150 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND marvelous. We may add that the Young Ladies' Branch, Mrs. J. B. Perkins, president, was 0rganized in 1881, and devoted to work for children. It included also the Flower Mission. Miss Fitch, the wise counselor and head of this beneficent and systematic labor bestowed by scores of Christian women, would desire that no words of eulogy be pronounced upon herself, but good angels looking down write her name in the Lamb's Book of Life as she goes patiently, quietly upon hod way, herself a ministering spirit to the sin-laden. Especially it is her favorite work to call such as the Countess de Gasparin, in her address to the fallen women of Paris, would turn aside from the second death. " God made thee to be a good daughter, a worthy wife. It was for this, thy mother prayed. " You feel it ! " If you could, if you durst, you would flee from the cursed house, the fetid slum. " The debauchery shop is a horror to you ; it fills you with nausea, you are afraid ! " 'Tis hell itself ! " If you could, if you durst, you would cross the infamous threshold. AND THEIR WORK - 151 " My child, come ! I know the one who will save you. " Come, my child ! He who is called Jesus, the Son of God, He despises you not. " My child ! I laid hold on your hand, to lead you out of darkness. Let us speed on to the light. Come! the night has passed, the day has dawned. " Look onward ! Before you is the good way ; hefnre you the pure future before von is heaven." Best of all, to the contrite Magdalen, Christ said, " Woman, sin no more ; thy faith hath saved thee."; The records of the Retreat read like a romance. This chronicle would not lay bare the secrets of a single unhappy life there registered. We all know too little of this mission with the Scarlet Letter. Many who come here are very young girls, who have erred through lack of parental restraint, and have but just begun a sinful life ; others, again, are incorrigible, and to free them from the power of evil associates, are placed here by their parents. More than half of the thousand girls here rescued from publicity of shame might carry this plaint, written by one of their number : 152 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND If I should die to-night, Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me, Recalling other days remorsefully, The eyes that chill me with averted glance, Would look upon me, as of yore, perchance And soften in the old familiar way, For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay ? So, might I rest, forgiven of all, " Oh ! friends, I pray to-night, Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow. The way is lonely, let me feel them now, Think gently of me, I am travel-worn ; My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn. Forgive, oh! hearts estranged and give, I plead, When dreamless rest is mine, The tenderness for which I long to-night." The work of Sarah E. Fitch and of Sarah 0. Peck lie close to the heart of the Crucified One, dear women ! so sacs d is it we may scarce unveil its depth. The Retreat encourages no idlers. It is a beehive for industry ; everybody must have something to do. Beautiful hand-work and painting with the needle, the care of plants which convert the reception room into a bower of tropical beauty ; all arts of skilled housewifery are here taught and practiced. The matron, Miss Sarah O. Peck, born in Michigan, and educated at Vassar, gives her life-work AND THEIR WORK - 153 to these girls; her sympathy and faith render her a power in the institution. Another lady—one of the Board of Managers from the first, who has always been interested in girls' reform—taught the Bible class when the Retreat was simply a private house at 267 Perry street—Mrs. Dr. A. P. Dutcher. She has passed into the skies, leaving a memory absolutely fragrant. She devoted all her energies to reclaiming the unfortunate who came withiu reach. While the Retreat was on Perry street it was within a few doors of her residence. Then her visits to the inmates were daily and her influence for good cannot be overestimated. She took the inmates to her home, taught them sewing and different work, read to them from good books, and cheered them with her sweet, sunny smile that always beamed with Divine love. Sometimes Mrs. Dutcher would take an inmate to her home, share her bed with her, become 'her inseparable companion, striving by night and day to direct the thoughts of the erring one to things higher and holier than this life. Such women may leave but a faint impression on the external affairs of the world, but in the hearts of the few who feel their holy influence 154 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND they leave an impress that enchains us to them in the better world to which Mrs. Dutcher has been called. Her daughter; Mrs. J. C. Covert, is enlisted in the same reform. At the opening of that work for fallen women, the chairman of its Board of Managers was Mrs. Meribah Farmer; a minister in the Society of Friends. Her private charities were numerously known to intimate associates. She, too, is among the hospital workers of the past. The founder of the Retreat is a niece of Mrs. Farmer-Hannah B. Tatum, also a minister among the Friends, who, in her loved mission work in houses of ill-fame in this city, felt the need of a home to which to invite those girls who desired to reform. She enthusiastically laid the subject before the Board of Managers of the Woman's Christian Association, and they were able to respond, in 1869, through the beneficence of a well-known citizen, who paid the rent of their little building. Several of the first inmates were some with whom Mrs. Tatum had prayed and plead in their abodes of shame. Six months after its opening this lady became matron, but in one year resigned, to engage in outdoor philanthropy. Her AND THEIR WORK - 155 labors in Ohio and the South are well known. Her voice has singular sweetness and power, and her saintly face and Quaker garb render her a marked woman in assemblies. The Woman's Christian Association owns property valued in the aggregate at $200,000 and upwards. Its headquarters are the parlors of the " Home," at No. 16 Walnut street. This "Home " has the same relation to our Association and to Cleveland that the Margaret Louise Home, No. 14 East 16th Street, bears to the City of New York, and to its Y. W. C. A. It is simply an attractive boarding place for young women who are self-sustaining. Its privileges are especially available to persons seeking employment, or as a stopping-place, until permanent quarters are Obtained. Music and a choice library, a substantial table, and a matron's careful attention render the Home such as its name implies. The munificence of Stillman Witt gave the grounds and original house to our city, in 1868 ; since the death of this gentleman, Mrs. Witt has made additions and other improvements, until now the building presents an imposing appearance. It is filled to overflowing with boarders 156 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND and needs still further enlargement. Mr. E. I. Baldwin has filled one large case with encyclopaedias and other standard books of reference, poetry and the best of fiction. The head