aster seemed to
call for a mightier power to bear upon the liquor traffic, and a company
of heroic women, many of them the wives of prominent clergymen, led by
Mrs. W.A. Ingham, said: 'Here am I; the Lord's will be done.'

"On the third day of the street work, the whisky and beer interest
seemed to have awakened to a full consciousness of the situation.
Drinkers, dealers and roughs gathered in large numbers on the street to
wait for the praying women. A mob, headed by an organization of brewers,
rushed upon them, kicking them, striking them with their fists and
hitting them with brickbats. The women were locked in a store away from
the infuriated mob, who, on the arrival of a stronger body of police,
were dispersed, cursing and yelling as they went. The next day, taking
their lives in their hands, a larger company of women went out, and
somewhat similar scenes were enacted. Meantime, public meetings, called
in the churches, were so crowded that standing room could not be found.
The clergy, as one man, came to the front. Business men left their
stores and shops, ministers their studies, and a thousand manly men went
out to defend the praying women. The military companies were ordered to
be in readiness, resting on their arms; the police force was increased,
and the liquor interest soon made to feel that the city was not under
its control. The mob never again tried its power. For three months, with
scarcely a day's exception, the praying-bands, sometimes with twenty in
each, working in various parts of the city; sometimes with five hundred,
quietly and silently, two by two, forming a procession over a quarter of
a mile in length, followed by scores in carriages, who could not bear
the long walks, went from saloon to saloon, holding services where the
proprietors were willing, and in warehouses which were thrown open to
them, or in vacant lots near by, when they were unwilling. Men took off
their hats, and often wept as the long procession went by. Little
children gathered close to the singers, and catching the words, sang
them months afterwards in their dingy hovels. Haggard women bent their
heads as they murmured with unutterable sadness, 'You've come too late
to save my boy or my husband.' Many saloon-keepers gave up their
business and never resumed it. Many who had lost all hope because of the
appetite which bound them, heard from woman's lips the glad tidings of
freedom in Christ, and accepted the liberty of the Gospel