ntrenched and held its seat of power.

At last, in the waning years of the first century of our nation's
existence, their failing hope in man died utterly, and with another and
deeper and more despairing cry, the women of our land sent up their
voices to God. Not now saying "O Lord, how long!" but "Lord, come to our
help against the mighty!"

What followed is history. The first result of this utter abandonment of
all hope in moral suasion or legal force, and of a turning to God in
prayer and faith, was that strange, intense, impulsive movement known as
the "Woman's Crusade."

BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADE.

Let us briefly give the story of its initiation late in the month of
December, 1873. Dr. Dio Lewis, in a lecture which he had been engaged to
deliver at Hillsboro, Ohio, related how, forty years before, his pious
mother, the wife of a drunkard, who was struggling to feed, clothe and
educate her five helpless children, went, with other women who had a
similar sorrow with her own, to the tavern-keeper who sold their
husbands drink, and, kneeling down in his bar-room, prayed with and for
him, and besought him to abandon a business that was cursing his
neighbors and bringing want and suffering into their homes. Their
prayers and entreaties prevailed. After telling this story of his
mother, the lecturer asked all the women present who were willing to
follow her example to rise, and in response, nearly the entire audience
arose. A meeting was then called for the next morning, to be held in the
Presbyterian church.

Dr. Lewis was a guest at the old mansion of Ex-Governor Trimble, father
of Mrs. E.J. Thompson, a most cultivated, devoted Christian woman,
mother of eight children. She was not present at the lecture, but
"prepared," as she writes, "as those who watch for the morning, for the
first gray light upon this dark night of sorrow. Few comments were made
in our house," she continues, "upon this new line of policy until after
breakfast the next morning, when, just as we gathered about the
hearth-stone, my daughter Mary said, very gently: 'Mother, will you go
the meeting this morning?' Hesitatingly I replied: 'I don't know yet
what I shall do.' My husband, fully appreciating the responsibility of
the moment, said: 'Children, let us leave your mother alone; for you
know where she goes with all vexed questions;' and pointing to the old
family Bible, left the room. The awful responsibility of the step that I
must needs ne