of the committee controlling the Walnut street " Home " is Mrs. E. H. Huntington, the eminent president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, of Cleveland Presbytery. She and Mrs. James Barnett, two old-time friends of Miss Fitch, are at her side thrniigh the years. All of the institutions pertaining to the Association are well furnished throughout, exponent of the wealth and liberality of leading citizens. Of these, a universal favorite with Cleveland people is the Aged Woman's Home, on Kennard street, with whose origin is connected an interesting fact. Mrs. Dr. Lewis Burton, one of the oldest members of the Association, in her missionary visits at the Infirmary, occasionally encountered women of refinement, condemned by circumstances to spend unhappy lives in the dreary companionship of ordinary paupers. " It seems to me," said Mrs. Burton, one day, in a meeting of the Board of Managers, " that we need in Cleveland a home for aged women." The ladies took the suggestion AND THEIR WORK - 157 into consideration, and as a result there was opened in July, 1877, another magnificent "Home," thus making possible an old age of comfort to many a lonely woman. This has been accomplished through the liberal devising of our lamented townsman, Amasa Stone. Mrs. Stone was also deeply interested in this benevolence, as, also, her daughter, Mrs. John Hay. A glance inside the Kennard street mansion reveals must. attractive rooms the apartments each contain large closets and two beds ; the smaller, one. There are rocking-chairs and lounges, soft carpets and foot-stools. Comfort, even luxury is in every appointment. It is altogether probable that the aged ones residing here —at least the majority of them—have never before enjoyed a tithe of such embarras de richesse. Those aged veterans who choose to work are busied with piecing quilts, with making aprons, with dressing dolls, all of which are kept constantly on sale at the institution. The entrance fee, entitling one to life residence, is $150, but, in order to enter, each must be sixty years of age and citizens of Cleveland or its immediate vicinity for a period of five years. Women of property are admitted on con- 158 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND dition that at decease their investments accrue to the association for this Home's maintenance. Affairs are administered by a committee of competent ladies, who have secured as matron Mrs. Comstock, a woman of dignified presence and keen appreciation of the untiring efforts of the noble women in charge for those residing under their roof-tree. She is fitted for this delicate and unusually responsible position, being prudent, just, and humane. Any one is happy here who is happy anywhere ; some people always are discontented, even under fortunate and fostering circumstances. Mrs. Eliza Kingsley Arter is chairman of the Controlling Committee, and Mrs. C. E. Lowman, secretary— two names well known in Methodist circles. Mrs. H. A. Griffin, too, is here. In 1882, the Young Ladies' Branch was merged into the Day Nursery and Free Kindergarten Association, a beautiful and favorite charity, presided over by Mrs. M. E. Rawson ; Carolyn Kellogg Cushing, secretary. The nurseries are five : Perkins, the gift of the lamented Joseph Perkins ; Louise, aided by Mrs. J. J. Tracy ; Wade, presented and supported in part by Mr. J. H. Wade ; AND THEIR WORK - 159 Bethlehem, supported by Mrs. Flora Stone Mather, who owns the building ; Mary Whittlesey Memorial, the benefaction, in every sense, of Miss Florence Harkness. This branch association supplements all beneficence by vigilance and admirable management in collecting and disbursing funds. In 1886, the Woman's Christian Association established a new branch, the " Educational and Industrial Union," for the encouragement and training of self-sustaining young women. important department grows in usefulness, and we hope at an early day to see a building erected commensurate to its needs. Mrs. Levi T. Schofield, a noble woman, is in charge, assisted by the excellent judgment and generous aid of Mrs. Geo. W. Gardner. Mrs. S. S. Gardner and Mrs. Sanborn render efficient service. Miss. Clara A. Urann, chairman of the Class Committee, has been of invaluable help in organizing and maintaining a course in English Literature. Mrs. Annie E. Hull is a host in herself; bright, energetic and hopeful. Instruction is given in plain cooking, dress-fitting and making, millinery, penmanship, elocution, physical culture, literature, music—vocal, piano, and guitar ; the common branches taught in the free classes. 160 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND The youngest institution of the association is the ELIZA JENNINGS HOME FOR INCURABLES, On. Detroit Road, West Cleveland, established in 1887, and bearing the dear name of its founder. Of this, Mrs. A. P. Buel is chairman, and Mrs. L. Lescelles, secretary. It is a quiet,. charming hospital. Rose Day there, on "a perfect day in June," is a luxury. The workers in this very large Society include now, and have included in past years, the most active and influential in the whole city. Some of them are quite advanced in life ; not a few are widows of wealthy and public-spirited citizens. Women of culture, of unaffected modesty, are upon its committees. Unanimity and sweetness of spirit characterize their deliberations. Their methods are conservative. The missionary spirit of some of its representatives seems to pervade with odor of spikenard the by-ways of our city and those centers wherein the helpless and dependent are gathered together. Of these are Miss Valentine and Mrs. Robinson, Bible readers ; Mrs. S. W. Adams and Mrs. James Galbrath. Mrs. Flora Stone Mather has a record in philanthropy remarkable for so young a woman. Her AND THEIR WORK - 161 work appears especially in the Young Ladies' Branch and in the Young Ladies' Temperance League ; the munificence of her beloved father is continued in her interest in the Industrial Home, and in the College for Women. Carrie Younglove Abbott, secretary of the Association, is beneficent and painstaking. There are hosts of loved women connected with the Association who should be mentioned in this history, but to review their labors would require another full chapter. We have here in official position, Mrs. S. Williamson, one of the early workers ; Mrs. L. Austin, the relative and Cleveland hostess of ex-President and Mrs. R. B. Hayes ; Mrs. R. R. Sloan, Mrs. H. C. Haydn, Mrs. E. Curtis, Mrs. Standart, Mrs. William Meriam, the corresponding secretary ; and Miss C. M. Leonard, the faithful treasurer. We find Mrs. Sabin and Mrs. Senter, Mrs. B. S. Coggswell, eminent in missionary effort at the Workhouse, and in all good enterprises connected with Plymouth Congregational Church. Enrolled in these lines of beautiful endeavor are ladies west of the Cuyahoga. Among these officers are the wife and daughter 162 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND of Rev. J. A. Thome, the slave's advocate and so long pastor of the First Congregational Church of this city. Anna Thome is known now as Mrs. Dr. Boynton. Here are Mrs. E. C. Beach, Mrs. A. H. Potter, Mrs. C. W. Lepper, for many years a director. Names synonymous with good