energies and our prayers are consecrated.

For the accomplishment of these objects we shall religiously employ all
the means God has placed within our reach, and constantly invoke His aid
and guidance.

This first convention was marked by deep spiritual power. No step was
taken without the manifest guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The sweet gale, or Dutch myrtle, grows in moorland fens. It is a humble
plant, but _fragrant_; where it grows abundantly the miasma of the bog
is neutralized by its balsamic odors and antiseptic qualities, disease
is displaced and health established. So the sweet fragrance of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York, planted at
Syracuse, has been carried by prayer and faith to all New York, "giving
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness."

[Illustration: MRS. ALLEN BUTLER.]

MRS. ALLEN BUTLER.

(FIRST PRESIDENT)

Lucy Wood was born in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York, in 1820.
Her educational advantages were those offered by the public schools of
her native county. Having decided musical tastes she improved the
opportunities offered at the city of Albany for their cultivation, early
dedicating her gift of song to the causes she loved. She became a
Christian when thirteen years old, and by a long and useful Christian
life has adorned her profession. In 1841 she was united in marriage with
Allen Butler, and soon after removed to Syracuse, then a village of
about six thousand inhabitants. During her life of more than half a
century in Syracuse she has been identified with many of the Christian
and benevolent institutions of the city, as well as those of her own
church, to which she is devotedly attached.

Frail in health, her interest in a cause often exceeded the strength to
work for it. This was the apparent condition of things when the crusade
with whirlwind power swept over the land. A life-long advocate of total
abstinence, her interest in the cause could not be restrained, and
gently her Heavenly Father led her in this work, first to a little
gathering of temperance women, at which, after much importunity, she
conducted the exercises. Some months later she became the chosen leader
of these women. It was from this consecrated band, over the signature of
Mrs. Butler with others, that the call for the first state convention of
temperance women was made.

Who more appropriately th