there came to that
mother's heart the agony of bereavement, the human disappointment and
pangs, whose torture only the Father God could understand,--from that
day till the present, disappointment, trial and sorrow have entered
largely into the life and experience of women. But of all clouds that
have darkened their lives and among all sharp swords that have
pierced their hearts, the cloud of the liquor traffic has been the
darkest, and its blade the keenest. Myriads of women have looked with
anguish on sacrifices offered and loved ones slain, not to save
humanity or to draw men nearer to God, but destroyed at the hands of
a tyrant as relentless as death, and as pitiless.

In heathen countries, children have been left to float out of
existence, an offering to the gods, while the mother has turned sadly
and sorrowfully away; in Christian countries, children have drifted
with the tide of social customs, or inherited appetites for strong
drink, out of the boundless sea of evil and wretchedness, while women
have wept and wondered, have pondered and prayed.

Mothers have seen their sons, strong and brave in their young
manhood, venture on this stream of rapid currents, have watched them
with sad eyes, and called to them in pleading and terrified tones, as
they were carried on and on by the rushing waters. At last, it was
too late even for mother's love to save, and they were drawn into
that terrible vortex, from which there is so seldom escape,
despairing hands have reached out for help, the cry of the soul has
been an appeal for mercy, and another loved one has gone down a
victim to the nation's greed and a sacrifice to the nation's sin.