work and liberal giving are those of Mrs. D. P. Mrs: J. H. Wade, and Mrs. Judge Bolton. Intellectual women are among these numbers. The utterances of her who first edited and of those who afterward edited their paper, the Earnest Worker, are wise, hopeful, and often entertaining. It was a journal of high order of merit, and beautiful in appearance. Its columns delighted all philanthropic hearts among us. Emma Janes, its first editor, is the Washington correspondent of leading American journals. Mrs.. Howard M. Ingham, who for ten years edited this paper, has force and executive ability. She was, as well the secretary of the Association. For accuracy, fidelity and general efficiency she is unexampled. Her report, read by herself at the Society's fifteenth anniversary, is one of the ablest papers on record among our workers. She wrote AND THEIR WORK - 163 the history of the Association for its twentieth anniversary. Twice has her talent been called into requisition at sessions of the International Conference of the Association. She was for years a beloved secretary in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. In Sabbath-school and mothers' meetings, she excels in Bible instruction. She was president of the Young Ladies' Temperance League, and of the Educational and Industrial Union. Better than anything else that may be said, she is a devoted wife and mother and a helpful friend. For literary and philanthropic industry, none exceed Mrs. Emma H. Adams, here enrolled. Her contributions to the Society's paper, to our dailies, to the religious periodicals of Ohio, and to St. Nicholas, and other magazines, give her rank among the brain of Cleveland. The circulars written by her and published in the legal department of our temperance work stirred the whole State to regard the duty of the hour. She, now, travels in the northwest, and writes books. Mrs. L. A. Ferguson is on the Association's roll. She has spent much time in foreign lands, and bears the culture of such rare opportunity. Over 164 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND her initials she has delighted the reading public with bright letters of travel and essays upon art, literature and kindred subjects. Mrs. M. E. Rawson is among our original thinkers and forceful writers. There are no more brilliant women among us than was Mrs. J. C. Delamater and is Mrs. N. Coe Stewart. Both of them were, respectively, chairmen of the Department of Entertainments for Self-Supporting Women, participated in by the city's best talent, and thoroughly enjoyed by those for whom they are instituted. The labor of Mrs. Delamater and of Mrs. Stewart was manifold. They have delighted immense audiences by tuneful utterance for " the good, the true, the beautiful." Enthusiastic in temperament, unselfish, amiable, and cheerful, they have won friends everywhere. AND THEIR WORK - 165 CHAPTER XVI. [If there be a touch of the auto-biographical in this history, pardon, dear reader.] WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE CRUSADE—ITS MARVELOUS OUTCOME—THE WORKERS—MRS. S. W. DUN-CAN — LEAGUE ORGANIZATION — DEALERS' PLEDGE — MR. JOSEPH PERKINS — RIVER STREET FRIENDLY INN—MRS. JOHN COON—THE OPEN DOOR. A MOVEMENT, led by Mrs. Eliza J. Thompson, arose in Hillsboro, 0., December 23, 1874, of entering saloons with a band of women, who prayed, sang, and implored the proprietor to give up his business. This impulse seized Christian people at Washington C. H., and rapidly spread among the towns north and south in our State. The ladies of Cleveland, regarding each other with apprehension, said, " Can this wave strike the cities ? We think not." Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton (Mrs. C. E.) at that time was secretary of the Woman's Christian Association, and the writer, 166 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND chairman of its Missionary Committee. Mrs. Bolton said : " It must come to the cities and our Association will inaugurate the movement here." She urged with persistence that I go out into the State and observe the work. A well organized band at Berea, O., led by Mrs. W. D. Godman, claimed my attention for a day, and its work fascinated me; we went into saloons, kneeling on the floor, then held a prayer-meeting just outside the only brewery there, while the discomfited Teuton, who rented the premises, remonstrated from an upper window. Similar exercises were held in a billiard hall, one of the men present joining in the hymn, " Nearer, My God, to Thee." At request of Miss Sarah E. Fitch, President of the Woman's Christian Association, the day's history was presented, March pp, 1874, at a called meeting of ladies in the First Baptist Church, corner of Euclid avenue and Erie street, supplemented by exhortation from Mrs. Moses Hill. The audience was large and the services notably full of inspiration. A paper setting forth the necessity of aggressive work against the liquor traffic had been prepared by three ladies of the Executive Committee, convened at No. 16 Walnut street, March 3rd. Fri- AND THEIR WORK - 167 day, March 13th, a League was organized for work in this city, Miss Sarah E. Fitch, president ; Mrs. W. A. Ingham, secretary. The ladies of various denominations were intensely interested, assembling daily for prayer and conference, either in the church named or in the First Presbyterian, or in the old chapel of the Young Men's Christian Association. After a resolution to commence street crusade work, a leader was appointed under the (1) That no band should enter any premises unless by consent of the proprietor. (2) Nor, for the present, be without police protection. (3) To be accompanied, always, by reporters, that we might be properly represented before the public. Rigidly carrying out these instructions by the authorized band leaders, prevented the excesses occurring in many other cities, and resulted in the high standing of the Cleveland work. It will be remembered that the women composing this League were of social position, wives of Men who were commercially a power in the city. After the mayor decided to enforce the sidewalk 168 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND ordinance, through the counsel of the Advisory Committee of ten gentlemen who had consulted the best legal talent here, we had a right to occupy the pavement a short time to converse with the dealers, also to enter unoccupied ground, or by invitation any building contiguous to a saloon. March 17, representatives of six denominations, to the number of twenty-two, went out from an assembly of six hundred Christian women for the purpose of holding saloon prayer meetings. So far as can now be recalled, these are the ladies, with ten others, carriages having been provided : Mrs. W. T. Smith, Mrs. John Coon, Mrs. Warrick Price, Mrs. Hannah Tatum, Mrs. W. P. Cooke, Mrs. S. W. Adams, Mrs. N. Coe Stewart, Mrs. Geo. E. Hall, Mrs. R. F. Smith, Mrs. S. Stark weather, Mrs. R. D. Noble, with the writer as leader. A great crowd of people gathered about the doors of a gilded saloon in the Public Square, in which more young men had been ruined than the churches were able to save. We stood in front of a bar ; the Scriptures, a part of Isa. 28th : " Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim," were