legislature, then
you can enact temperance laws, and have an unquestioned
right "to the privilege of the floor."

In 1879, under the lead of their president, Frances E. Willard,
the women of Illinois rolled up a mammoth petition of 180,000,
asking the right to vote on the question of license. This
prayer, like that of the 7,000, met the fate of all attempts of
disfranchised classes to influence legislation. Following this
repulse, in some ten or fifteen of the smaller cities of the
State, boards of common council were prevailed upon to pass
ordinances giving the women the right to vote on the question.
Without an exception, the result was overwhelming majorities for
"No License." In the cities where officers were elected at the
same time, almost without exception, the majority of them were in
favor of license, while in those in which the old board of
officers held over, no licenses were granted, until the new board
elected only by the votes of the men of the city, was installed.
Dr. Alice B. Stockham, in her report at the Washington convention
of 1885, said:

After the city ordinance of Keithsburg allowed women to
vote, the hardest work was to convert the women themselves.
Committees were appointed who visited from house to house to
persuade women to go to the polls for the suppression of the
rule of liquor. On the morning of election they met in a
church for conference and prayer. At 10 o'clock forty brave
women marched to the polls and cast their first ballot for
home protection. Carriages were running to and fro all day
to bring the invalid and the aged. For once they were
induced to leave the making of ruffles and crazy quilts, to
give their silent voice for the suppression of vice. Three
weeks later not a woman could be found in the town opposed
to suffrage, and for one year not a glass of liquor could be
bought in Keithsburg.

Under the act of 1872, the women of Illinois thought their right
to pursue every avocation, except the military, secure. But in
1880, a judicial decision proved the contrary. We quote from the
_National Citizen_:

In June, 1879, the Circuit Court of Union County, Judge John
Dougherty presiding, appointed Helen