read by the band leader. Mrs. Stewart begun the hymn, which we all sang, "There is AND THEIR WORK - 169 a fountain, filled with blood ! " Mrs. John Coon offered a fervent prayer and endeavored to persuade the deathly pale bar-tender to give up selling liquor. The next day seventeen ladies left the First Baptist Church with similar intent and accomplished their work in two great hotels and four saloons. The daughters of Rev. Dr. Wolcott sang, Miss Duty read the parable of the Prodigal Son. West Side workers were equally engaged. Eighteenth Ward ladies held similar services before we began in the central part of the city. After March 19, the greatest excitement prevailed throughout Cleveland, and for six weeks the liquor traffic was shaken to its center. The voice of God was heard above the confusion that reigned in the past. Pulpit thundered to pulpit the denunciations of the book against the sin of intemperance. Multitudes gathered in the churches to hear eloquent men talk of the great evil that holds our city in its grasp. Brave women prayed, sung, and exhorted in wigwams, billiard rooms, and before saloon bars. The streets were filled with processions of temperance societies, mostly of the Romish Church, which favored the revival in extraordinary demonstrations of numbers of men, marshaled in 170 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND line and gay with scarfs and banners. In these days, too, God was blasphemed, sudden judgments overtook the .violently profane in our streets. The avenger seemed to be in the midst, and flashes of his sword disclosed to wicked men their danger. Wholesale dealers blanched as they saw women by hundreds pouring into their strongholds ; the retailer held on to the railing of his counter with ashen face, and some men, who had not forgotten a mother's prayers, actually wept. A few venders not wholly lost to good influences arranged to sell out or close up, declaring theirs to be a vile business. Men who drank staid more at home, and, for the first time in years, looked tenderly upon the wan faces of toiling wives and on their own little children, old before their time with want and sorrow. Hundreds signed the temperance pledge, and some were converted like Saul of Tarsus, who, in an earlier crusade, was convicted in the midst of a riotous mob by the audible prayer of the martyr Stephen. Out of the three thousand women leagued together to suppress intemperance in our eighteen wards, but few hundreds were engaged in street work. The quiet conservatives impressed their carriages into AND THEIR WORK - 171 service, waiting upon property owners, laboring with them concerning the wrong of leasing houses or lands for the sale of intoxicating liquors. One gentle lady, Mrs. S. Williamson, by her potent influence with such, closed up seven of the worst saloons in Union Lane. Others of our number wrought among drunkards and their families, persuading to sobriety of living ; and our young ladies drew off into a powerful league for the aid of children of inebriate fathers aud mothers, aud to discourage social drinking among the upper classes. Wherever were great bodies of men, in hospitals, manufactories, vessels at the docks, depots, halls in which were convened brotherhoods of various orders, all were visited, and thousands invited by woman's voice in supplication to newness of life. The might of prayer prevailed throughout the city ; the tide of evil swept back, as Israel's children passed by ; and for a time the Promised Land seemed so near that we forgot the intervening wilderness. In June, 1874, the State League was formed at Springfield, 0., and early in November, the Woman's Temperance 'League of Cleveland was reorganized auxiliary thereto, with Mrs. S. W. Duncan as president and treasurer. The following officers and committees were selected 172 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND Vice Presidents : Mrs. S. W. Adams, Mrs. H. C. Ford. Corresponding Secretary : Mrs. W. A. Ingham. Recording Secretary : Miss F. Jennie Duty. Assistant Secretaries : Mrs. E. H. Adams and Mrs. J. C. Delamater. Executive Board : Mrs. Joseph Perkins, Mrs. S. Williamson, Mrs. E. P. Morgan, Mrs. Win. T. Smith, Mrs. S. H. Sheldon, Miss Sarah E. Fitch, and the officers, ex officio members of Committee. (1). STANDING COMMITTEES.—Street Work : Mrs. W. A. Ingham, Mrs. S. W. Adams, Mrs. W. P. Cooke, Mrs. N. Coe Stewart, Mrs. John Coon, Mrs. Lewis Burton, Mrs. C. E. Bolton. (2). Relief: Mrs. C. E. Bolton, Mrs. Samuel Williamson, Mrs. Horace Benton, Mrs. R. D. Noble, Mrs. Geo. E. Hall, Mrs. Stillman Witt, Mrs. Lester L. Hickox. (3). Drinking Fountain : Mrs. Chas. H. Strong, Mrs. A. P. Massey, Mrs. Geo. Worthington ( Mrs. M. C.), Mrs. A. H. Delamater, Mrs. W. P. South-worth, Mrs. J. E. Colby, Mrs. S. Starkweather. (4). Friendly Inn : Mrs. James Mason, Mrs. Geo. H. Ely, Mrs. W. P. Cooke, Mrs. H. C. Ford, AND THEIR WORK - 173 Mrs. Geo. Worthington, Mrs. John Co0n, Miss F. Jennie Duty. WARD COMMITTEES (appointed in March).— 1st Ward, Mrs. Allen T. Brinsmade, Miss F. J. Duty ; 2nd, Mrs. G. W. Whitney ; 3d, Mrs. John Seaman ; 4th, Mrs. Willard W. Partridge ; 5th, Mrs. C. E. Wheeler ; 6th, Mrs. Robt. Hanna, Mrs. B. S. Coggswell ; 7th, Mrs. W. B. Porter ; 8th, Mrs. Geo. Presley, Mrs. J. N. Glidden ; 9th, Mrs Geo. T. Chapman, Mrs. A. Dais; loth, Mrs. Lewis Burton ; 11th, Mrs. J. D. Sholes, Mrs. T. K. Dissette ; 12th, Mrs. Jacob Klein ; 13th, Mrs. Jason Canfield, Mrs. N. Coe Stewart ; 14th, Mrs. J. H. Tagg, a veteran worker of the Methodist Church ; 15th, Mrs. C. H. Strong ; 16th, Mrs. C. L. Morehouse ; 17th, Mrs. C. E. Bolton ; 18th, Mrs. Elroy M. Curtis. The eighteen chairmen of Ward Committees had selected aids to the number of one hundred to visit women, irrespective of sect or nationality, as far as possible, and urge them to enlist in suppressing intemperance, in whatever way they might elect, and to see also that our pledge books circulated in all eligible places. Observing the character of the crowds that 174 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND daily followed in street work, and noting the interest of the general public, Mr. Perkins saw that we needed the temperance pledge with us constantly ; so he ordered, early in the crusade, books beautifully bound in leather ; printed on one side was, " Druggists' and Dealers' Pledge, " on the reverse, " Citizens' Pledge, No. —." Inside, the gilt edged blank leaves were prefaced by : PLEDGE. subscribers, Cleveland, desirous of aiding the cause of Temperance, and of thus banishing from the community that which is so destructive to private happiness and public prosperity, do hereby Pledge Ourselves, not to manufacture, sell, or furnish to others, Intoxicating Liquors, distilled, malt, or vinous, to be used as a beverage, nor to Lease any property for such purpose, by agent or otherwise. On the reverse side for citizens, the same, except that the word " use " was employed instead of " sell." Drawing-room lectures were instituted by Mrs. Duncan, in aid of the Friendly Inn fund. River Street Inn had been opened previous to this time in Brinkerhoff's saloon, afterwards in a commo- AND THEIR WORK - 175 dious building, with Mrs. John Coon in charge, Miss S. L. Andrews, and Belle Brayton, Mrs. R. D. Noble, Mrs. Geo. E. Hall and her sister Mrs. C. B. Hanna, Mrs. W. T. Smith, Mrs. S. Starkweather, Mrs. T. D. Crocked Mrs. J. S. Prather, Mrs. J. H. Burridge. Other inns were established, respectively on St. Clair street, near the wire mills, at Central Place, on Pearl street. Reading rooms, possibly, with facilities fur public worship, were located at the East End, on the South Side, in the eighteenth ward and in Rock's Block, Woodland avenue. Rev. and Mrs. Samuel W. Duncan, removing to Cincinnati, various changes occurred in the methods and management of city work. Mothers' meetings and Yoke Fellows' or reformed men's services originated at Central Place Inn, and were adopted at the various centers, together with gospel temperance meetings on Sundays, all led by earnest, self-sacrificing women, who, in this world, may not see the results of their patient seed-sowing, but which cannot fail to be full of fruition. Thousands of souls were preached unto, who else would have heard but little of Christ ; spirits in prison, bound by the chains of habit. Verily, He did 176 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND send us " to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives." A marvelous revival of spiritual power, especially among the inebriate class, was manifest for full six years after the crusade. Visitation in homes of the intemperate, and in resorts of the depraved, as also in police stations, jail and the workhouse, with reforms generally among criminal classes, were instituted ; Bible readings in various centers, and distribution of temperance literature; indeed, all practical agencies for evangelization have been adopted by volunteer missionaries. Cooking schools, sewing and kitchen garden classes for girls, bands of hope and evening instruction for boys, temperance and Sabbath-schools for both sexes, and it may be other methods for children are still successfully carried forward by enthusiastic leaders. The Open Door, established in 1877, was an institution in which any homeless woman might find temporary shelter, including released female prisoners from the workhouse ; the latter remaining until labor was provided for them. This useful charity was an outgrowth of the missionary work of Central Place Inn, which is designed to reach the population living in the vicinity of the Hay- AND THEIR WORK - 177 market, Commercial street, and other unevangelized localities—a wide and fertile field. The Open Door was the necessary complement to the Inns. Teaching to the children the pernicious effects of alcohol upon the human system, cannot fail to help the reform, from a new and living direction. Gradually other lines of work, usually those planned by State and National W. C. T. U., became prominent. Whenever the traffic in intoxicating liquors is attacked there is perceptible a wide-spread growth of total abstinent sentiment among the people. The headquarters for State work were located in 1882, in the Y. M. C. A. building, corner of Euclid avenue and Sheriff street. Probably the severest and most effectual labor ever performed by women of Ohio, since the days of the Sanitary Commission, during the Rebellion, was accomplished at these headquarters, in 1883 and '84, by Mrs. Mary A. Woodbridge, president; Miss F. Jennie Duty, secretary ; Mrs. E. J. Phinney, treasurer, and later corresponding secretary, and their assistants, in a campaign for Constitutional Prohibition. For nearly twenty years the city temperance women have been before the pub- 178 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND lic; printed mention is not adequate description of their labors. The extended mission and well-known names of Miss Duty and Mrs. Prather ; the less conspicuous, though effective work of Mrs. E. Chittenden, Mrs. W. W. Partridge, Mrs. Mary Hubbell, Mrs. E. C. Pope, Mrs. J. S. White, Mrs. Dr. Keeler, Mrs. W. T. Smith, Mrs. R. D. Noble, Mrs. A. D. Morton, Mrs. E. C. Beach, Mrs. Potter and Miss Pollock, with that of Mrs. William Taylor, the eloquent Bible reader, and others, are well known. More laborious toilers than these do not exist, who, as Sarah Smiley says, " fish in cesspools for souls." We have a sense of the fitness of things in mention of the missionary effort at the workhouse, by Mrs. B. S. Coggswell, and in St. Clair Street Inn, of Mrs. C. E. Wheeler ; of the untiring labor of Mrs. H. C. Ford, Mrs. Comstock, and Anna Edwards, of the East End ; of patient Mrs. F. W. Reeder and Mrs. Dr. Sheppard, on the South Side; of West Side ladies in Pearl Street Inn; of sweet Minnie Gillette and Anna Penfield, everywhere throughout Ohio. Shall we at this moment be unmindful of the magnificent leadership of Mrs. W. P. Cooke, during the crusade proper, in March and April, 1874 ? A noble woman, whose unselfish AND THEIR WORK - 179 labor for her own church, during a quarter of a century, needs among her friends no marble or granite reminder. Other band leaders were Mrs. John Coon and Miss Sarah L. Andrews ; Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton and Mrs. Duncan ; Mrs. S. W. Adams and Miss Duty ; Mrs. H. C. Haydn, Mrs. S. H. Lee, Mrs. H. M. Ingham, Mrs. Dr. Burton, Mrs. A. A. Brackenridge, Mrs. N. Coe Stewart, Miss Emma Janes, and Mrs. James Galbrath, Mrs. Moses Hill, Mrs. William Morgan, Miss Sarah Fitch, Mrs. H. C. Ford, Mrs. Brigham, Mrs. Wm. Bucher, Mrs. J. E. Stephens, Mrs. Gilbert, Mrs. Detchon, Miss Josephine Hillsdale, Mrs. B. Excell, Mrs. J. Canfield, Miss Stork, Mrs. Delamater. One day, Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. W. B. Porter had led a band of women to upper St. Clair street. Three savage dogs were set upon these martyr spirits by a saloon-keeper. Both these ladies since that memorable day have passed into the skies. Mrs. Porter was then so fragile and delicate that the winds of heaven could not touch her roughly. The daughter of a Presbyterian missionary, herself born on heathen soil, she had all the fire that burned in her father's heart, in the far-off lands of the Orient. Do you suppose that this 180 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND frail little apostle and her gentle band withdrew at the approach of these furious beasts ? No ; in the same spirit of loving kindness in which they sought to dissuade the saloon-keeper from his work of death, they called to the dogs, patted their heads, and sang such heavenly music that the animals crouched at the feet of the women, and became by far the most respectably behaved and attentive of the crowd. " My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions' mouths !" The saloon-keeper alluded to was afterward converted, joined our forces, and his saloon was for a time the St. Clair Street Inn. On Good Friday, the anniversary of the crucifixion of our Lord, we determined to move upon the German saloons, knowing that of all the days of the year, that is the one on which the hearts of those people may be touched. So, with the prayers and benediction of a Nast and Nachtrieb upon us, we solemnly set forth in various directions from the First Baptist Church. Two of the leaders, Mrs. S. K. Bolton and Mrs. H. M. Ingham, accompanied a band into Woodland avenue and Cross streets ; they received a partial shower of stones, but no physical injury was sustained. The AND THEIR WORK - 181 same day, Mrs. Coon and Mrs. Cooke, with twenty others, stopped before a noted saloon in an uptown street. Here impious roughs had a painting of Christ—the Ecce Homo—crowned with thorns, elevated upon a pole, and draped in black, held up to be jeered at by the blaspheming crowd. " They crucified the Son of God afresh ; they put him to open shame." Looking on the patient face, uplifted there, and then down through the years, we felt that he world have again prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ".And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." 182 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND CHAPTER XVII. WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE CRUSADE-SPECIAL MENTION - MR. W. H. DOAN - OUR DEAD - MRS. JOSEPH PERKINS-PEARL STREET INN. EARLY. in the chapter, Thursday, March 19th, was mentioned. Forty of us went on that date, opposed, though unharmed, through Ontario street ; withdrawing to the Public Square, from the steps of the Y. M. C. A. building great crowds of people were exhorted by eloquent women to a better life. Just here, permit me to say that this Association, ever ready to aid reforms, opens its doors and lends protection to all who need defense ; in performance of noble work for humanity, these young men are untiring. On this Thursday, violence met an unauthorized band of ladies in the Eleventh Ward on Lorain street. Friday, the l0th, a company, with their lives endangered, went up Garden street and held glorious meetings. Before departure, a few leaders were summoned to AND THEIR WORK - 183 Mayor Otis' office to receive information from him and from a Police Commissioner that a proclamation would soon be issued enforcing the sidewalk ordinance. The following Monday, after the issue of the proclamation, those of the West Side ladies who had waited upon the Lord, came forth with strength renewed ; " they mounted up on wings as eagles ; they ran and were not weary ; walked and fainted not." The same day, two hundred and sixteen of us went ont of the First Baptist Church and called upon the wholesale dealers of Water and Bank streets ; Mrs. Emma White Perkins in the forefront, led the singing. Not long afterward fifteen hundred women assembled in the First Presbyterian Church ; five hundred of them, led by Mrs. W. A. Ingham and Mrs. S. W. Duncan, called upon the wholesale dealers in Merwin and River streets. Can we forget how the stately Episcopalian, Mrs. William Mittleberger, or the cultured Baptist, Mrs. Lucy Seaman Bainbridge, of Rhode Island, with others of our own number, exhorted to newness of life the vast crowd surrounding the wharf? One bright afternoon a praying band went through River street, lined with saloons and sailors' boarding houses. 184 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND Refused admission at many doors, they passed on, patient and calm. One . saloon-keeper relented and sent for the ladies to come back. Entering, they saw four men playing cards, the chief of whom, with long gray hair, filthy, ragged, forlorn, blasphemed Christ at sight of his followers. The leader of the band, Mrs. Coon, approached him, and with angelic sympathy, laid her hand on his shoulder, saying : " My brother, did you know that Christ died for you ? " Awe-struck, he ceased to blaspheme, and turned deadly pale. The next day in another den the same band met him again. He became a clean, respectable man, and was for a time a member of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church. He was Colonel Westbrook, of Virginia, and prominent in the Confederate service. May 1st, 1874, a large audience gathered in First Presbyterian Church to hear numerical results. The Praying Bands had visited three distilleries, eight breweries, thirty drug stores, thirty-five hotels— ten of these had abolished a bar — forty wholesale dealers, eleven hundred saloons ; had held seventy out-door services, also in the wigwams on Garden and St. Clair streets, in Carleton Hall, Broadway, on the tug " Cru- AND THEIR WORK. - 185 sader," and in a number of warehouses and offices into which we had been invited to pray for neighboring liquor sellers refusing us admission ; Mrs. Moses Hill and one or two more had held service in engine houses and Foresters' Lodge. Total, number of dealers who had signed the pledge, seventy-five ; property owners, two hundred ; citizens, ten thousand. Among the helps to our cause we acknowledged the 110011 meetings at the Stone Church parlors ; the citizens' mass meetings ; the workers' gatherings Saturday afternoons ; the pastors, a powerful adjunct; the sweet singers of the various churches; generous citizens ; the Cleveland press. It is our conviction, that a few should have special mention : Mrs. S. P. Churchill, for her singing each day through the movement ; Mrs. S. W. Duncan had executive ability and skill in developing ways, means and results ; during her stay here, in and after 1874, she was an incentive to labor and a practical exponent of ideas advanced to others ; Rev. A. J. P. Behrends, D. D., Rev. H. C. Haydn, D. D., Rev. C. S. Pomeroy, D. D., Rev. S. W. Duncan, Rev. S. Wolcott, D. D., Bishop R. Dubs, Messrs. Joseph Perkins, J. D. Rockefeller, W. A. 86 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND Ingham, S. H. Sheldon, and the Y. M. C. A., were a right arm of power. Mr. W. H. Doan, eminent in Cleveland for good works, ever ready with purse and a kind word to aid our cause, always maintained that through the influence of the Temperance Crusade he established the People's Tabernacle in Ontario street. For years this was a center of reform, and through Mr. C. E. Bolton the great building was a source of education to thonsands of working men and their families, as well as of entertain, ment and good cheer to the general public. These two men gave an uplift to effort for the whole people. Mrs. Doan is yet with us ; Mr. Doan's sisters—all widows, are here, and, in good work : Caroline Doan Walters, Mrs. Harriet Sprague, Mrs. Lucy Miller, Mrs. Martha McReynolds. Several ladies, Miss Sarah L. Andrews and others, are active now, elsewhere. A large number of our Crusaders and later workers have laid down the Cross to wear the Crown : Mrs. A. R. Thomas, Mrs. William Mittleberger, Rev. Frederick Brooks, Mrs. G. H. Haskell, Mrs. Robert Hanna, Mrs. E. P. Morgan, Mrs. H. R. Hoisington, Airs. E. D. and J. C. Delamater, Mrs. A. A. AND THEIR WORK - 187 Brakenridge, Mrs. Mary Hubbell, Mrs. R. Sanderson, Mrs. C. E. Wheeler, Mrs. W. B. Porter, Mrs. Dr. Keeler, Mrs. J. F. C. Hayes, Miss Belle Brayton, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Perkins, Mr. W. H. Doan, Mrs. William Taylor and her son, Mr. J. L. Taylor, with many more. Mrs. Moses Hill, unusually gifted in prayer and exhortation, went from her elegant home in Kalamazoo, Mich., to the " many mansions." When I looked upon Mrs. John Coon with a lily in her hand, so beautifully placed for burial by the loving touch of Mrs. L. T. Schofield and Mrs. Alice M. Claflen, I recalled her thrilling voice in those prayers that arrested many a wandering soul, and longed for the hour when we shall greet each other on the " shining shore." Two women of Cleveland, one departed, and one in the shadow of three-score and ten, gave themselves to this great work: MRS. JOSEPH PERKINS.-The subjoined was furnished by her intimate friend, Miss Mary E. Ingersoll, a lady connected with good work, both in the Presbyterian Church and in the various associations of which she is a member. Miss Ingersoll's excellent judgment and helpful intelli- 188 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND gence are well known to Cleveland workers: Mrs. Perkins was born in Culpepper county, Va., where for several generations her maternal ancestors had lived. Her great grandmother, Betty Washington, was a sister of General George Washington, and her grandfather, Colonel Howell Lewis, was the favorite among his nephews, indeed the only one mentioned in his will. Mrs. Perkins' father, Robert McAnery Steele, was of Scotch parentage ; he died when she was but six years old. Seveu years later her mother removed to Marietta, 0., in order to secure better educational advantages for her children. Mrs. Perkins, after her marriage, resided in Warren until 1851, when she removed to Cleveland. Of her noble and useful life here, many delight to testify. Her home was truly the center of that life ; but this did not mean a selfish absorption in the interests of her family in order to secure for them the highest social honors and distinctions. Her great ambition for her children was that they should become useful Christians, and for this she faithfully labored to train them. While very, conscientious in discharging her duties as mistress of a large household, her care for the comfort and happiness of every member of it AND THEIR WORK - 189 awakened in those employed by her the warmest affection ; touching instances of this have recently come to my knowledge. Her hospitality was generous and cordial, even to those who came as strangers, but who went away filled with delightful remembrance of her gracious welcome and kindly courtesy. The prominent place she held in church, of which for twenty-five years she was a member, was accorded her because of what she was, not because of her wealth or social position. The following, from the Ladies' Society of this church, will show the estimate of Mrs. Perkins' character of those by whom, outside of her own family, she was best known and most beloved : " Her quick perception of what was right, and her unwavering adherence to it, gave great value to her judgment ; her decisions, always promptly reached, were expressed with great deference for those who differed from her, while her inimitable humor was a charm to which all yielded." Connected with Mrs. Perkins in church work, it was repeatedly my privilege to go with her to homes of poverty. The entire absence of anything like ostentation or condescension in her manner, her ready sympathy with sorrow or misfortune, her 190 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND unaffected interest in the details of want and woe, and the rare good sense of the advice she gave and the plans for relief she proposed, won my warmest love and admiration. In her position, as one of the managers of the Retreat, the strength and beauty of Mrs. Perkins' character were very clearly shown. Longing with a true mother-love to help the unfortunate inmates of that home, giving them generously of her sympathy and encouragement, she labored to awaken in them a love for purity and true womanliness, and a trust in the Divine strength, as the only hope for a restored womanhood. Her last purchases were Christmas gifts for these girls ; and to many of them the cherished remembrance from so true a friend will doubtless prove the inspiration to hope, in the struggle toward a better life. Mrs. Perkins was one of the organizers of the Woman's Christian Temperance League, chairman of its first Executive Committee, and, until prevented by protracted illness in her family and her own declining health, actively engaged in the prosecution of its work. The characteristics of Mrs. Perkins most strongly impressed on those associated with her in these various benevolent enter- AND THEIR WORK - 191 prises, are : an excellent judgment ; a sympathy responsive to every just appeal ; wit, quick and sparkling, but never caustic, and beautifying all, a Christian faith and love, not paraded, but sustaining and controlling. The desire that she might learn the lesson which the All-wise Teacher intended in her discipline of sorrow and bereavement seemed at last granted. She was able to feel, " Ill that He blesses is our good, And unblest good is ill; And all is right that seems most wrong, If it be His sweet will." Very evident and wonderfully beautiful, as revealed during the last few months of her life, was the ripening of the " fruits of the Spirit " in her, until an almost angelic sweetness smiled in her face even through the lines of pain and weariness. Surely among all the descendants of the family most honored in our land, none are worthier than Martha Steele Perkins, and what makes her most worthy our admiring, reverent love, is not that she was a Washington, but that as wife, as mother, as friend, she was a Christian. FRIENDLY INN WORK.— From 1876-82, the Pearl Street Inn was a phenomenal success. At 192 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND the close of the first twelve months the restaurant paid into the Ladies' Treasury $130. For years the Saturday night boys' class had a remarkable career. Miss Ada Jones—now wife of Rev. Mr. Bonne11—was leader and inspiration. Street children came in, acquired temperance instruction and book knowledge; were informed upon everyday topics and heard parliamentary drill. Miss Jones possessed tact, ability, adaptation. Many young business men now point to those years as the seed-sowing time of their lives, and acknowledge thrift and prosperity through those influences. The Girls' Sewing School and Knitting Class, superintended on Saturday afternoons by Miss Lina Moore, now Mrs. N. S. Amstutz, Mrs. H. C. Spooner and Miss Nellie Hutchings, with a corps of faithful assistants, were full of results. Scientific temperance instruction simplified was given at each session. Mothers' meetings, enrolling two hundred and seventy, were held Wednesdays, in charge of the chairman, Mrs. W. A. Ingham. Many wives of drunkards, and others who felt the need in their own lives of spiritual uplifting, ,came to the chapel to, listen to Bible readings by Mrs. Lewis Burton, Mrs. H. M. Ingham, Mrs. H. Ben- AND THEIR WORK - 193 ton, Mrs. S. H. Lee, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Sanderson, and other ladies ; prayer and song were interspersed ; Miss Ellen Turner, now Mrs. Chas. Luck, organist. A hearty experience meeting and plain lunch followed. The sunshine of that mothers' meeting still pervades some lives. Among the best missionary workers in this department were Mrs. E. D. Delamater and Mrs. Jas. McIntyre ; Mrs. Campbell was our canal-boat visitor. The reformed men's meetings had power; *at one time, three hundred were connected with this Inn. Our own gospel temperance pledge, cottage prayer-meetings, anniversary suppers, and every agency known to Christian women prevailed. The Industrial Committee, presided over by Mrs. Smith Moore, conducted the annual " Mothers' Fair," in which Mrs. John Grant and Mrs. J. D. Bothwell, aided by citizens generally, helped on the reform. Pearl Inn was the pioneer in this city of dime entertainments. Fine talent, aided by amateur beginners among girls and boys, brought out choice music, readings, recitations and tableaux ; the physical effect of alcohol on brain, nerves and blood were given by ladies. * Held on Sabbath afternoons. Miss Emma Warner, now Mrs. Lemperley, played the organ. 194 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND Thousands of persons were supplied with ice-water in the heat of Summer, with literature at all seasons, and invited to reading room privileges. Drawing room assemblies were held at the residence of the chairman, who during this glad harvest in the white fields of suffering humanity, made herself familiar with the coffee house systems of England and Scotland, and went " crusading " with ,ladies of London in Shoreditch. In all, one thousand persons were enrolled as regular attendants in the various departments of Pearl Inn ; each one having influence in some home, or work-shop and on the streets. This center of .education and reform lives now only in memory —for the chairman could no longer bear the physical and financial strain resulting from being the bearer of most of the heavy burden of work after the first five years of this Inn's history. The neighboring churches are stronger in missionary effort, through its agency ; the number redeemed by its influence will only be known when " the books are opened." AND THEIR WORK - 995 CHAPTER XVIII. ST. CLAIR STREET INN—MRS. M. C. WORTHINGTON—CENTRAL FRIENDLY INN—MISS F. JENNIE DUTY — COLUMBIAN STATISTICS — MRS. EMMA C. WORTHINGTON—THE W. C. T. U. OF TO—DAY—NATIONAL W. C. T. U.—WOMEN OF THE SALVATION ARMY—OUR Y'S. ONE of the worst saloons of St. Clair street was rented, June ,5th, 1874,. by Mrs. Maria C. Worthington and other benevolent ladies for a reading room. Two of these helpers were Mrs. C. E. Wheeler, of precious memory, and Mrs. James Mason. Pictures, mottoes and brackets ornamented the renovated walls ; plants and vines the windows ; papers, magazines and books were on the tables. Religious services were held Sabbath afternoons and Wednesday evenings ; sociables, Saturday evenings. Later on, lodgings were furnished. These ladies laid much stress upon attractive boarding homes for young men. During 196 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND the first two years, three hundred meetings were held for prayer and conference ; sixty sociables ; mothers' meetings established ; twenty of them held ; nine hundred families visited ; nineteen hundred pledges obtained ; ninety saloons called upon ; thirteen closed ; five keepers and their wives leading new lives ; forty drunkards reformed and fourteen hundred tracts and papers distributed, besides a good work among boys and young men. Mary Andrews, from China, often gave Bible readings. More room was required and furnished. Mrs. Worthington purchased the ancient Waring Street Methodist Church building and presented it to her Board. A great work progressed for years. Men reformed and women helped by the Inn, grew self-sustaining and were in their places, as work people, living comfortably; many railroad men's families came to reside in the vicinity. Mrs. Worthington greatly needed relief from the heavy burdens imposed by exigencies of temperance work in the old Fifth and Seventh Wards. Aged sick women found in distress were cared for by these elect women, and in time given quarters in rented rooms on Hamilton street. From this beginning came the Invalids' Home. Mrs. Worthing- AND THEIR WORK - 197 ton laid before the Young Men's Christian Association the need of their special line of work in the changing population of that section. They accepted her proposition, taking all services, except those of the children ; these little ones, neighboring pastors placed in their own Sunday schools. When all arrangements were definitely made, this excellent woman made a gift of the St. Clair Street Inn building to the Y. M. C. A„ and it became known as the Alabama Street Branch Station. Mrs. Worthington was born at Dorset, Vt., in 1817. Surrounded by mountains, she from childhood drank in elevation of soul from the air of the peaks, so that when reverses came to her father—Mr. Blackmer—she was ready for any emergency, teaching first, a country school ; then the primary department of the Bennington Seminary, herself taking lessons in the higher classes. In 1836, her family removed to Cleveland ; the father engaging in business, in a house on the site now occupied by the W. P. Southworth Co. Just in the rear was a little white chapel in the midst of a cluster of dwellings. In this chapel, Miss Blackmer opened a private school, which was in a short time absorbed in the newly established free school 198 - WOMEN OF CLEVELAND system. This young lady did mission work in rooms provided at the foot of Superior street, for the Sunday instruction of the children of sailors ; her class were all converted ; Father Taylor being in the prime of his street labors here. His successor was Rev. Wm. Day, who became chaplain to the lake marine corps, and the Bethel was built where Hotel Pence now stands. Mr. George Worthington, an industrious young man, Caine here in 1337, from Syracuse, N. Y., doing an infinitesimal trade in hardware and jewelry on the Square, just where our Court House now is. He invited Miss Blackmer to share his destiny. Economical and prosperous, Mr. Worthington bought in time a plat of ground on Euclid avenue, only two residences being in sight, those of Messrs. Irad Kelley and Horace Weddell. Mrs. W. was a devoted wife and mother, strictly domestic, and helped, largely, by her frugality and attention, in amassing the fortune which came deservedly. In 1874, she was an ardent crusader ; all the nobility of her nature asserted itself, and without intention of her own she stood a central figure in the temperance movement. She always had a too modest estimate of her own abilities and AND THEIR WORK - 199 worth ; seeking retirement, her good deeds are known to the recipients of her ever-abounding charity. Of deeply spiritual nature and habit, she has been greatly sought for as leader in the benevolent work of the Second Presbyterian Church, but pursuing the `even tenor of her way,' has built up a grand work for the city she loves so well. In her errands of mercy for the Invalids' Home, with which she is closely connected, Mrs. Chas. L. Rhode, a noble worker, is usually her companion. Central Friendly Inn was established September 7th, 1874—a new building was occupied April 22nd, 1888. This was the gift of many people, Messrs. Joseph Perkins and J. D. Rockefeller being large donors. It is located on Broadway, corner of Central avenue, in a section of the city needing just such a mission station. "Not willing that any should perish," is the motto of the institution, which contains reading rooms for men, for boys, eighteen lodgings, facilities for cooking and sewing schools, kitchen garden classes, coffee room and carpenter shop. The chapel is large and commodious ; Miss F. Jennie Duty, leader and superintendent ; a lady of means, education, and con-